DLAznMovies.com: Body #19

Genre: Horror
Starring: Arak Amornsupasiri, Ornjira Lamwilai, Kritteera Inpornwijit, Patharawarin Timkul
Release year: 2007
Language: Thai
Subtitle: English

SYNOPSIS:
Chon starts seeing a psychotherapist after he starts dreaming about a woman who he had only met once in a restaurant. In his dreams, a mysterious man murders her, slices her body into pieces, and flushes them down a toilet bowl one by one.

The murderous dreams haunt him into his waking memory, and eventually he feels as if his own body is being dissected and carved up by the surgical knife. Slowly, the terrifying images take control of him.

He comes to believe that dead woman is sending him messages through these nightmares. But these are not messages for him, they are meant for her murderer. And they speak of revenge:
“I am still here.”

RATING: 8.5/10
USER RATING:

REVIEW:
" Technical wise, you cannot fault the sound design which was impeccable, and the attention to detail in creating the ghoul, which are key elements in sustaining audience interest even when the story seemed to be stuck at nowhere. Here's where Body #19 excels, in creating a creature so revolting that you just want to duck under the sheets, cover your eyes and wish it goes away. If I may say so, it's one of the more beautifuly intricate ghouls to have graced the screens, and one which utilizes almost every trick in the book to dispatch its victims. You might have seen some of these methods before in other horror movies, but with the quality of the CG effects, it managed to get away with it. Of notable mention too is the makeup department in fleshing out (pardon the pun) the necessary to achieve the desired macabre and spooky effects.

Somehow though, the filmmakers and cinematographer found a profound lingering desire to include a crane shot into almost every scene or change in setting, or decide to have a shot from beneath, so you have the actors either looking up, looking down, or we're looking at the top of their heads. I found this to be distracting as it doesn't further the plot in any way, and could have been done away with to trim the run time. We don't really need another of such over the top tracking shots, just because it may look cool and sophisticated.

A good story is essential so as not to waste the efforts of the technical team, but here's where Body #19 fell a bit short. It is always difficult to have a horror film wow your socks off with new or innovative story lines, and Body #19 might seem to have dwelled too much in setting up its conspiracy theories which doesn't leave much room to come to the right conclusion midway into the movie. It found some earnest need to show and tell back-stories even when it doesn't further the plot, and to satisfy those in the audience with bloodlust, the killings here take their own sweet time, with the hunter very much toying with its prey, again just to ramp up the unnecessary suspense, but allowed an avenue to showcase some nifty CG work.

In setting up the series of events, the opening had a myriad of characters thrown into six degrees of separation, and took its time to unravel the relationships amongst them. The synopsis above is all you need to know should you require a reference of sorts when watching the movie, and it doesn't take too long to arrive at the first "boo!" point, whose necessity is still debatable, as it probably serves as a rehearsal for more to come. But what I found to be unsettling, is the very detailed and repeated chop-slash-chop sequence in body dismembering. Now that will require some stomach to endure. "

Source : MovieXclusive

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