I rounded up from a 7.5/10 but I think this is closer to an 8 than a 7 if I had to pick. I watch A LOT of movies and TV, I travel for work and also bring my iPad every time I hit the treadmill etc, if you look my background I'm def not a shill and I'm not someone who goes around giving out high ratings to everything (nothing annoys me on IMDb more than the overuse of 1s & 10s lately). I feel the need to say all of this because despite being critically acclaimed the IMDb score on this movie now sits at a 6.0/10 which is just absurd to me!
Sure this wasn't a perfect movie, but for someone who knew absolutely nothing about it going into it, I was pleasantly surprised in a way I hadn't been in a really long time. Part of that is probably bc 90%+ of the time I know what to expect, so there aren't a lot of opportunities for surprise, but regardless it was a really rewarding experience.
A few things I really enjoyed:
-Sound & Score: someone else here complained about the score (some of it seemed like real techno music but it was mostly original from what I can tell via Shazam) which was really great in helping to create a lonely but something is kind of off feeling. My fav movie of all time is 1979 Alien, and while ofc this movie isn't close to that, one thing they do is use the score perfectly to create the mood and sounds to build tension and keep you off kilter. It's just something I love in a movie personally and you don't get a lot of it, it's very hard to pull off even if it might sound Easy.
-Setting: this movie is set in Thailand but they used it in a really unique way. I've seen movies and shows (especially travel non fiction) set in Thailand and it always feels the same for the most part - hectic Bangkok at night, food stalls, seedy bars with prostitution, etc. Here we see a different side of Thailand though - the high-end resorts and beaches in less populated areas, luxury, the way they shot some of of the tourists transport to make it feel more lonely/ominous..really cool stuff.
-Plot: since I watch a lot and read a lot I think I'm usually pretty good at predicting what's going to happen. I have to admit, I did predict the very last thing that happens in the movie, since the clues were laid out for that to happen. Just about everything else though I did not see coming. Kind of a genre bender at times between Horror, Thriller, and Travel which I thought the tonal shifts really worked, again something that usually doesn't.
-Acting: I personally thought most of the acting was ok nothing great or bas - except for the girl who played CW (birth mark face) I thought she was fantastic. Especially early on when we see her Modulate her personality with the second influencer she meets. I think we will see her again.
So what are the negatives then? I would say the one thing I could've used even a couple of more pieces of exposition about, and I think they easily could've been weaved in through us seeing something on the laptop screen or subtext from an out of context comment by CW to someone - is to know a little more about her backstory. Unless I missed it I really didn't feel like I knew anything about why she did what she did or how she started doing it or why she was in Thailand or if she had any hard lessons in the past etc. It seems like she had being doing this for a long time but then other clues make it seem like she hasn't while other other clues make it seem like she is super experienced and even just like 2-3 more min total run time in this movie, you could still maintain the mystery but with a couple of details to make the character more compelling. I think what some writers forget sometimes is that over explaining or too much exposition is bad and kills the viewers imagination and the mystery in a story like this - but not enough can make the character feel less compelling and a little more flat, generic, or archetypical but not in a good way - more like a cartoon bad than a real person forged from lived experience.
Anyway, I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes unsettling movies, movies shot in atypical locations, etc. Worth a watch
I would compare it to the movie Drive with Ryan Gosling in its feel. Drive is a better movie but they definitely share some DNA especially when it comes to the use of sound and music.
