April 3rd 2017

InThe Unseeable(2006), hands are creepy. They emerge fromThai spirit housesto take food offerings, they pop out of garden pottery, they appear from underneath beds to steal clothes, and they crawl out of bushes to snatch freshly severed umbilical cords. These hands are not disembodied. They're connected to something, but we're not quite sure to what. One thing's for certain—whatever it is ain't pretty.

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We're inSiam in the 1930s, several years before the kingdom would be renamed "Thailand." Nualjan (Siraphan Wattanajinda), a woman who looks and dresses like a Movie star from that era, is walking along a dirt road, struggling because she's carrying a suitcase and a baby—she's pregnant. She stops. Is someone following her? She turns to look behind her. In this opening scene, we don't know if she sees anything, but it's enough to establish a sense of unease, just like those damn creepy hands.

Nualjan is from a small town inthe Chonburi province on the coast of the Gulf of Thailand, but she's traveled to the capital to look for her missing husband. He went away on an unexplained business trip but never returned.

Nualjan's search leads her to an eerie estate, which is seemingly isolated even though she's in the big city. (She's accused several times of being a mere country girl.) Despite the fact she's given a jump scare within seconds of walking on the property—by a chatty woman named Choy (Sombatsara Teerasaroch) who lives on the premises—Nualjan decides to make this her temporary home as she waits to carry her baby to term and as she continues her hunt for her husband.

Of course, she begins to think that living on the estate isn't such a good idea after she meets the stern property manager, Ms. Somjit (Tassawan Seneewongse); the crazy-eyed landowner, Madame Ranjuan (Suporntip Chuangrangsri); an old lady who plays with damaged dolls; and a little girl who wants Nualjan to play with her but is prone to disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Oh, there are also rats, menacing dark figures and shadows, and a man in the distance who hacks at the ground with a hoe. And hands. Lots of creepy hands.

"The Unseeable" Official International Trailer w/Eng Sub

What's most striking aboutThe Unseeableis its strong ensemble of women. Directed by Wisit Sasanatieng, who helmed the audaciously entertainingTears of the Black Tiger(2000), and written byKongkiat Khomsiri, part of the "Ronin Team" responsible forArt of the Devil 2 (2005)andArt of the Devil 3 (2008), the movie allows men to appear only briefly, and when they do we often never even see their faces. Each of the women are memorable because of their well-delineated personalities, and they play against each other to compelling effect. Tassawan Seneewongse is especially strong as Ms. Somjit, as the property manager, whose performance gleefully walks the line between high camp and real wickedness. She has a bite as big as her bark.

InTears of the Black Tiger, Sasanatieng boldly embraced genres—Western, action, romance—and injected them with wild, contemporary energy and a memorable color palette. InThe Unseeable, he's paying homage to 1930s melodramas as well asHem Vejakorn's supernatural graphic novels of the same era. When Sasanatieng sticks to this formula, showing an admirable sense of restraint for a modern-day horror movie, the film manages to be genuinely creepy and gets under one's skin. And it's got several third-act twists that land nicely.

But ultimately, the movie unleashes a cavalcade of (sometimes not scary) horrors that we've all seen in other films and more jump scares than are necessary. And in the final analysis, I'm not sure it all totally makes sense. (I considered if there was a deeper meaning I wasn't getting, but I decided there wasn't.)

However,The Unseeablehas a lot going for it, including its cast, sense of humor, atmosphere, and unique choice of bringing a contemporary horror sensibility to 1930s Siam. It's an interesting mix. Keep your umbilical cords safe.

Thai Movie Central Rating

How to Watch the Full Movie (with Thai Audio and English Subtitles)

—Buy the DVD.

—Watch on Amazon (rent/buy).

—Watch on iTunes (rent/buy).

Watch with Subscription

—Available to Amazon Prime subscribers.

Additional Notes

—The Thai title of this movie is เปนชู้กับผี (transliteration: pen choo kab pee), which means "committing adultery with a ghost."

—The movie won the NETPAC Award (for Wisit Sasanatieng) at the Golden Horse Film Festival in 2007.

—Screenwriter:Kongkiat Khomsiri.—Directors: Wisit Sasanatieng.—Cast: Siraphan Wattanajinda (Nualjan), Tassawan Seneewongse (Ms. Somjit), Suporntip Chuangrangsri (Madame Ranjuan), Sombatsara Teerasaroch (Choy).—Genre: Horror.—Running Time: 1 hour, 34 minutes.

Photo Gallery

The Unseeable

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