UK Release Date: 29-06-2007
UK Certificate: 18
Director: Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Womgpoom
Country: Thailand

A young Thai couple are driving back from a party late at night when they hit a girl standing in the middle of the road; they panic and drive off, and, in the weeks that follow, it becomes clear that they have drawn down upon themselves the wrath of a particularly vengeful spirit. So far, so nondescript; except that the boyfriend is a photographer, and after the accident odd shapes and strange shadows start appearing in his snaps. In their efforts to explain this phenomenon, the pair’s investigations lead them into an exploration of spirit photography.
The directors’ evident enthusiasm for the subject means we get a solid introduction to the argument between sceptics and believers, and are presented with a wealth of real-life photographic evidence, much of it borrowed from the collection of a professor at the Department of Still Photography and Motion Pictures, Chulalangkan University. Photography, of course, also lends itself particularly well to generating fear and suspense in movies, and some of the most effective scenes in the film are those in which the boyfriend is terrified by a camera shooting frenetically and autonomously, and those set in a blood-red dark room.
Frustratingly, however, the directors only develop the idea to a certain point; a great chunk of the movie then passes with no mention of photography, though it returns to play a crucial part in what is an effective dénouement. It’s as if they momentarily lose their nerve, lapsing into a reliance on the formulaic – will Sadako never die? – and on generic fear-building techniques, which are unnecessary in a piece that should have more faith in its real strengths: a nicely sensitive tone, and a perceptive delving into the strength or weakness of character of its protagonists.