Phii khon pen [The Victim] (2006)

(In French, On Cable TV, December 2021) At this point, I’m more eagerly looking forward to mediocre foreign horror films than mediocre domestic ones — at least the foreign film will have a more unusual setting than the American one. But that doesn’t mean I won’t complain about them if they are, indeed, mediocre. Thai horror film The Victim, from writer-director Monthon Arayangkoon, does play with a few intriguing elements—most notably in entangling its protagonist, a young actress, with the ghost of a murder victim. You can imagine several ways such a premise could go. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t do much with what it has, even when it aims toward a mid-film twist that’s supposed to recontextualize everything. Instead, it merely confuses the narrative until it gets to move forward again, and doesn’t lead to much more in terms of narrative impact. (When a film explicitly blurs the line between reality and fiction, viewers won’t be that surprised then reality and fiction are blended even further.)  The juxtaposition between macabre crime “reporting” and a vengeful ghost story could have worked, but it would have required more work and originality in handling the result. The Victim, instead, seems to lose itself for a long time before delivering an underwhelming climax. Too bad — a mediocre film remains mediocre, even when it takes place in an unusual environment for North American viewers.