Lhorn is a foursome of tales from Thai folklore. Each tale supposedly comes from a different region of Thailand. Nothing as vanilla as The Singing Apes of Thailand or The Story of Bukit Merah, but four nightmarish tales of horror.
Lhorn, or "Soul", in actuality, has a macro story-line where a group of twenty-somethings (namely Dech, Fah, Dao, Krit, Manao, Toob, Uab and a couple friends) are recruited to assist Dech in restoring a large traditional-style Thai manor, which he has recently inherited. As we get to know the group through they're own introductions, we learn that most of them have a field of expertise that will help Dech with a required appraisal needed before renovations can begin. Some of the group are just tagging along. As they settle in at the house for the night, Manao's book of folklore becomes fodder as they wind the evening down. She has been engrossed in it all afternoon, so after some mild prodding from her girlfriends, Manao agrees to share a few of the tales.
** mild spoilers **
First up is the story that is closest to actual horror out of the four, imo; the 'Paup Ghost'. The premise is solid as far a horror goes: a carnivorous spirit is seen late one night, by a pair of fisherman, devouring the insides of a live animal. The following day, the village residents march to the village chief's house and demand he do something about this paup ghost that's been killing their animals. When they notice the demon entering the home of a small family after surprising it in a field another night, a witch doctor is summoned to that home to expel the demon from a most unlikely place.
The 'Paup Ghost' story has it's tense moments, although few and far between. But it does manage to stay even as a whole. The transition from the main (macro) story packs a bit of a shock in and of itself, and the dark tones & "peek-a-boo" style camera work (made famous by so many Japanese classics) teases us as the paup creeps in and out of view.
We briefly snap back to "the present" where Mamao is begged to spin another yarn:
The second tale has Den, a young man, renting a house near a large banana field. A house large enough for him and his soon-to-be-bride Sao, as well as to throw and bake pottery. Shortly after moving in, Den begins to have dreams of a young woman seducing him in the night as he sleeps. This "episode" takes place almost entirely at night and is very dark, visually. Content-wise, it's fairly short and pretty tame.
Again, we're brought back to the house. And again Manao regales those of the group who haven't either gone to bed or scampered off to get frisky. She tells the story of the Pong Ghost. This one is a lot like the Paup Ghost story but minus the animal eating.
This is where it gets quite a bit edgier and a tad more interesting. The final tale, is about a young servant woman who, after having been caught having an affair with her employer's (husband ?), is fired, promptly follow and raped to death by three young local men and buried under the so-called 'Takien Tree'. This tale simultaneously takes place in the past. We see the intertwining time lines playing off each other as the folklore surreptitiously enters the present.
Overall, I would hazard a guess that someone more familiar with Thai folklore may like this movie more than I did. It seemed flat and, in a few spots, boring. Each "act" was played very tight to the vest, so that even the genuinely scary parts couldn't balance the movie. The worst part of the film is the horrifically out of sync dialogue. The traditional music and (most) sound effects are perfectly utilized and in time, but the vocal overdubbing lags by a second or two. It's tough to tell if this continues throughout the movie because I was too busy trying to catch the English subtitles before they hastily disappeared. A minor flaw in the dvd that could stand to be corrected.
Soul does have a unique look to it and the cinematography holds it's own among horror film. One thing that struck me immediately was the lack of electric lighting and what a challenge is must have been to film the action and yet allow it to retain it's "naturalness". With the only light sources (seemingly) being a lantern or two, a few torches or the eerily bright moon, Soul ingeniously uses devices like fog to help reflect and magnify the scarce quantities of light. It's might be worth checking out for the unique format or the cool interplay between the final tale and the main story-line, but in the end, Soul was just too drawn out and lacked the punch of more interesting horror I've come to enjoy.
