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Aaw is a young
orphan girl with a Khmer heritage. She
lives together with her grandmother in a small village
in Thailand where everyone is scared of her since they
believe that she can do black magic on them. Since her
grandmother is dying, Aaw decides to go to Bangkok to
work as a prostitute. At first it's scary and she's
forced to change her name to Dau since it's easier for
foreigners to pronounce, but she soon gets used to her
new life... perhaps a little bit too used to it. She
soon becomes competitive and starts using her black
magic against the other prostitutes at her bar, but
everything comes with a price...
I'm not sure why writer/director Paul Spurrier decided
to shoot his movie in Thailand since the movie has yet
to find distribution there - even after almost three
years. Meanwhile the movie has been doing decent
numbers in cinemas around the world, mainly under the
title "Haunted Spirit" and now it's finally found a
home on DVD in the states as well. After having
finally seen the movie myself, I have to say that it
was probably a good move by Paul to shoot the movie
in Thai language as the story is an extremely
intriguing look at the meat market in Thailand. It's
actually rather unfortunate that he decided to do
a horror flick as the first half of the movie was
really good. It was interesting, it had good characters
and it was just a crazy experience to get to watch
Aaw's transformation into Dau.
Unfortunately, the second half is less original and
revolves around black magic and Dau's transformation
into an evil spirit. I kind of got what Paul was
aiming for but it ultimately didn't work quite as well
as it should have. This had the potential to be a
powerful and original drama and instead it ended up
being yet another long-haired ghost story more or
less - only this time the long-haired girl is an
evil spirit/demon/vampire thing with a taste for
blood. It felt like such a waste of a good set-up.
Aaw is a shy girl whose bullied by her classmates since
she's Khmer (Cambodian). She lives with her very sick
grandmother outside the village where she's taught
many spells that will help her in life. Since her
grandmother is in desperate need of medical supplies,
Aaw decides to accept a job offer in Bangkok, even
though she has no idea what she's getting herself into.
At the bus station she's met by a bubbly, but rather
strict girl named Pookie who she quickly becomes friends
with, but when the night falls, Aaw realizes what kind
of job it is that she's gotten. Being a prostitute isn't
exactly what Aaw, or Dau as she's now called, had in
mind but as time goes by, she becomes progressively
comfortable with her job. It pays good money and she
doesn't have to do a lot. Unfortunately she gets a bit
TOO competitive and starts using black magic against
the other girls in the bar - something which soon
backfires on her. She starts turning into an evil
spirit with a hunger for flesh and there seems to be
no stopping this demon.
Like I said before, I loved the concept, but I hated
the horror aspect of the movie. It wasn't scary, it
wasn't suspenseful and it definitely didn't feel very
refreshing. Still, I have to commend Paul Spurrier for
coming up with such an intriguing drama and the
directing is fantastic, I'll give him that. It's
definitely worth checking out for its powerful and
gripping story but don't expect much out of the horror
department in this movie.
Not a whole lot here, some blood spatter.
Decent piano music, nothing special.
P, which has no relation to the American horror tragedy
"P2", is a movie filled with potential but ultimately
fails in the horror department. As a drama, it works on
so many levels, but as a horror flick, it falls flat.
It's worth checking out for its intriguing story but
if you're looking for a good scare, you may want to
rent something else.
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