THE BLACK DEATH (2015)

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director:Chalermchatri Yukol
Cast: Pongsakorn Mettarikanont, Sonya Singha, Apa Pawilai, Viri Ladaphan, Gandhi Wasuvivhayagit, Chalat Na Songkhla
Runtime: 1 hr 24 mins
Rating: M18 (Violence and Gore)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films & Clover Films
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 25 June 2015

Synopsis: The chronicle and the archives have recorded that in 1586, King Bayinnaung led his army through the Malamao strait in Tak province to invade Ayutthaya. After long continuous battles, Ayutthaya finally lost the war to the Burmese troops from Hongsawadi in 1569 and end their independence. The collapse of the Ayutthaya Kingdom could not be explained ....some said that the cause might be the “Black Death” that wipe out the residents. Some blamed the hungry ghosts, some blamed the plague that came with the Portuguese. But nobody could find out the real cause until all the corpses transformed themselves into a kind of living dead called ‘The Black Death’ who fearlessly bit and ate the villagers, even the monks were not able to exorcise them...

Movie Review:

It had to happen sooner or later right? If even Singapore has had its own version of the zombie apocalypse in the form of Dolph Lundgren’s terribly C-grade ‘Battle of the Damned’, then it was only a matter of time before Thai cinema dabbled in the creature horror sub-genre that has found a new lease of life in recent years thanks to ‘The Walking Dead’ and ‘World War Z’. And yet, those looking for the same compelling blend of action and character drama in Chalermchatri Yukol’s ‘Phi Ha Ayodhaya’ will be quite sorely disappointed; indeed, in making what has been touted as the first Thai zombie movie, Yukol has drawn inspiration not from these Class A archetypes but rather the grindhouse flicks of the 1970s and 1980s.

For the uninitiated, such flicks were often meant to be no more than horror shlock, which meant a high body count, copious amounts of blood and gore, and unbridled violence. They also showed a blatant disregard for conventional elements on which cinema is built on, such as plot, character or storytelling. Indeed, their joys and pleasures were meant to be crude and ephemeral, and they never pretended to be anything more. If that’s the kind of movie that you think you’ll appreciate, then you’ll also know not to quibble with the obvious faults with Yukol’s film; otherwise, you’ll do well to stay away from this like the Plague (which the characters attribute the cause of the zombie phenomenon to), and save yourself the agony and frustration of criticising it for what it was never meant to be.

Putting a revisionist spin on well-known historical events, Yukol circles back to the year 1565 during the reign of Maha Chakkraphat. As we are told in a brief prologue, there was a devastating plague in the old capital which was believed to have originated from seafaring Portuguese and Persian traders. That much is fact, but the rest is probably not. Among the first to witness the effects of the plague is noble warrior Thep (Gandhi Wasuvitchayagit), who watches with wide-eyed horror as the recently slain come back to life and crawl out of mass graves dug in the aftermath of a bloody battle. Thep returns to his village haunted and scarred, but as you can already guess, that won’t be the last he will see of the flesh-eating walking dead.

But before the zombies return with a vengeance, we are introduced without much continuity to a ragtag group of disposable characters who will eventually converge upon the village brothel as their refuge against the rampage. Kong (Phongsakon Mettarikanon) and Mien (Sonya Singha) are a young star-crossed couple, the former the apprentice of a monk and the latter the daughter of a village scion. Ploy (Apa Bhivalai) is a mute prostitute, with Kwan (Tonpon Mahaton) a good-hearted opium smoker and frequent visitor to the brothel she works at who takes pity on her. Jun (Chalad Na Songkhla) is the owner of the brothel, who has designs on Bua (Wiri Ladaphan), a blacksmith whose late husband owes him money. Though Yukol spends almost the first act setting up these characters, none of them make much of an impression, though that hardly matters once the bloodletting begins.

In typical B-grade fashion, the zombies have no distinction or purpose other than to terrorise the living and in turn be cattle for the slaughter – by the latter, we mean having their heads bashed in, their bodies sliced in two, their limbs cut off, and their innards spilled out. There is not much clarity or coherence to these sequences, the former because of poor lighting that makes it more difficult to make out what exactly is going on and the latter because of bad editing that simply doesn’t know how to cut from one scene to the next. Only for the sheer amount and extent of blood and gore on display does the second act stand out, although it unfolds with such self-seriousness that a little self-reflexive humour wouldn’t hurt.

That is especially true for the third and final act, which is basically melodrama of the worst kind. Not even with the language barrier does the dialogue come off any less cringe-worthy, which basically has Kong pledging his undying love for Mien, Thep proclaiming how he is bound by his own code of honour to protect his fellow men and Ploy crying over an infected Kwan. Compared to the chaos before, this sudden change in tone is not only jarring but also infuriating, particularly since we don’t quite care for any of the characters in the first place. Those looking for a final showdown between human and zombie should also be warned – there is none to speak of, and in fact, the ending, that leaves room for a sequel, is just as unsatisfying.

Like we said at the start, ‘The Black Death’ doesn’t try and isn’t meant to be any more than a bloody grindhouse horror. To judge it on any other merit than its gut-sy glory is futile, but even on that count, you’ll do well to know that it is too daft to be any sort of homage to the cult genre that it aims to emulate. Unless the novelty of seeing zombies in a Thai movie excites you that much, there is really nothing more that this splatter-fest offers. 

Movie Rating:

(No more than a grindhouse splatter-fest, this zombie horror offers no pleasure except the novelty of seeing the walking dead in a Thai movie)

Review by Gabriel Chong