January is typically the time in Hong Kong when the distributors here dump their catalogues of mediocre (and worse) films in preparation for the Chinese New Year comedies and awards nominees that will be hitting our cinema screens in the coming weeks. One distributor is dropping DEATH WHISPERER, a Thai horror-thriller, but this one has plenty of hype behind it. Released in its home market at the end of October, the film has already taken in 500 million baht (US$14 million) at the box office off a production budget of just 20 million baht (US$560,000) and it may yet take the crown as Thailand’s highest grossing horror film.

Based on events that happened in 1972, DEATH WHISPERER tells the story of a family of shallot farmers in a remote village in Kanchanaburi province who suddenly find that one of the daughters has been possessed by an evil spirit. In order to save his sister, eldest brother Yak (Austrian-Thai heartthrob Nadech Kugimiya, THE CON-HEARTIST) invites a mage to help exorcise the spirit, risking his own life in the battle.

Thai people, bless them. They love their movies about supernatural beings, especially when they’re the malevolent kind. DEATH WHISPERER is rubbish. The story is riddled with plot holes, and curious character motivations and contradictions. At the beginning of the story, we are told that middle sister Yam (Rattanawadee Wongthong), who has the evil spirit in her, is weak and is always getting sick. Towards the end of the story, however, we are told that she is strong because she recovered from a near-fatal bout of malaria when she was younger. At another point, she complains that her stomach hurts but then she limps to her bedroom door. One of most ridiculous scenes involves Yak and his brothers, Yos and Yod. (All six kids have “Y” names!) They decide they’re going to stay awake all night to make sure the evil spirit doesn’t come into the house and their sister doesn’t go out. Ignoring for a moment that the parents went away for the night for some unknown reason, what do the brothers do as they’re waiting for hell to rain down on them? They drink copious amounts of alcohol. Of course, Yos and Yod fall into a drunken stupor leaving Yak to deal with the entity on his own. When the entity appears again on the next night, Yak, who is hot-headed, goes charging off into a bamboo grove with a rifle using the moon as his only light source. Now what could possibly go wrong with that plan?

The good news is that DEATH WHISPERER is not a total dumpster fire. The acting is what one would expect from a low budget movie coming from Thailand. Kugimiya is clearly playing to his fan base as he rolls up his T-shirt sleeves on multiple occasions to show off his deltoids. As I was watching the film, I thought that it would only be a matter of time before he takes off his shirt and, sure enough, he does. It’s probably why the film has done so well at the box office.

The big problem with the film, though, is that it’s not even scary. There are lots of thudding sound effects, a fair amount of gore and plenty of screams coming from older and younger sisters Yad and Yee, but there are only a couple of jump scares and they’re not very effective. After an unsatisfying ending, director Taweewat Wantha (LONG WEEKEND) tacks on an epilogue that swings the door wide open for a sequel. As the film has done so well, I suppose one is inevitable. Sigh.

DEATH WHISPERER opens in Hong Kong on Thursday (January 25^th). Unless you’re a Nadech Kugimiya fan, don’t waste your time and money.

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