I Curse This Land (2024)

I Curse This Land

Panu Aree and Kong Rithdee set “The Cursed Land” in the early 2000s as a time-travel horror movie that encapsulates Thailand’s political and racial strife. By situating their film within the folk beliefs of a Muslim community, the directors expand Thai horror cinema beyond its Buddhist cosmology to grapple with the ghosts of this country while also indulging every haunted house trope in the book or at least on view at IFFR.

After his wife dies, plant worker Mit (Ananda Everingham) moves with his teenage daughter May (Jennis Oprasert) into a ramshackle mansion in a predominantly Muslim suburb of Bangkok. A diehard skeptic, Mit throws out the talismans in the house against the advice of locals Heem (Bront Palarae) and Zainab (Seeda Puapimol), thereby unleashing a vengeful djinn and its 200-year-old curse.

As Mit descends into madness and self-harm, May must journey southward for assistance. When it becomes clear that their presence at the house has disturbed centuries’ worth of generational curses on the land, they try to make amends as best they can before things get worse.

There is much to like about “The Cursed Land.” One of its most appealing features is Aree and Rithdee’s solid narrative foundation that uses local folklore and customs as springboards into more conventional supernatural hijinks. What’s really great here is working within one’s own history by delving into Thailand’s uneasy cultural/social relationship with Malaysian citizens where these two communities clash heavily over religion while conflicting mightily against each other when following traditional methods so deeply ingrained throughout our nation is simply amazing.

Instead of stumbling upon ghosts or having hallucinations then believing it’s all just in his mind; however Mit goes insane because there are reasons behind such events plus people surrounding him whom he has relations with thus giving everything that happened around him an explanation based on past records rather than thinking about present situations only. When these aspects are mentioned as potential causes for why this stuff is happening around Mit, the set-up becomes more believable which pulls together latter half where everything starts making sense

Besides, “Cursed Land” has many successful elements and terrifying hauntings. At the beginning of this movie, it gives a little hint about how people will be cursed by spirits later on. This is a very interesting story because things start to happen once they move into the house. The middle part mainly talks about the haunted house where you see things that are not there or shadows moving behind them without their knowledge and whispering demons taking hold among others.

Such ideas lead up to an exciting ending wherein lots more actions take place all at once such as banishing spirits, supernatural combat session and so forth with closer focus. The Muslim culture is also brought out here which brings in another flavor when it comes to spiritual battles between humans and these demonic beings.

However there are some problems in “Cursed Land.” One of them is its running time which seems unnecessarily long compared to what actually happens within it. It could have been cut short so that we only get enough buildup around Mit’s need for rebuilding his relationship with May after breaking up over her dying but not dwell much on how they come back together again because this takes too much time off the main story line.

Many scenes seem repetitive like when their neighbors keep trying to convert them or bring them into community life but only end up being told off each time instead of cutting straight through he just lets those moments drag along until everyone gets tired watching such parts over and over again.

Why does past have to exhaust us by showing different characters who curse counter curse location then tell us about it? This makes one think that maybe if everything was simplified into a straightforward narration it would have been easier following through the events portrayed in “Cursed Land”. Besides, why did they include another backstory with depression over dead wife as reason why Mit easily got possessed should have left religious history alone since this already explains everything happening around haunted houses like those?

Despite these few problems which may occur during viewing, there’s still so much to appreciate when it comes to “The Cursed Land” being a good horror film. The creators managed to insert some interesting parts into the movie that could have been quite boring had they not done something about them. Additionally, people who love Asian Horror films or supernatural stories will definitely find this one entertaining as well.

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