Ghost Coins is another horror movie from Thailand. The strain is showing at this point. It feels like nobody is really into the genre anymore, and the ones that do get produced are largely made out of obligation. That could explain the bizarre weakness of this film, which starts with a pretty stupid premise before using the characters to tell a completely different story. The film becomes so bored with its own narrative that it just moves on to something else entirely.
Tor broke Bee's heart, all while taking credit for a science project that they worked on together. She asks for help from Tor's brother Ton and his best friend Jack, who are into shooting Internet videos. They drive out to a cemetery with Tor in tow, and instruct him to dig up a corpse and handcuff himself to it. And of course, something goes horribly wrong, and all four are soon wandering around the cemetery, trying to avoid all manner of scary strangeness.
The setup is pretty bizarre. At this point, I'm sure people realize how sitipid Internet video producers can get, especially when they're shooting "pranks." Even then, it's hard to accept characters stupid enough to film themselves breaking the law. Their revenge prank involves digging up a grave and handcuffing Tor to a corpse. Is it meant to be funny? Or is it just meant to be mean? It mostly feels like a lot of trouble for an end result that just isn't interesting at all.
And it just isn't scary. The movie splits up the group and ends up spending most of its time with brothers Tor and Ton, who are now handcuffed together. It has them just bumbling around witnessing things, the characters apparently unable to conceive of ways to better their situation. Every now and then Ton sees something that isn't really there. This is what passes for a scare in the movie. At no point does it ever really seem like these brother's are in any real danger. Ghosts show up, and then they just kind of disappear.
The thing is, this movie doesn't really want to be about the boys. Their journeys through the cemetery mostly turn them into observers of a completely different story, one that involves a monk, a gravedigger and a woman that comes between them. The movie itself doesn't seem to care about the story it initiates, and just uses the context as a jumping off point for a tenuously connected narrative. And nothing about this other story is scary, either.
Ghost Coins is exhausting. There are long stretches where nothing is happening, the characters turned passive as they watch a story play out that doesn't really involve them. The film tries to tie this together in the end, but it just doesn't work. Thai horror used to be a platform for all sorts of fun, inventive storytelling. But all one feels in this latest example of the genre is exhaustion; an exhaustion that seems to come from all sides of the camera.
My Rating:
