Alone

In Seoul, the Thai Pim (Masha Wattanapanich) is informed that her mother had a heart attack in her hometown. Pim travels with her boyfriend Wee (Vittaya Wasukraipaisan) to Thailand to give assistance to her mother. Once in her home, Pim is haunted by her Siamese sister Ploy (Masha Wattanapanich) that died in the surgery of separation when they were teenagers. Wee asks his old friend and psychologist to have sessions with Pim to supersede the trauma of her loss. But when Pim's mother is able to speak to Wee, she discloses dark secrets from the past of the twin sisters.

"Alone" is a creepy and scary horror movie and another great example of how magnificent is the Asian cinema in this genre. I do not know how many times I have startled with this film. The screenplay is fantastic and without flaws, and the story may be understood as a strong psychological drama (with the lead character insane and having visions, as the psychologist says, due to her guilty complex) or simply as a frightening ghost story. The direction and the performances are top-notch, with limited but efficient use of special effects. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Espíritos 2: Você Nunca Está Sozinho" ("Spirits 2: You Are Never Alone")

Thai writer-directors Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom have shot to prominence in the horror genre with their debut movie Shutter, which I had regrettably missed its theatrical run here, but more than made up for it by being the proud owner of the (now autographed) DVD. In my opinion, having mustered up enough courage to sit through horror movies now (and find them really enjoyable, at times comedic though), I've shuddered at some of this genre's movies which keep on harping on the same thing, and got dumbed down by weak execution. Not Shutter, and definitely not Alone.

If you think Banjong and Parkpoom are one hit wonders with their debut movie, then Alone will prove you wrong. Despite having counted on the usual lighting and shadow techniques, quick cut surprises and scares, and the pristine, well-crafted sound effects, it demonstrated that as long as you deliver the product with great technical skill and respect for the medium, it'll still be as enjoyable as watching it all for the very first time. Having a storyline which engages helps as well, and here the duo still seemed to have a thing or two for old photographs, this time showing the subject material of siamese twins, although not as grotesque as those shown in the Alone trailers.

While the storyline isn't really that original, with the surviving siamese twin having to encounter the supernatural return of her deceased other, and if you look closely enough there are adequate hints of the revelatory twist to come, what mattered was how the subject again was being introduced and crafted, how tension and suspense were met out, and how easy it is to spook audiences when all the ingredients turn out right. Despite having some premise set up for the obvious, I was still taken aback at one of the scenes, and it is this constant sense of what's coming, and the expected delivery, which will easily make this a successful spook film for the mass audience.

The duo had got the male heartthrob Ananda Everingham lead in their previous movie, and now the opportunity is given to the female gender - the beautiful and very photogenic Masha Wattanapanich, who plays the siamese twins Pim and Ploy. Starring opposite them in a Natthaweeranuch Thongmee kinda role, is Vittaya Wasukraipaisan as Wee, Pim's boyfriend. As Pim's mother (Ratchanoo Bunchootwong) is suddenly taken ill back in Thailand, the duo have to leave their careers in Korea, and journey back to the homeland, where the unexpected starts to happen. Pim's encounters with who she presumes is Ploy led to Wee thinking that she needs psychiatric help, but slowly, he too gets drawn into the web of supernatural intrigue.

And in all earnestness, I'd say Masha had nailed her role to a fitting T. Given that Pim and Ploy's characters are key to the movie, she managed to bring out the vast differences in the character of the two sisters (of course the teenage actresses who played the younger versions also helped loads). In shedding light onto the ongoing mystery, the expected blast from the past recollection and flashback helped provide a certain richness to the entire backstory for all the characters, and in doing so, played on a common theme, one that at times I like to ponder upon - which I cannot elaborate further other than saying, is ignorance sometimes bliss, and can you live a lie?

Alone is excellent stuff, even though the horrific moments might come few and far between, and there possibly was a sub-genre shift in the last 10 minutes or so. Nonetheless its numerous strengths easily outweigh the minute weaknesses, and in having delivered a superbly crafted tried-and-tested story, this could easily be a hit at the box office. Recommended for all you people out there who are itching for a good scare!

This film made tons of buzz from Thai media before its release, given the fact that it is a film of the director of "Shutter" (which became a blockbuster in Thailand a couple of years ago) and stars one of the most famous Thai actress, Masha Wattanapanich. As a result, it did surely not disappoint anyone.

The film provides some familiar moments of horror, that can't help but remind me much of "Shutter". It contains, of course, twisted plot at the end, though one might have not expected it since the first half of the film gave no clue that there would be a twist at the end. The twist is a lil bit shocking, but predictable. The set is familiar: the hospital, Thai semi-traditional two-story wooden house, and so on. The film gave audience enough shots of creepy graphic, series of haunting moments and a room to breathe for next scary scene.

The plot has some thing to do with myths about Siamese twins, which happen to have vital links to each other. Masha and her co-star did a good job, but they deserved better dialog.

I can't say that this one is better or worse than "Shutter", since the film didn't take its audience further than "Shutter" had done (except that it took you as far as South Korea at the first 10 min). There is no originality to talk about here. So, if you like "Shutter", "Alone" will give you kinda rekindle feelings with another casts and stories.

The strongest asset of Alone for me is the casts' acting. Even though I'm not Thai and don't know about their dialect's inflection, the body language and facial expressions of the casts are top-notch and comparable to some of the best horror movies to date. Another strong suit of the film is the legitimately scary ghosts which looks so creepy that I wanted to commend the brilliancy of the costume designers and make-up artists of this film. I'm not the one who is easy to scare but some sequences of the film really give me some chills, attributed to the petrifying faces of the ghosts there.

Inside the movie itself, I like that there are some drama and decent romance sprinkled in the plot which strengthen the impact of the horror sequences to make it not too much saturated.

Unfortunately, even though the plot twist at the end looks nice, it doesn't really pay off well for me as it lacks adequate foreshadowing in the earlier parts of the story; thus, turning it only as an added shock value rather than a successful and effective revelation.

Lastly, the final part of the film to me (the climax) seems out of place. The writers completely abandoned the jump scares and other supernatural aspects that we experience in the first 3 quarters of the film; trading it for a mediocre and floppy action sequences between the 2 main characters during the climax. Fear-inducing jump scares are the best part of this film, why not stick to it throughout the climax?

So to sum up, Alone thrives through the strong acting of the casts as well as its horror sequences. Unfortunately, they didn't stick to that horror niche to the very end, plus coupled with an unpolished revelation costed the film a good chance of being hailed as one of the best out there.

If this movie had come out a decade earlier, it might have been hailed as an innovator of Horror movies, that do put some drama into the mix. But since then, a lot of movies came out, that might spoil the fun you can have with this one. It's a shame, because it seems to check every point/scare a movie like this should have. But as it is, there is one big problem:

It is predictable. At least if you have seen a few horror movies over the last ten years, like I mentioned before. You will know where this is going after the first 10 minutes (the latest) and curse the movie makers for putting so many false scares in there, that are predictable too. Still I have seen worse movies, so if you don't mind being scared once in awhile and like your horror movies with a bit of drama mixed, you can still kind of enjoy this movie