The only reason I didn't get around to watching The Medium any sooner was due to the runtime. 130 minutes is far from the lengthiest movie runtime I have sat through (although I think I have made my thoughts on the bloated art of Lav Diaz clear enough), but I kept filling up my viewing schedule with shorter, generally "easier", choices. Which is something I should really stop doing, particularly when it delays me enjoying something as good as this.
It's all about a documentary crew following a medium named Nim (Sawanee Utoomma). Nim has spent many years possessed by the spirit of a local deity, but she only ended up that way because her sister, Noi (Sirani Yankittikan), didn't want to accept her destined role. Noi doesn't seem to have had the most fortunate life since turning her back on the chance to become a medium, but things may be about to change as her daughter, Mink (Narilya Gulmongkolp), looks set to be chosen as the successor to her Aunt Nim. But details soon come to light that cast doubt on the whole situation, and Nim wonders just what is force is trying to gain hold of her neice.
Director Banjong Pisanthanakun really knows how to make effective scares. Their directorial feature debut was Shutter, still a highly recommended ghost movie, and they have spent most of the past two decades delivering a nice variety of chilling tales. Writers Chantavit Dhanasevi (who has worked with Pisanthanakun a number of times) and Na Hong-jin (who is on a real role after working on The Chaser, The Yellow Sea, and The Wailing before this) do a fantastic job of setting up the situation and characters before starting to develop a building sense of dread, drip-feeding the weird and scary moments until just really letting loose in a finale that is full of nightmare imagery.
Utoomma is good in her role, as is Yankittikan, but it's Gulmongkolp who becomes the focus of the film, with viewers getting to watch her behaviour become more and more erratic as she is unwillingly changed by a selfish spirit. Gulmongkolp is excellent, starting off as a typically bright and fairly happy young woman before quickly changing for the worse. Aside from the moments of horror and/or madness, Gulmongkolp excels as she shows the strain of carrying a burden she cannot seem to put her finger on. Her mind and spirt may be a battleground, but her body is just as much a casualty.
Shot in the "found footage"/documentary style, this does a lot of what you expect from that format. You get moments in which footage is checked and found to contain some extra horror. You get details that don't necessarily come into focus during the first sweep of the camera. There's some night-vision work during the final act. It feels better than most though. Although things go from bad to worse, it's not entirely implausible to think of a documentary crew sticking around to get some footage that will give them some instant fame, kudos, and notoriety. Of course, there's no easy exit when people realise, far too late, that they really need to make their escape.
Full of impressive moments, with a runtime that doesn't feel as long as it is, and with a small handful of characters that are nicely fleshed out, The Medium is a near-perfect modern horror. You are drawn into a strange world, unless you have spent a lot of time in Thailand, and the film-makers acclimatise you to the lifestyle and the large role that faith plays in the lives of everyone shown before dragging you along an increasingly dark path that you just know isn't going to end anywhere pleasant.
9/10
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