Chatree(Charlie Trairat) is sent to a boardinghouse for boys due to low grades and his current poor performance in school. Once there, a tight pack tell Chatree ghost stories which set up a terror in his mind which makes nights difficult for him. Adjusting and adapting to his new environment will prove difficult and uneasy, but Chatree soon makes at least one friend who starts up a conversation with him.
DORM might be a bit too sappy and sad for some horror fans wanting edgy and visceral thrills because the filmmakers care about their little protagonist and his situation. They want us to sympathize with his predicament, but understand the father's reasons for his actions. Due to bad grades, his disapproving father sends Chatree to a boarding school hoping his boy will wise up and straighten himself out for the better. We have a dinner table memory where Chatree is informed that he would be "sent away", left by his parents in an institution where all the boys sleep in cots next to each other, washing themselves in the same bathroom. After ghost stories, told to him by a group of boys hoping to frighten him, leave Chatree terrified to urinate, resulting in peeing in his cot, the kid is tormented by his fellow students, a laughingstock.
The school's master, Miss Pranee(Chintara Sukapatana), has an air of mystery about her(seemingly anguished about something we later learn has to do with a death, a record player stuck in a place during a key moment of a song symbolizing the chief problem later revealed) and we wonder if there is a ghost is roaming the halls at night, whether one of the stories regarding tragedy is in fact true.
The culprit which led to Chatree being placed in the school is television. But, honestly, we see that this place really isn't as terrible as it first seems and the boys aren't imprisoned or oppressed, but have freedoms outside the classroom. Chatree finally finds a friendly companion in Vichien(Sirachuch Chienthaworn) who also seems to be desiring a buddy to hang out with, the two bonding, a revelation potentially shattering their camaraderie.
DORM is less a spookshow as it is a melodrama involving a ghost who no one else sees other than Chatree. Is Vichien an imaginary friend, or is he a ghost who desperately longs for a pal in Chatree? We see that Chatree avoids his father as much as possible, not taking phone calls from pops who has guilt over his decision to leave the boy at the school. Probably the most memorable scene to me is the eerie image of a laboratory full of dissected rabbits used for scientific purposes. Another haunting recurrence shows a helpless Chatree having to watch a relived drowning of Vichien.
I think DORM will receive the stigma of "generic" for attaining the "restless repeated cyclical event of a ghost's demise" plot as it pertains to why the spirit still remains active where he died in the past. There's an interesting character named Nui(a sullen kid, kind of creepy, nicknamed "Dr. Nui" by his friends)who tells Chatree he was witness to a motorcycle crash resulting in a death which continued every night the same time the driver was ejected and killed after speeding around a corner too fast. Nui informs Chatree that the spirit of the dead needs to be reborn or else the pattern goes on and on for infinity..Nui says that you must free your spirit from the body in order to help the restless ghost become unborn. So Chatree may just follow his "instructions" so that Vichien can have peace. Still, a storyline about friendship transcending life and death may be a bit syrupy(the score designed to tug on the heartstrings) for some onryo fans hoping for more scares and ghoulish shenanigans. If you like movies about a kid growing up during a term in a brand new location using the supernatural as a means to further the story, then DORM might just be for you.
DORM might be a bit too sappy and sad for some horror fans wanting edgy and visceral thrills because the filmmakers care about their little protagonist and his situation. They want us to sympathize with his predicament, but understand the father's reasons for his actions. Due to bad grades, his disapproving father sends Chatree to a boarding school hoping his boy will wise up and straighten himself out for the better. We have a dinner table memory where Chatree is informed that he would be "sent away", left by his parents in an institution where all the boys sleep in cots next to each other, washing themselves in the same bathroom. After ghost stories, told to him by a group of boys hoping to frighten him, leave Chatree terrified to urinate, resulting in peeing in his cot, the kid is tormented by his fellow students, a laughingstock.
The school's master, Miss Pranee(Chintara Sukapatana), has an air of mystery about her(seemingly anguished about something we later learn has to do with a death, a record player stuck in a place during a key moment of a song symbolizing the chief problem later revealed) and we wonder if there is a ghost is roaming the halls at night, whether one of the stories regarding tragedy is in fact true.
The culprit which led to Chatree being placed in the school is television. But, honestly, we see that this place really isn't as terrible as it first seems and the boys aren't imprisoned or oppressed, but have freedoms outside the classroom. Chatree finally finds a friendly companion in Vichien(Sirachuch Chienthaworn) who also seems to be desiring a buddy to hang out with, the two bonding, a revelation potentially shattering their camaraderie.
DORM is less a spookshow as it is a melodrama involving a ghost who no one else sees other than Chatree. Is Vichien an imaginary friend, or is he a ghost who desperately longs for a pal in Chatree? We see that Chatree avoids his father as much as possible, not taking phone calls from pops who has guilt over his decision to leave the boy at the school. Probably the most memorable scene to me is the eerie image of a laboratory full of dissected rabbits used for scientific purposes. Another haunting recurrence shows a helpless Chatree having to watch a relived drowning of Vichien.
I think DORM will receive the stigma of "generic" for attaining the "restless repeated cyclical event of a ghost's demise" plot as it pertains to why the spirit still remains active where he died in the past. There's an interesting character named Nui(a sullen kid, kind of creepy, nicknamed "Dr. Nui" by his friends)who tells Chatree he was witness to a motorcycle crash resulting in a death which continued every night the same time the driver was ejected and killed after speeding around a corner too fast. Nui informs Chatree that the spirit of the dead needs to be reborn or else the pattern goes on and on for infinity..Nui says that you must free your spirit from the body in order to help the restless ghost become unborn. So Chatree may just follow his "instructions" so that Vichien can have peace. Still, a storyline about friendship transcending life and death may be a bit syrupy(the score designed to tug on the heartstrings) for some onryo fans hoping for more scares and ghoulish shenanigans. If you like movies about a kid growing up during a term in a brand new location using the supernatural as a means to further the story, then DORM might just be for you.