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Released by: Icon Home Entertaniment
Released on: 5/10/2010
Director: Various
Cast: Cast: Laila Boonyasak, Pongsatorn Jongwilak, Maneerat Kham-uan, Kantapat Permpoonpatcharasuk, Apinya Sakuljaroensuk, Witawat Singlampong, Chon Wachananon
Year: 2008
The Movie:
Think of Phobia as a Thai version of Creepshow and you'll be on the right track. Made up of four separate stories, this horror anthology deals with the dark side of life and focuses on murder, mayhem and revenge with some cultural twists thrown in to keep things interesting.
The first story, Happiness, follows a beautiful young woman who recently broke her leg in a nasty car accident which she barely survived. Now alone and dealing with her medical issues, she finds comfort by reaching out and making friends on the internet and staying in touch with people using her cell phone. This all seems innocent enough, boring even, until she gets a text message from someone that she's never heard of before.
Tit For Tat, the second story, tells the tale of a disenfranchised young man who winds up getting a gang of bullies in trouble at school. Of course, the bullies want revenge and so they proceed to knock him around after school a few times, culminating in a nasty scene where they toss the poor bugger out of a moving truck. When he can take no more, he enlists the aid of a local witch and sets out to get some revenge of his own.
The third story is In The Middle and it follows a group of young people who decide to head out into the boonies for a weekend of camping. They decide to do some rafting in the river near their site and one of the crew goes missing when their raft gets hit. They try to find him, but after searching high and low, eventually give up their search. And then he returns…. sort of.
The last part of the film is Last Fright, a story that revolves around a foxy stewardess who decides to take a job on a flight with one, sole passenger - a princess. She's as high maintenance as you would expect, refusing the food that the airline has provided for her and instead wanting to eat the meal prepared for the stewardess, but an accident leads to her ingesting some shrimp, an ingredient to which she is fatally allergic.
While a few of the twists and turns are easy to see coming, Phobia is still an entertaining way to kill a few hours. The production values are strong throughout the film and the Thai locations lend the movie a nice, exotic flair that sets it apart from similar western productions. The gore effects, which are more plentiful in the second story than anywhere else, are rendered using low budget CGI and rarely succeed in convincing us, but the over the top nature of the film does at least provide us with some fun set pieces.
As it was written and directed by four different Thai filmmakers (Yongyoot Thongkongtoon: Happiness, Paween Purikitpanya: Tit For Tat, Banjong Pisanthanakun: In The Middle, and Parkpoom Wongpoom: Last Fright) the film is a bit disjointed as far as style and consistency are concerned, but take on their own the four shorts that make up the feature are generally well made, well paced, and if not ever truly scary, at least generally interesting enough to be worth a watch.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Phobia looks nice in this 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. Colors are strong, as are black levels, while detail is pretty decent as well. There aren't any compression artifacts to not but some mild shimmering is noticeable here and there. Skin tones look good, and print damage is never an issue. All in all, the image is pretty strong on this release.
Thai language options are provided in DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with subtitles offered in English only. Surround activity is good throughout the different parts of the film and levels are well balanced. There are some well timed jump scares that have a nice, strong low end and the subtitles are clean, clear and easy to read. The DTS track seems to have a bit more power behind it than the Dolby Digital mixes do but regardless of which option you choose, the audio on this release is quite good.
Extras are light on this disc, limited to twelve minutes of cast and crew interviews that cover the participants' involvement in the multiple stories, the film's theatrical trailer, animated menus and chapter stops.
The Final Word:
An entertaining if uneven Thai horror anthology, Phobia looks and sounds pretty good on DVD even if the extras are light. The film is worth a look for fans of Thai horror films, mixing up suspense, gore, and a few scenes of tensions quite well with nice cinematography and strong production values.