After bursting onto the scene with the classic effort “Shutter” years ago, Banjong Pisanthanakun and his sometimes partner Parkpoom Wongpoom churned out several fantastic genre fare in Thailand during the waning days of the J-Horror boom of the 2000s. After providing several efforts together before going separate ways, Banjong returns to the genre after several years, to give one of the best films of the year that will thankfully have a wide, deserving audience with its release on the Shudder streaming service.
“The Medium” is screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival
After a special search throughout Thailand, psychic medium Nim (Sawanee Utoomma) is chosen by a special film crew to be followed around and have her work documented. As they watch her go about her business tending to the ill residents of the area or other special requests they may have, they also manage to focus on the strained relationship Nim has with Noy (Sirani Yankittikan) her sister who's worried about Mink, (Narilya Gulmongkolpech) her oldest daughter. As time goes by, they come to realize that she has become possessed by a force outside of their experience and will require more than they expected to resolve the situation and restore order to their community.
“The Medium” benefits the most by writer Na Hong-jin's setup, offering the kind of real-world grounding required for a story like this one. Since the initial introduction here is on Nim's abilities and spiritual connection to the Gods of the area and how she treats those who need it, there's a fantastic understanding of how strong her connection to that realm is. By understanding that connection this clearly, the later focus on the family members who are suddenly coming under attack by the various supernatural maladies on Min. comes into greater focus. These come from the behavioral shifts ranging from sudden quietness to overtly flirtatious and outgoing, defensive attitudes about strangely impersonal objects and the discomfort felt around the family. Given that all of this is shot like a found-footage effort by the documentary crew following Nim, the psychic brings a real-world approach that's not oversensationalized or grandiose which helps the film tremendously.
Once the setup is in place, “The Medium” provides a lot of fun with the realization that Nim has to use her powers to help the possessed Mink. Having gathered a series of clues not just from those behavioral changes and outbursts but also much more in the wake of how we're told they came together leading to that conclusion, the tension and action ramp up considerably. Once Mink's condition has been revealed and the outbursts turn violent including the shower attack or the beatdown with the video camera during a ritual ceremony, it all leads to a far more intense and suspenseful second half. The attempts at using Nim's own powers as a means of controlling and figuring out what's going on have a fine localized flair that involves several rituals and the realization that they've been deceived all along, the race to uncover the truth about what's possessing Mink and free her from its grasp results in some fascinating ritualistic work. The final exorcism itself, a massive outpouring of dark magic rituals and ceremonial preparations that take place in several fine scenarios throughout here, are chilling and somewhat shocking to witness, making for a highly effective and enjoyable effort.
While there's a lot to like, The Medium” does fall short somewhat. Most of the issues come in the form of Hong-jin's overly complicated story that tries to do more than it should. While the early focus is on grounding the life of everyone in the area so that the terror is that much more palpable, things progress beyond an obvious point that something should be done quite early and often. Several instances with encounters at her work, numerous bizarre videos showing how Nim interacts with others in the community, and all the socially distant behavior around the family are more than enough to suspect something has gone wrong. Yet it takes until the physical attacks on the family to even confront her about something going wrong. From there, the revelation about the former boyfriend who died recently haunting her that turns into a red herring for the ancestral curse being the cause of the possession is unnecessary. This explanation comes way too late in the film to mean anything with no build-up following the evidence we've gathered so far, leading to too many plot points and storylines to keep track of.
The other issue here is that far too much of “Medium” feels like excess that could've been trimmed down and taken out. There's little need for the film to touch over two hours in running time with this kind of storyline. The repeated use of ideas and concepts depicting Mink as being possessed come off as being repeated frequently enoughm and the idea is made clear enough only to keep going with the concept. Likewise, the finale is excessively overlong with way too many things happening which spell out the doom for all involved. The horrific activity at the exorcism site, with the numerous possessions, torture being inflicted on the crew, and the remaining helpers scrambling to get away once they realize they're in peril is incredibly chilling in execution. It just goes on way too long when combined with the activity at the house with the possessed Mink taking place at the same time. While getting the point across and certainly being fun in its own right, these could've been trimmed down and smoothened the running time, but are thankfully not serious enough to hold this down that much.
Granted with an impeccable atmosphere, a fun concept, and more than enough scares to offset the minor drawbacks, “Medium” emerges as one of the finest films in the genre if kept from reaching the highest status due to those minor drawbacks. Fans of Asian horror, spiritual exorcism films, or the past work of the creative crew will highly enjoy the film.
