Movie Review: The Coffin (2008)

Directed by Ekachai Uekrongtham

Starring Ananda Everingham, Florence Faivre and Andrew Lin

In Thailand there is an ancient ritual performed who's purpose is to reverse the fortunes of those who chose to partake in it. One lies in a coffin for a certain amount of time and then after being brought out of the coffin whatever the person has asked for hopefully will come to pass. The Coffin is the story of two people who have partaken in the ritual only to have something go horribly wrong, and instead of good fortune they become victims of supernatural hauntings. We have a runaway bride who has discovered she has lung cancer, after the coffin ritual she finds her cancer has disappeared unfortunately she find out on the same day that her fiance has been killed in an accident. Stricken with guilt, she is terrorized by his ghostly image. The other is a man hoping to cure his girlfriend of an illness and although she is cured they both are soon stalked by ghostly apparitions. The both eventually find out that the only way to set things right is to perform the ritual again.

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I didn't think this film was a complete lost cause, there were some moment that made me jump. Some were completely unexpected and some you could see coming a mile away. Cheap shots? Of coarse, but its something that a lot of Asian movies are good at. And afterall, that's what most ghost movies are about, a series of cheap-shot scenes meant to startle the audience and make them forget their watching the same movie they've payed to see 100 times before.

The score was above average, and even quite haunting at times. And although I had read a lot of complaints about the scenes being shot in different colored hues, I personally thought the cinematography was outstanding, with quite a bit of the film being shot at odd but intriguing angles. Most of the acting was passable with the exception of a doctor who's telling the runaway bride that her cancer is gone. His scene was tough to watch and I felt bad for whoever the hell he was.

The effects were nothing spectacular, but they didn't need to be in a movie like this. The only thing that really annoyed me was the hokey CGI effects they went with in the fire scene. Completely ruined what could have been one of the highlights of the film. To sum it up, if you held all the good parts of the movie in one hand and the bad parts in the other they'd weigh about the same, maybe a bit more good then bad. I wasn't expecting much going into it so I wasn't let down at all, and a part of me even wants to say I liked it....just a little.

I give it a 6 out of 10

Reviewed by KennyB