add_action('wp_head', function(){echo '';}, 1);
Soriya returns to Cambodia to try to find herself after her mother’s death, where she discovers a family she never knew and an old building full of dark secrets. After the death of her Japanese-Cambodian mother, a manga artist and her boyfriend decide to travel to Cambodia to learn more about its past, but when she encounters strange events in the building that suggest something sinister is happening to the residents, they have to stop early before it spreads. One of the strongest features is the really nice and engaging set-up, with lots of interconnected parts that fit together well. Starting with the backstory where her mother died under mysterious circumstances while living in a community she had long since estranged from, this provides the means to create a return motif as well as give each other plenty of background.
Since we are aware of the relationship being portrayed and its effects on him, the desire to connect with everyone when he comes to find out the reason is a natural part of their encounter. The presence of community behavior and rituals also seems like a perfect option to reinforce this type of story by making it seem like a charming way to go before it gradually gets darker and darker. This creates a fantastic sense of looming terror the longer they stay in the community, which increases the tension. Its low-key nature, revolving around the benevolent, if somewhat unnatural, behavior of the community or just observing the ritualistic swirls that remain, is nice enough to serve the film until it gets into the more open-ended episodes later.
The big sequence serves as a strange cooking show as family members and others he’s met in the community come together and perform a ritual-like ceremony designed to prepare him for a special occult ritual that soon turns into a ritual. The nightmarish dream he can’t distinguish from the reality of his dreams is quite impressive. He launches this sequel into a much darker attempt at the genre, featuring several revelations about the visions he’s experienced, leading to a wild finale that reveals the dark origins of the ceremony as it is. from bringing a new life into the hosts’ bodies, which is again more subtle than expected, but still manages to be generally chilling with the visuals and the chase around the complex.
All of this adds up to a lot of fun, because while there aren’t too many flaws, some problems do arise. Since the first half is much more ominous and subdued than anything else, not much is revealed about what is going on, instead focusing on the eerie atmosphere of the building and their ominous behavior, which almost exclusively instills fear. As a result, almost nothing is revealed about what the community is trying to do, what their ritual entails, or how everything is to be performed, so there is little to no discussion of that. It is only towards the end that things come together, so it is possible that it is a little confusing at first to get your head around what is happening.
Another downside is that this setup also makes for a rather slow first half, with little happening other than establishing worthwhile plot points at the end, so it takes a while to show through. These are a few of the minor flaws in this display.