I had never heard about this 2018 Thai horror movie prior to stumbling upon it here in 2023 and getting the chance to watch it. Needless to say, that with my fascination of Asian cinema and the horror genre, plus the fact that Thai cinema usually make pretty good horror movies, then of course I had to watch "Phee Toh Ra Sap" (aka "Viral").
The storyline in "Phee Toh Ra Sap" is pretty straight forward, bordering on actually being so generic that it is crossing over into becoming bland and boring. The narrative in the movie is pretty mundane, with nothing much overly thrilling or scary really happening. And for a seasoned horror veteran such as myself, then "Phee Toh Ra Sap" was a mere walk in the park at broad day light.
I was only familiar with two cast members in this movie, and that was Ploy Sornarin (playing Tang) and Nutthasit Kotimanuswanich (playing Wit). But it should be said that the cast ensemble did good jobs in bringing the characters and movie to life on the screen. Just a shame that they didn't really have an overly interesting script to work with.
It takes writer and director Manasanan Pongsuwan forever to set a scene and try to build up a sense of suspense. But usually it fails utterly, because the scenes are devoid of suspense, especially because the scenes never lead to any properly fulfilling climax of whatever it was that writer and director Manasanan Pongsuwan was trying to accomplish.
Writer and director Manasanan Pongsuwan is apparently particularly fond of footage of a dead girl just slowly walking around towards people or just standing right behind them and doing nothing, and that is essentially about the extend of most of the scenes with the ghost girl. So don't get your hopes up for anything grand. Oh, the director does make use of cheap jump scares throughout the course of 80 minutes that the movie ran for, if you're into that sort of thing.
It should be noted, however, that the special effects and especially the make-up on the dead ghost girl was actually quite nice, and definitely did add a much needed layer of horror element to an otherwise rather stale and mundane movie.
The ending of the movie has a twist to it. But I have to say that the plot twist that writer and director Manasanan Pongsuwan went with here just made zero sense, and it just utterly leaves you wondering what was the purpose of that plot twist.
If you enjoy Thai horror movies, then there are far better movies readily available. "Phee Toh Ra Sap" simply is too uneventful and lacking proper scare effect.
My rating of writer and director Manasanan Pongsuwan's 2018 movie "Phee Toh Ra Sap" lands on a very generous four out of ten stars.
The storyline in "Phee Toh Ra Sap" is pretty straight forward, bordering on actually being so generic that it is crossing over into becoming bland and boring. The narrative in the movie is pretty mundane, with nothing much overly thrilling or scary really happening. And for a seasoned horror veteran such as myself, then "Phee Toh Ra Sap" was a mere walk in the park at broad day light.
I was only familiar with two cast members in this movie, and that was Ploy Sornarin (playing Tang) and Nutthasit Kotimanuswanich (playing Wit). But it should be said that the cast ensemble did good jobs in bringing the characters and movie to life on the screen. Just a shame that they didn't really have an overly interesting script to work with.
It takes writer and director Manasanan Pongsuwan forever to set a scene and try to build up a sense of suspense. But usually it fails utterly, because the scenes are devoid of suspense, especially because the scenes never lead to any properly fulfilling climax of whatever it was that writer and director Manasanan Pongsuwan was trying to accomplish.
Writer and director Manasanan Pongsuwan is apparently particularly fond of footage of a dead girl just slowly walking around towards people or just standing right behind them and doing nothing, and that is essentially about the extend of most of the scenes with the ghost girl. So don't get your hopes up for anything grand. Oh, the director does make use of cheap jump scares throughout the course of 80 minutes that the movie ran for, if you're into that sort of thing.
It should be noted, however, that the special effects and especially the make-up on the dead ghost girl was actually quite nice, and definitely did add a much needed layer of horror element to an otherwise rather stale and mundane movie.
The ending of the movie has a twist to it. But I have to say that the plot twist that writer and director Manasanan Pongsuwan went with here just made zero sense, and it just utterly leaves you wondering what was the purpose of that plot twist.
If you enjoy Thai horror movies, then there are far better movies readily available. "Phee Toh Ra Sap" simply is too uneventful and lacking proper scare effect.
My rating of writer and director Manasanan Pongsuwan's 2018 movie "Phee Toh Ra Sap" lands on a very generous four out of ten stars.
