0/5 stars
Vulgar stereotypes, terrible performances and a rambling, incomprehensible plot are just some of the problems with Pee Nak, a horror comedy from Thailand that makes a strong claim for the title of worst film of the year. A smash hit at the Thai box office, where it earned 150 million baht (almost US$5 million), Phontharis Chotkijsadarsopon’s tale of spooky encounters at a haunted monastery is a torturous, incompetent slog.
Nhong (Paisarnkulwong Vachiravit) is 25 years old and struggling to stake his place in the world. After narrowly surviving a fatal bus crash, he decides to get ordained as a Buddhist monk. Unfortunately, his obnoxious college friends First (Bhuripat Vejvongsatechavat) and Balloon (Witthawat Rattanaboonbaramee) tag along for the ride, despite knowing little about what the ritual entails.
No sooner have they arrived at the remote religious retreat, staffed only by an elderly abbot and his young novice, than the trio experience a series of supernatural encounters with a handsome apparition (Chinawut Indracusin).
It’s common for young men in Thailand to seek ordination as a monk, even for just a brief period. A rite of passage that could be perceived as the spiritual equivalent of military service, it is a way to honour one’s family for the sacrifices they have made. In Pee Nak, however, ordination is little more than a narrative hook for lowbrow, fish-out-of-water high jinks.
Nhong is a bland, but relatively inoffensive leading man, who engages in a fleeting, unrewarding romance with a young woman (Jannine Parawie Weigel) visiting the monastery for a funeral. More problematic are the openly gay characters First and Balloon, who shriek and squeal their way through the film, and represent the worst kind of derogatory gay caricatures imaginable.
From their inappropriate clothing to their ignorant and disrespectful attitude towards their surroundings, First and Balloon are presented as little more than fragile, self-centred narcissists. Terrified by everyone and everything, yet fawning luridly over any square inch of male flesh in their immediate vicinity, they are offered up as the film’s comic relief by becoming the butt of every cheap, uninspired gag.
The film stumbles through its 108 insufferable minutes as ineptly as its ill-prepared protagonists, stringing together a series of poorly conceived, sloppily executed vignettes with little interest in an overarching narrative or meaningful character development.
A literal car crash from its opening moments, Pee Nak hurtles downhill from there. The result is a disastrous ordeal undeserving of being called a film.
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