The Ghost of Mae Nak

The Ghost of Mae Nak Review
Once upon a time in ancient Thailand, a man named Mak was sent into war. After spending several years away from home, Mak returned to his lovely wife and daughter. However, the neighbors say that he is cursed, and that his wife and daughter both died during childbirth. They claim he is only seeing their ghosts. Those who tried to warn him of the situation died horrible deaths.

Now in present time, the same thing is happening again. A man named Mak, who happens to be wedding a woman named Nak, starts seeing the ghost in his dreams. Soon those dreams are meshing with reality and people are dying around the newly wedded couple.

Apparently, the mythology behind this movie is very famous in Thai folklore. Some say that it is based on a true story. Seemed interesting enough for me, and after receiving high recommendations for this movie, I decided to rent this one from Netflix. Unfortunately, the movie didn't scare or entertain me at all, and I'm usually terrified of Asian horror movies with dead long-haired Asian women.

I think the main issue with the scares was that the movie didn't build enough tension. Each kill seemed quick and abrupt and there wasn't enough time before the kill to really spook the audience. Furthermore, despite being promised horrifying death scenes, The Ghost of Mae Nak didn't really deliver. I've definitely seen grislier deaths in horror movies. One guy gets his head decapitated, one guy gets burned, and another gets split in half (probably the best one). None of them were particularly gruesome, but this might just be because I've watched too many good horror movies.

I didn't particularly like any of the actors either. The pacing of the movie was too fast and there wasn't enough character development. I like my horror stories to contain emotionally scarred, deep, charismatic protagonists. Mak seemed too ordinary of a character. Nak was incredibly cute, but besides that there wasn't much going for her. None of the characters acted very well. I barely felt Mak and Nak being terrified at all, and Mak is knocked out for a good portion of the movie as well.

Skip out on the Ghost of Mae Nak. This is not Asian horror at its finest. I blame the Western director for this one.

Written by Lance


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The Ghost of Mae Nak Cast
Pataratida Pacharawirapong as Nak
Siwat Chotchaicharin as Mak
Porntip Papanai as Mae Nak
Jaran Ngamdee as Por Mak
Meesak Nakarat as Angel