Grave Encounters meets The Wailing

Super Short Movie Review

While at first a slow burner, this documentary-style exploration of a rural Thai family's abandonment of religious tradition excels at realism and practical horror without the crutch of over-the-top Hollywood horror special-effects. It asks an important cultural question -- how do modern and future generations deal with the repercussion from sins committed by ancestors they barely know or cannot remember?

Final Grade

B+

Final Notes

(Spoiler Warning)
The film did a good job of showing the emotional fall-out of family's abandoning their roots but, while successful at creating dramatically sad and physically disturbing scenes, there were no moments where I felt one of horror's primary ingredients: terror. I spent a lot of 2020's quarantine watching horror movies, so I must admit I may be a little desensitized. I watched a lot of foreign horror, specifically Asian horror films, and must give a reminder that The Medium is much higher quality than a lot of recent Hollywood horror flicks -- because that's what a majority of popular American cinema has become, "flicks," and not films that genuinely move audiences emotionally or shove them off their feet with awe-inspiring dramatic intensity.

Image Source: wargoal.com

Watched on: Shudder, through Amazon Prime