Overall, there’s quite a bit to like here
Synopsis
After the death of her mother, a Japanese-Cambodian manga artist and her boyfriend decide to travel to Cambodia to learn more about her past, but when she encounters strange events in the building that point to something darker, the residents must stop it before it spreads. One of the strongest features is the really enjoyable and engaging set-up, with lots of interconnected parts that come together quite well. Starting with the fact that her mother died under mysterious circumstances while living in a community she’s long since estranged from, this provides a means to reinforce the return motif as well as give enough background to each other. Because we’re aware of the relationship being portrayed and how it’s affecting her, the desire to contact everyone when she arrives to find out why is a natural part of their reunion.
He is left alone in the apartment
It also makes the presence of community behavior and rituals seem like a perfect way to enhance this type of story by appearing charming before gradually becoming darker and more sinister. This creates a fantastic sense of looming fear the longer they stay in the community, and the increasing danger leads to more suspense. This setup makes the film much more fun when the sinister instincts start to come true. With the subdued nature of the community revolving around the well-meaning, if slightly inappropriate behavior or just the ritualistic trappings that are overlooked, this is nice enough to serve the film until it gets to the more overt episodes later on.
The nightmarish fever dream, in which he cannot distinguish his dreams from reality, is quite impressive
A large sequence serves as a strange meal preparation, as the gathered family members and others he has met in the community perform a ritual-like ceremony intended to prepare him for a specific occult ritual that soon turns into a ritual. It kicks off the rest of this installment with a much darker genre effort, featuring several revelations about the visions he experiences, leading to a wild finale where the sinister origins of the ceremony are revealed. of bringing new life into the hosts’ body, which is again more subdued than expected, but still manages to deliver some generally chilling visuals and a chase around the complex. All of which makes for a lot of fun here, as while there aren’t too many downsides here, several problems do arise.
The main factor here is the sense of confusion that is present here, as there is very little explanation
With the first half being much more ominous and subdued than anything else, there isn’t much in the way of revealing what is going on, instead focusing on the haunting atmosphere of the building and their ominous behavior that almost exclusively creates the scares. As a result, hardly anything is revealed about what the community is trying to do, what their ritual entails, or how it’s all meant to be carried out, so very little is brought to light. It’s not until the end that anything is made clear, so it’s possible that this is a bit confusing at first to get to what’s going on. Another downside is that this setup also allows for a fairly slow-paced first half, with very little happening beyond the story building that is paid off at the end, so it takes a while to get to that point.
Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language
These are a few minor drawbacks that are present here. After the death of her mother, a Japanese-Cambodian manga artist and her boyfriend decide to travel to Cambodia to learn more about her past, but when she encounters strange events in a building that point to something darker, the residents must stop it before it spreads.
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