Home for rent, by Sopon Sukdapisit. The review

A good Thai thriller that works less when it fully embraces the supernatural dimension. From the Asian Film Festival of Rome

The beginning almost seems like that of a thriller, some tenants go to live in a house. Then mysteries arise, strange rituals that frighten the owner of the house. And it is perhaps the mystery component that is the most successful part of this film by Sukdapisit, a director who has already ventured into horror with Coming soon And Shutter, here brings a story of losing a loved one and the desperate attempt to bring them back to life. The recomposition of a deceased person into a doll is reminiscent of the episode of Black Mirror, Little excerpts of you, with the difference that technology is not used but spells come in to help. The mystery part about the tenants, of the filming of the rituals with the telephone, as written before, is the most convincing moment of the film and would have worked almost as a sort of domestic thriller The Visi.

At a certain point, however, a series of increasingly backward flashbacks begin which risk becoming simple, unnecessary explanations and exhausting their role, thus making everything fall into didacticism which takes away any glimmer of curiosity. Perhaps the film also comes in a period where there is a bulimia of the supernatural kind, just mention the latest releases: The exorcist. The believer And Omen. The origin of the omen. Home for rent takes example from this trend but fails to be able to be incisive by attempting to use the jump square several times to scare, instead leaving aside the deepening of human relationships and a greater emphasis on mystery, which would have given more value to the narrative. In the finale we learn the consequences of defying death and what this entails: the precipice of desperation and the inevitable loss of those who have died. But perhaps a new bond can be born and together we can face the loss better and thus give a new meaning to death.