Dorm (aka
Dek Hor/Tartan/Thai/DTS/Horror)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: C+ Film: C+
Songyos
Sugmakanan’s Dorm (aka Dek Hor/2006) may be the same old
clichéd Asian Horror film with doppelgangers and the like that are never scary,
but the twist here is that it takes place in a boarding school following a
12-year-old boy into the school which has hidden horrors none of them are
initially expecting. Too bad Chollada
Teaosuwan’s screenplay does not take advantage of a potentially interesting
situation.
The young
actors are good and there are some good moments of humor that save the film
from being another tired piece for formula product. However, beyond that, the film falls short
too often and at 107 minutes is lucky it did not wear thin more quickly. Maybe if this were an all out comedy like Night Of The Living Dorks, this could
have really worked, but it does not and is a curio at best.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is soft, but is saved just enough by its
color consistency to overcome that, thanks in part to the cinematography of
Director of Photography Niramon Ross.
The sound is limited as even the DTS 5.1 mix shows that multi-channel
sound was not conceived for this film originally despite all of its sweetened
jumping sounds. Extras include a making
of featurette, another behind the scenes piece, special effects featurette,
deleted scenes with optional commentary, a feature length audio commentary by
the director & cast, character intros and the original theatrical trailer.
- Nicholas Sheffo
