Despite this, the movie is a very watchable horror genre mashup. It's a possessed doll story! No wait, it's a dysfunctional family potboiler! No, it's a gothic haunted house movie! Wait, I got it this time, it's a vengeful ghost story! It's... a slasher revenge movie? It's actually a bit of all of those things. Only the possessed doll part doesn't quite pan out in the end.
The movie, which seems to have been at least partially inspired by a Vietnamese gothic horror with similar themes, begins with a cold open in which a young maid working for a wealthy family seems to have a bad encounter with her charge's creepy monkey doll, and quits on the spot. The child's mother is completely unfazed by this account of an evil spirit attached to a doll, and demands that the maid be replaced at once. The story then picks up again with Joy, the new maid and also our protagonist, and the viewer is left waiting to find out when the monkey doll will start haunting this young woman, only for that never to happen. Instead, Joy is haunted by the ghost of another maid, and these scenes are effectively creepy. The movie leads us by the hand through the sorts of amateur investigative scenes we've come to expect from vengeful ghost story movies, culminating in a dramatic flashback which appears to be relayed from the ghost herself, only to pull the rug out from under the viewer with a late reveal that Joy is batshit insane. I resigned myself to the probability that the falling action would be revealing Joy's insanity to the rest of the cast thus restoring order, only to my delight to discover that just because the protagonist is crazy doesn't mean that her ghost vision was fabricated. We find out that Ploy really was Joy's sister, really died in the manner in which she showed Joy, and really was haunting the house. Perhaps it was Joy's insanity which made her a better medium to experience these truths from her sister than the maid from the cold open. This makes Joy's revenge caper morbidly satisfying, particularly when she faces off with the lady of the house. At least for the most part. Those party guests didn't do anything to earn her ire, though the scene of their fate was cruelly beautiful, like a scene from Perfect Blue come very briefly to life. A lot of this movie is beautiful to look at, with lovely mise en scene, an attractive cast, and plush colors all over the screen. The ending has a few problems, though. I kept hollering at the screen for Joy to take off that raincoat and wash her face before touching her niece (who, it is strongly hinted, possesses the same 'touched' constitution as her aunt), and you can't help but wonder what will happen to those two after they make it off the property. The child is also carrying the monkey doll in that last scene, so if there really was an evil spirit attached to it, it's still with them after the credits roll.
Seriously, what was up the monkey doll?
The movie, which seems to have been at least partially inspired by a Vietnamese gothic horror with similar themes, begins with a cold open in which a young maid working for a wealthy family seems to have a bad encounter with her charge's creepy monkey doll, and quits on the spot. The child's mother is completely unfazed by this account of an evil spirit attached to a doll, and demands that the maid be replaced at once. The story then picks up again with Joy, the new maid and also our protagonist, and the viewer is left waiting to find out when the monkey doll will start haunting this young woman, only for that never to happen. Instead, Joy is haunted by the ghost of another maid, and these scenes are effectively creepy. The movie leads us by the hand through the sorts of amateur investigative scenes we've come to expect from vengeful ghost story movies, culminating in a dramatic flashback which appears to be relayed from the ghost herself, only to pull the rug out from under the viewer with a late reveal that Joy is batshit insane. I resigned myself to the probability that the falling action would be revealing Joy's insanity to the rest of the cast thus restoring order, only to my delight to discover that just because the protagonist is crazy doesn't mean that her ghost vision was fabricated. We find out that Ploy really was Joy's sister, really died in the manner in which she showed Joy, and really was haunting the house. Perhaps it was Joy's insanity which made her a better medium to experience these truths from her sister than the maid from the cold open. This makes Joy's revenge caper morbidly satisfying, particularly when she faces off with the lady of the house. At least for the most part. Those party guests didn't do anything to earn her ire, though the scene of their fate was cruelly beautiful, like a scene from Perfect Blue come very briefly to life. A lot of this movie is beautiful to look at, with lovely mise en scene, an attractive cast, and plush colors all over the screen. The ending has a few problems, though. I kept hollering at the screen for Joy to take off that raincoat and wash her face before touching her niece (who, it is strongly hinted, possesses the same 'touched' constitution as her aunt), and you can't help but wonder what will happen to those two after they make it off the property. The child is also carrying the monkey doll in that last scene, so if there really was an evil spirit attached to it, it's still with them after the credits roll.
Seriously, what was up the monkey doll?
