Use of Tropes: Trinil: Kembalikan Tubuhku

A 2024 film from director Hanung Bramantyo, this Indonesian film uses the kuyang as a central creature (and touches into sleep paralysis also). Now the kuyang is the Indonesian variant of the krasue and normally such a film would get a review but the film changes the lore (or should I say adds a branch of lore) and it felt a tad more playing with the tropes than depicting the vampiric kuyang. The “Kembalikan Tubuhku” of the title, incidentally, means “where’s my body” – this is relevant.

The film starts on a tea plantation and there is talk of a worker, Sugi, who died recently. One worker says he died of a heart attack, but another denied that. He suggests that Sugi saw Madam Ayu (Wulan Guritno)  – who has been missing for a while – wearing a red dress in the fields, was consequently haunted by a certain song and then suffered from sleep paralysis and died. How the worker would have known about the sleep paralysis, what he saw when paralysed, or any of the other bits is not explored.

the kuyang

They retire for the night, with one keeping watch over the picked tea. He gets drunk but then there is something causing the lights to fritz and something is knocked. He shines a torch and sees a cat but we have seen a shadow move and what appears to be a head. He passes out and starts coughing in his sleep. The flying head appears – confirmed as Madam Ayu – a rope shoots around his neck, strangling him and when he is found it is assumed he took his own life.

Carmela van der Kruk as Rara

3 months later and plantation foreman Joku (Goetheng Iku Ahkin) is driving Rara (Carmela van der Kruk) and Sutan (Rangga Nattra) back to the plantation, having returned from their honeymoon. She has her head in papers from the business but Suttan sees a figure in a red dress in the fields. She inherited the business, after her father William (Willem Bevers) died and her mother, Ayu, was reported to have gone to the Netherlands (where William originally came from). Sutan was William’s nurse.

Fattah Amin as Yusuf

It appears that the deaths on plantation (five of them) have been kept from her and the police. No sooner are they back than strange things start occurring – beginning with her suffering from sleep paralysis (which looked more like a seizure). Her negative reaction to Joku being in the house – he came when Sutan started shouting for help – indicates that she is a controlling, condescending woman. Sutan soon drafts in school friend, and now exorcist, Yussuf (Fattah Amin) and it is interesting that we get both a use of (perhaps pagan) exorcism and also Islamic intervention.

book of lore

It is Yusuf who discovers that there is a kuyang involved. He explains that often it is black magicians who become kuyang and they prey on unborn (and infant) children in order that they can achieve eternal life. He equates them to the penanggalan. We certainly discover later that Ayu sold her soul for power and, had the film been around preying on the innocent for eternal life this would have been a review. Yusuf tells us, however, that some kuyang are simply searching for their bodies (having been beheaded). This is the sort we get here, with murder and mischief but no real vampiric activity.

Kuyang in the bath

The film is ok. The period setting works well and the look is pretty sumptuous. The characters are pretty one-dimensional though with the cast struggling to stretch because of this. The effects are ok but the story and atmosphere are lacking. Nevertheless, it's good to have a kuyang in film again. If you were wondering the Trinil of the title is the pet name William had for Rara.

The imdb page is here.

Kuyang – review

Director: Yongki Ongestu

Release date: 2024

Contains spoilers

I do like a krasue film – and that’s exactly what this Indonesian film is, though they use the name kuyang as the Indonesian variant of the folklore. There isn’t any feeding per se in this, but we do have classic krasue imagery such as the floating head with the illuminated viscera hanging beneath, the movement as a fireball and the headless body left vulnerable to attack as the krasue (or kuyang in this) stalks the night.

waiting for the car

It starts with Bimo (Dimas Aditya) looking concerned as he reads the balance in his bank book. His wife, Sri (Alyssa Abidin) comes out of the house with a suitcase, and he helps lock the door. Soon their ride arrives. They are greeted by Tarno (Yogi Gambles) and their driver is Junai (Alam Setiawan). Bimo checks a phone app that tells him what he owes and when it should be paid.

Alyssa Abidin as Sri

The film doesn’t always communicate what we’d want to know – it is clear that there is an issue between husband and wife, he wants her to trust him again, but it is never made clear if it was an infidelity, financial impropriety (given the points to his finances) or something else. Tarno and Junai are taking them to a boat where he will travel to a remote village to be the teacher. It is suggested that he needs to do this to keep his profession – again no real answer why.

drive through the forest

As they drive through forest (with Bimo and Trano asleep) Sri notices a glow flash by the window, then a face outside the window eventually causing her to scream. They have to stop as Sri feels sick and she does vomit behind the car. There is movement in the undergrowth and a flashlight reveals a coffin and they jump into the truck, which of course stalls. The coffin is a raung – a flying coffin, which doesn’t do much bar inch along the floor to be fair. There is talk of hanging coffins, suspended from trees rather than buried, and of those containing black magicians becoming raung. They distract it by tossing it some eggs – easy prey though the occupant prefers human flesh. A hand reaches out of the coffin and grabs the eggs – the occupants are revealed to be zombie-like. The truck starts and they get away.

Tingen (centre)

They get to the boat and before they get on they meet the village administrator, Ampong (Luthfi Triadi), who travels on the boat with them and fellow teacher Tingen (Andri Mashadi) who does not as he is teaching elsewhere that day. As the boat leaves we become aware that Tingen knows their escorts and asked what happened – a kuyang and raung, they report, and Tingen confirms they have been long awaiting Sri – a figure of prophecy known as the woman from another island. This person will be pregnant (Sri is, though she seems unaware at that point) and her and the foetus will be sacrificed by a Kuyang to achieve full demonhood.

spectral kids

So you have a under-populated village (after a devastating flood there are only 7 children at the school) with locals scared of the prophecy. Visions of ghostly schoolkids, and two kuyang – one of whom is suspected to be an odd old woman, Tambi Nyai (Elly D. Luthan), who is protected by her husband, Bue Alang (Egy Fedly). We get a young shaman woman, Mina Uwe (Putri Ayudya), strange alliances, a rapidly growing stomach (Sri goes from nothing to heavily pregnant overnight), and a group of raung. It’s a strange mix.

a kuyang

The mixing it up keeps this interesting. The effects are a mixed bunch but the central ones around the kuyang work well (got to love kuyang fighting each other). The acting is passable – Sri and Bimo really do come across as fish out of water, which works. At just under 98 minutes it doesn’t really outstay its welcome and I rather enjoyed this as I watched it. There isn’t much lore bar what’s been mentioned – porcupine quills and garlic round a building will ward a kuyang as the garlic confuses its sense of smell and one character has a lock of the kuyang’s hair, which can be used to track it (it moves in its presence). 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Ghost of Guts Eater – review

Director: S. Naowaratch

Release date: 1973

Contains spoilers

Originally called Krasue Sao, this is apparently the earliest Thai film to feature a Krasue and contains a whole load of ideas that, unfortunately, play less like a horror film and more like a soap opera. The effect around the krasues themselves (there are multiple in here) are pretty well done for the time (though they do little), where other effects are more high school play (the ‘winged’ demon husband who wear big round shield like things on his arms with painted on feathers springs to mind). There is also a tragic element (which veers into melodrama, of course).

grandmother in krasuue form

So it starts with a fireball blazing past and a woman screams. It is a krasue and the creature gets into a hen house. The owner of the hens wakes, finds dead birds and then sees the krasue and screams also. This wakes the household and they are out and hunting the vampire. They get a good shot in, hitting it before it flies away. In a house, young woman Bua Klee (Pisamai Wilaisak) goes in to see her grandmother (Sulaleewan Suwanthat) who has a cut in her face. A man came in the window and attacked her she claims before bequeathing a ring to her with the promise she never take it off and then, we soon discover, asks her to hide her death and secretly cremate her body.

the ring

Boon Muang (Sombat Metanee), who is in love with Bua Klee, and his mate Phi Chood (Choomporn Theppitak) arrive at her house but no one is around. They find her with her grandmother’s body and help her cremate it as per instruction. Later, alone, Bua Klee is approached by Chatr (Man Teeraphol) who gets rather rapey until Muand and Chood rescue her. Bua Klee and Muand marry but one night as they sleep the grandmother starts speaking to her (we see her face in the ring) and saying she is hungry. Soon Bua Klee has transformed into a krasue.

Chood shot

She enters into the bedroom of a couple whose child has just been born and is heading for the pot with the placenta when the woman wakes, subsequently waking her husband who throws a spear at the krasue but misses. Meanwhile Muang wakes and finds his wife without a head. Freaking he runs out of the bedroom but when he goes back in with Chood she has reconstituted and he assumes he dreamt the incident. He then gets into a bar fight when the new father identifies Bua Klee as the vampire and rather impressively takes on several guys, including Chatr, the fight ending when Chatr shoots Chood (who is only winged).

Tat Ekathat as the doctor

The story roles on like a soap opera. The village brings in an occultist, Doctor Prasit (Tat Ekathat), to deal with the vampire and he browbeats Muang into taking a mystic switch and whipping the demon out of his pregnant wife. She (who does not remember her vampiric activity) is shocked to be beaten by her husband (his attack stopped by the ever-faithful Chood) but forgives him because she loves him (yeah, all in all the domestic violence portrayed here wasn’t handled well). He then punches Prasit who, to get his revenge, summons a demon to get her but then loses control of it and is killed by the demon (who might have been a good deity in disguise).

mother and son abandoned

The couple (and Chood) move from the area but Bua Klee ends up in an animal carcass dispute with another krasue and ends up biting at the older krasue’s guts. They decide to avenge themselves when the baby is born leading to more shenanigans and eventually Muang, on a business trip, is targeted by another woman Madua (Metta Roongrat) who bewitches him into abandoning his family (until the spell is broken, with tragic consequences).

a krasue fight

Not much in the way of atmosphere but plenty of soap opera melodrama as mentioned, one interesting lore piece was the idea that Bua Klee is not a vampire in and of herself but possessed by her grandmother’s ghost (hence the English title). It is a sin that needs atoning for that leaves her open to being possessed (and stopped from taking a giant’s treasure, found by throwing her skirt onto mystically appearing fire). What that sin was is never actually communicated in film. Imaginative, but a bit of a slog at times, 3.5 out of 10 seems fair for a rather rare film that does ghost around from a Swedish VHS with embedded Swedish subs.

The imdb page is here.

Creepshow Season 3 (Blu-Ray review) – review

Director: Various

First Aired: 2021

Contains spoilers

Ahead of the airing of Creepshow Season 4 on Shudder, Creepshow Series 1, 2 & 3 are available on Blu-ray, DVD & digital in the UK and I have been lucky enough to get the three seasons on Blu-ray to review.

This season consisted of 6 episodes with 2 segments per episode, just like Season 1 did but, like the second season, boasted two vampire (or vampiric segments) and both were worth watching.

the plant/corpse drinks blood

The episode 1 segment Mums was a vampiric plant (or plant/corpse hybrid) and was a solid little episode that stood the test of a rewatch. The story centres on an abusive father (Ethan Embry), a murdered mom (Erin Beute, Vampire Diaries) and the revenge she, and their son (Brayden Benson), manage to exact on dad for her murder.

the krasue

At the other end of the season we get some political commentary and a krasue in episode 6’s Drug Traffic. For me, a highlight of the season in its own right, it was great to see Michael Rooker in Creepshow and very exciting to have the krasue (the creature type is not mentioned by name and so remember the krasue is the Thai name for a vampire type that appears across South-East Asia under a variety of names). This had a nice twist on the lore at the end.

Michael Rooker as Beau

Other highlight segments, for me, included the other segment in episode 6 entitled A Dead Girl Named Sue, which takes part in the Night of the Living Dead universe as the zombie outbreak has just begun and episode 4’s Meter Reader, which was a demonic apocalypse episode, with a great atmosphere and a story that did borrow a theme from the vampire short the Family of the Vourdalak. Just to note the other segment in that episode, Stranger Sings, featured a siren.

mum's flowers

The Blu-ray set has a Comic Con panel and some behind the Scenes footage but feels a little light on extras compared to the other 2 sets – then again it is a strong set of episodes. As the review is for the Blu-Ray set I am holding this to 8 out of 10 overall, slightly behind the season 2 set. However, the widescreen transfer looks very good and it is the episodes that are the main course.

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US (contents may vary to UK edition)

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK

The Witch with Flying Head – review

Director: Jen-Chieh Chang

Release date: 1982

Contains spoilers

This is an interesting, low budget Hong Kong & Taiwan originating movie, which states at the beginning that it is looking to the folklore of Java – so the creature within would be a leak, the Indonesian variant of the Thai krasue or Malay penanggalan (though the name is not actually used). The version I saw was from a VHS rip.

It begins with Yu-Zhen, a young woman, at an altar praying for blessings upon her father. Her two handmaidens stand close by. The audience sees a snake on a roof, it drops to the floor transforming into a man, Jia Chu-An (referred to as a snake demon in dialogue). He ejects a further snake from his mouth, which crosses the courtyard and up her dress! An internal organs' close-up suggests that it has got into her body and she is in agony as a result.

the leak attacks

He walks up suggesting he can save her and gives a handmaiden a bottle of medicine. Dubious at first, she does give the medicine to Yu-Zhen to relieve her agonies. Elsewhere we see two men walking the streets. A leak comes at them, the head clearly Yu-Zhen, with bottom jaw sprouting fangs and her viscera dangling beneath her – she attacks and kills the men. We then see the head fly home and integrate back into her body. Jia Chu-An then visits Yu-Zhen's family and explains that she has been poisoned but he will cure her in return for her hand in marriage. She rejects him.

attacking the rapist

She tries to commit suicide (by head butting a wooden pillar) but is stopped and the family call in monks (interestingly Buddhist monks, rather than Taoist), to no avail as her monstrous form defeats them. Unusually, she breaths fire as part of her attacks and also fires different coloured rays out of her mouth. Another suicide attempt (by hanging) and she and her handmaidens move to a distant rural area to avoid people. Unfortunately, she does attack some travellers (who, to be fair, deserved it as they were awfully rapey) but there is an intervention from an old wise man who gives her a partial cure – so she only transforms on the 15th of each month – and promises to find a permanent cure.

the old wise man

Part of the old man’s gift is a box they can magically trap her in so that she is not loose when she transforms. Meanwhile another traveller, Tang Ming-Kuan, is targeted by a female snake demon. He is warned to run from the area as she will drain his energy and then devour him. He happens, whilst pursued, across Yu Zhen’s home and the box is used to trap the snake demon, freeing him. The two fall in love and marry, but with a promise that he cannot see her on the 15th day of each month. Eventually the snake demon woman will escape and, whilst helping with her vengeance, Jai Chu-An will catch up to Yu Zhen… 

fire breathing

The film was fairly fun but needed to thicken the horror atmosphere around the melodrama. There were some bits that needed answers, such as her pregnancy (the film jumps from them being interested in each other to her giving birth, we get the drama around that and then we jump forward several years to where the child is walking and talking) – enquiring minds want to know if the womb made up part of the viscera and thus the foetus was taken flying after prey, or whether she was left in her mother’s body?

the snake demons

I mention melodrama and it is laid on thick, with Jai Chu-An perpetually letting off false sounding evil laughs. I thought the pace was a tad lacking, but this is an interesting take on the folklore, whilst the filmmakers would seem not to be totally steeped in it and this leads to some of the variations. Not the greatest HK or Taiwanese horror film, but worth watching nevertheless. 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Dracula: His First Centuries: The Legend of Dracula, Book I – review (& revisit)

Author: Perry Lake

First Published: 2021 (2nd edition)

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: All men know the LEGEND OF DRACULA. Since the publication of Bram Stoker’s novel in 1897, the name of Dracula has Inspired terror. Yet between the death of Vlad the Impaler in 1476 and his invasion of England in 1890, there lie four centuries. So what was Dracula doing during the time?

In these nineteen stories, you will see Dracula hack and slash and plot and scheme his bloody way to the top of the undead hierarchy.

Beginning with a quartet of tales about the historical Vlad the Impaler, you will see the depths to which human depravity can descend.

Then meet Doctor Faust, the arch-sorcerer, who makes a deal with the forces of Darkness, to give him power and knowledge. Demanding a devil to serve him, Faust becomes the greatest wizard of his time. But in the end, who will end up serving whom?

Read of Dracula’s battles with the ancient Chi You, the seductive and mysterious Nycea, the cunning Erlik Iblis, the brutish Vardalekos, and the even more brutish Torbalan! Stand beside him in his struggle against those myriad vampire lords who had ruled the Night for centuries—even millennia—prior. Then watch Dracula make an alliance with Ivan the Terrible.

The origin of DRACULA lies within these pages.

The review: Perry Lake had previously published three books in his The Legend of Dracula series (you can access the original reviews for book 1, book 2 and book 3) and had provided the three for review. He contacted me recently with a fourth book and then mentioned that he had substantially changed the first three volumes. The books contain a series of short vignettes concerning Dracula and, in his words, the author has “thoroughly reworked my previous Dracula books, this time assembling the stories in chronological order and adding over 75,000 words of new stories.” I was keen to look over the reworked volumes as, whilst the series grew stronger over the volumes, the first volume was a collection of great ideas hampered somewhat within the style, as the book did jump across time periods in a jarring way. I’m glad I did and this is the new edition (also renamed) of the first volume of the series.

The prose has been corralled, offering a more linear narrative that serves to inform the reader, leading them into the world the author is building. In this world Vlad Ţepeş is the vampire we will come to know within the Stoker narrative. I need to repeat here that whilst Stoker did not base his character on Ţepeş, the concept is part of the Dracula megatext and I have no problem with other authors making the connection for their versions of the story. In this case he, as a mortal, does attend the Scholomance but, whilst aided by the terrible knowledge he accesses within the Devil’s school, he is still ultimately assassinated, his head taken to Istanbul but, decades later, the wizard Faust reclaims body and head and then resuscitates him as one of the undead. Faust’s mastery of the vampire is relatively short-lived and he ends up Vlad's slave. The volume then follows Dracula’s struggle to become ruler of the undead. The stories in this volume (bar the prologue) go up to 1578.

The vampires have to sleep in native earth but can, if well fed enough, daywalk. Mirrors hold their true face (as in what their corpse should appear as) and it is when they would have decayed far enough that they can start to shapeshift. Vlad, having been rendered down to dust in the restorative process can shift immediately. Shifting incorporates clothes into the new form but not metals (so no armour, for instance).

If I had a complaint, it isn’t a new one, and I don’t think it would surprise the author. There is a use, in dialogue, of Elizabethan pronouns. I understand some writers think it makes the language sound more authentic but to my ears – unless the writer is intimate with the rules around them (and I am not by any stretch, myself) – they can be jarring – especially imposed over a prose that feels of a modern style by dint of the author’s natural voice. I do have to make the point again as other new readers can be put off by it too but it soon faded into the background for me and didn’t overly disturb my immersion. The use has not impacted the score.

As for the score, I am pleased to say that the work Perry Lake has put into tidying and updating the volumes has paid dividends. 6.5 out of 10 for a stronger opening to the series

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK.

Creepshow: Drug Traffic (S3 ep6)

Director: Greg Nicotero (segment)

First aired: 2021

Contains spoilers

I’m watching this season of Creepshow as they drop and, to be honest, I thought ep 5 was a tad weak and, of course, that can colour how you view following episodes. Well, this was not coloured by that weaker episode. In fact, it was blooming good – both segments in fact were bob on but it was the first segment that really interests us.

The episode begins with Evan Miller (Reid Scott) a congressman seeking re-election and a campaign advert that is standing on the platform of making prescription medication affordable. As you can imagine, it eventually comes out that the platform was provided by his PR company and is not something he actually cares about but, be that as it may, he has pitched up with a camera crew and coach of people who have been to Canada to buy medication.

Michael Rooker as Beau

The border office is staffed by Beau (Michael Rooker), truly a left winger (thus his assignment to a low-level crossing point, he suggests) who smells his way through Miller’s BS from the very beginning. However, he does have a job to do. Before they enter the office Miller makes a speech and we notice a very ill-looking Mai (Sarah Jon) who is with her mother (Mai Delapa). She notices Mai staring at a young boy and gives her a pill. She tells a concerned passenger that Mai is just very hungry.

mother and daughter

They get in and have to go through an automated passport check but Beau notices something off with the mother – she is clearly carrying more medication than is allowed. He takes her off, telling all the others to wait in a waiting area. The mother protests, suggesting she needs to stay with her daughter – becoming more frantic when Mai throws up, expelling several pills (which clearly haven’t been properly dissolved up to that point). Miller smells a publicity opportunity, citing racial profiling.

opportunist politicians

The thing is Beau is actually setting Miller up. His plan was to be seen doing his job and then let the mother leave with her medications, in order to avoid being used in the campaign. However, as things develop, Miller has an outburst when she cannot read the Chinese on a pack and says she is not that sort of Asian; Miller immediately retorts, asking what sort she is – this is on camera and Beau is satisfied that the congressman has made a political gaff and he is not going to be used as a political pawn.

krasue

However, the young lad Mai was looking at goes wandering off, as has Mai. He stumbles across a headless body, blood on the floor. Mai emerges from behind a counter and as she rises we realise it is her body, she is a head with dangling viscera. Yes, she is a krasue and the pills were to try and repress her natural hunting instincts. The other main bit we note is that, as in the folklore, she does at times seem to have a light floating with her (the fact that it doesn't appear to be within the viscera would seem to be a production error, but I didn't pick up on that during the viewing). There are other bits of lore but they are too much a spoiler to list.

the krasue's light

This was great – the segment did not shy from some lovely gore levels, and we do see the krasue fly into a secret service man and attack. The presence of Michael Rooker helps a lot as he is a great on-screen presence and the banter/bickering between him and Reid Scott was excellent. I’ll also mention the second segment – as it was excellent too, a really interesting story angle, shot in black and white, during the timeframe and universe of Night of the Living Dead. 7.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Krasue: Inhuman Kiss – review

Director: Sitisiri Mongkolsiri

Release date: 2019

Contains spoilers

The krasue is not a stranger to these pages. The Thai vampiric creature, described as a floating head with entrails and heart dangling beneath, makes an entry in Bane’s Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology under the entry phii krasue but whilst the (generally depicted as) female entity may have made it there the male krahang did not. This film features this other entity too and Wikipedia describes it as a type of ghost said to haunt the same areas as the krasue. This film strengthens their connection (though uses antagonism).

The film is luscious to look at and thus it is little surprising that it has made its way onto Western streaming services. If you are going to give this a look, however, you’ll need to note that whilst there is some gore, in the main it is a romance – indeed a tragedy at its heart.

the kids

The film is set some time in the 1940s in rural Thailand, with a background of war being waged in Bangkok. However, it starts some years before with a group of children; Sai (played young by Phakwan Chaowalit and older by Phantira Pipityakorn), Ting (played young by Punnarat Lasutthi and older by Darina Boonchu), Jerd (played young by Ittipat Lekuthaiwan and older by Sapol Assawamunkong) and Noi (played young by Pankorn Chantasorn and older by Oabnithi Wiwattanawarang). They walk through a field and into the forest, by which time it is getting dark, stopping when they reach a derelict house.

behind Sai

The rambunctious Jerd tells them that there is a chest in the house that holds Nual’s spirit (Sasithorn Panichnok) and those that come at night can never leave. He then laughs heartily and points out it is just a story. Ting is *it* in a game of hide and seek. Sai and Noi move off together and then she suggests they hide inside the house. He is reluctant but she gives him a protection amulet her father gave her and they go in. She gets him to hide in one place and she goes to another room that has a large crate… it is empty but we see a krasue materialise behind Sai…

Phantira Pipityakorn as Sai

Cutting to the film's primary timeframe, Sai bolts awake from her dream. There is a spot of blood on the bedclothes, which she cleans before heading to the hospital. Jerd spots her and walks with her. Due to the fighting, the school is closed and he asks her to forget the hospital and go to the fields with him but she refuses. She discovers that the doctor and nurse she helps have had to go to the city and her presence proves useful when a woman brings in her son (with glass in his knee). As Sai cleans it the mother says about a krasue attacking a neighbour’s chickens and suggests she keeps her windows and doors locked and not to leave laundry out (krasue wipe their mouths on laundry apparently).

Sapol Assawamunkong as Jerd

We discover that Sai misses Noi (the film telling us later that his family moved to Bangkok) and Ting is now a married mother to a baby. Jerd is clearly attracted to Sai. That night Sai dreams of the house again, awakens and finds the bed is very bloodied. She also finds that she has a strange injury or inflammation to her chest and wears clothing to hide it. That day she asks Jerd to go to the house with her. They see movement in the forest, they hide and a figure appears. Sai recognises him as Noi. After they greet each other they discover he is with a group of armed men.

Tad with krasue head

The men are krasue hunters (they do not know about the latest reported sightings, Noi has told them about the old legend from the village so that he could get home with them as his parents have been killed in Bangkok in the fighting). Of course, there is a krasue and we get a story of them eating through livestock, and a mother krasue being able to spit in liquid and, should a female drink it, turn the drinker into a krasue – unless the imbiber is male and then he will be painfully poisoned. The men carry desiccated heads that their leader, Tad (Surasak Wongthai), claims to be krasue they have killed.

Noi and krasue Sai

So, it won’t come as a shock to discover that Sai is the krasue. Why it has only started to manifest isn’t clear. My first reaction is that it is a puberty thing (hence the blood on the sheet at the beginning) but that also corresponded with the off-screen chicken attacks and she then manages to stain the sheets with large amounts of blood that would seem to be residue of feeding. We see later that Nual’s spirit or essence seemed to enter her when she was a child. Noi eventually finds the truth and tries to help her, Jerd is jealous of their closeness and has also joined the hunters.

a krahang

Other lore we get is that the way to destroy a krasue is to crush their heart (the body being made inhabitable through injury also seems to be a way). However, the head section is also susceptible to injury and we see guns used extensively. There is an indication that becoming a krasue is a karmic punishment for the souls of those who were once black magicians in other lives. The interesting bit was the idea of the krahang being a male creature (in full form sort of a manbat, with fangs and bird like feet) whose ancestor was once married to the first krasue. When she fell in love with a human and ran away, he hunted her down and now krahang are compelled to seek and kill krasue. Other lore I picked up on was the spittle from a kiss does not permanently poison a man but he becomes pained as she detaches from her body, the entrails are controllable and can be used as appendages and there is a herb that will prevent transformation (and grows as a luminescent plant).

head detaching

The film itself looked beautiful – the effects worked and there was some genuinely pleasing cinematography. The pace, however, was not so good. The film could do with a good 30 minutes shaving off it and did drag in places – whilst the filmmakers used the extra length to build empathy, I think, the three young leads did enough to do that with their acting skills anyway and the extra length was unneeded. I personally would have liked more concentration on the creature/horror side… the tragic love story less so. However this was worthwhile and a nice addition to the small cannon of krasue films. 6.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Nieng Arp – review

Director: Kam Chanty

Release date: 2004

Contains spoilers

Given that this is a film about a krasue variant, the arp, and hails from Cambodia, this film is very much a rarity. That isn’t to say that it is a good film, but it is a rare film and this almost makes it worthwhile on its own.

It begins with a woman going into labour. We see an old woman pass by and notice the funny look in her sunglass covered eyes.

getting ready to detach

Elsewhere a girl called Maya waits on a bridge for her lover Yasith. Maya is five months pregnant, almost showing, and she and Yasith are unmarried. As she and Yasith dance, we cut back to the first woman who is in the full throes of labour and, elsewhere, the old woman lies in a room we see she has fangs and then her head and organs/digestive system detach – she is arp.

flying

The woman gives birth and the afterbirth is collected in a pot. One of the men is sent to bury it. He should also cover it in thorns to prevent a bodiless vampire getting it, or so he is told. The vampire does appear and the village folk chase it. One of the men gets a spear through the organs (the subtitles suggest she says ouch).

Maya

Yasith and Maya have had trouble with some local men. They are attacked on the way home. The men severly beat and then stab Yasith and gang rape Maya. As she lays on the ground we see that the injured arp is caught in the branches above her. She dribbles spittle that falls into Maya’s mouth, saving her but transforming her into arp as well.

students

Sixteen years later, a group of students are off doing a field trip. They arrange boarding at a house owned by Maya, where she lives with her daughter Paulika and another young girl (whose relationship to the two was not really determined). Maya is an arp – actively tracking down the men who raped her and killed Yasith (two are found without organs as the kids come to the village). Because the kids get in her way she turns her attentions to them as well. Meanwhile Paulika and student Satha fall in love but, as a daughter of an arp, she is doomed to become an arp as well.

vampire in the phone

If that all seems succinct, it is… entirely due, however, to my write up and much more so than the actual film that drags on for over two hours and is diffuse in its direction. We discover that arps, as well as flying around eating organs, can possess people and can appear through mobile phones! That said, it might only be the older arp – who Maya venerates and keeps in a casket in her basement. We also discover that the Buddha (and pendants/statues thereof) can protect folk from the arp. A local monk knows what Maya is but, rather than attack her, he tries to encourage her to meditate and fight her nature.

detaching

The effects are pretty darn rubbish and the story and direction are way too diffuse. The entire kids sub-story could virtually have been dropped and important snippets, such as Satha being the nephew of the main guy who raped Maya, are only revealed at the last minute. The acting is, generally, atrocious. However, as pointed out, a krasue orientated film is not that common and a Cambodian vampire film is even more of a rarity… just not a very good one. 2 out of 10.

At the time of review I can find no IMDb page.