In short: Bangkok 13 Muang Kon Tai (2016)

Ever since she had a ghostly encounter as a little girl, Pim (unfortunately, I haven’t found a useable cast list anywhere, so no actors this time, I’m afraid, and I’m not so sure the subtitles transcribe the character names properly, either) has been able to see ghosts and spirits. They don’t seem to have actively bothered her until now, so there’s that, at least. This is going to change soon, though, for her friend Koi has helped her get an assistant job in the ghost hunting TV show of terrible showman Ryo. This season, they are doing the rounds of Bangkok’s most haunted places. Some of them might even be connected to Pim’s backstory.

Once Ryo realizes that Pim, unlike him, can actually see ghosts, he’s pushing her to the fore with sweet talk and a bit of money, looking for the most dramatic angle possible with any of the hauntings. And what’s more dramatic than crew members actually getting attacked by ghosts that are much more interested in the living when someone's around to see them?

Dulyasit Niyomgul’s Bangkok 13 is not a film that’s going to make anyone want to rewrite the books on Thai horror. Its structure, packing thirteen haunted locations (and a bonus haunting at Pim’s home) into a ninety minute runtime makes it difficult to go for anything more with the ghosts and spirits than short spurts of well-worn Thai horror tropes, mostly represented by digital special effects. Theses elements are packed particularly tightly, too, because the film does spend more time on characterisation than you’d expect, giving Pim a proper character arc (as well as an horror movie bullshit ending fate) in which she learns a valuable lesson about how to treat ghosts the proper Buddhist way, while also adding quite a few snarky asides about the immorality of the TV business.

Now, I don’t want to complain about a film clearly made on a low budget trying to give us actual characterisation, a moral and a whole host of ghosts, but cutting the thirteen haunted places to six or seven would probably have made these places feel much more meaningful and would have afforded the film time to make its ghost spookier.

Still, having said that, Bangkok 13 is well worth a watch. You don’t get to see actual Thai ghost hunting shows in the West, after all, so racing through some empty buildings in Bangkok is not without interest when you’re not from around there. And even though the plot and Pim’s arc aren’t exactly deep, they do turn this into something at least a bit involved for the willing viewer.