The Medium is the most effectively creepy horror I've seen this year. Despite its share of cliches, the detailed presentation of Thai demonology coupled with top-notch performances from its Thai cast truly ensure that The Medium can easily get under your skin.

Shot in found footage style, which can be both a boon and a curse, The Medium chronicles the harrowing experiences of a Thai medium family, where gods and demons coexist in the most unnerving manner possible. Nim, a resourceful female medium, strives to remove an evil entity that has been tormenting her niece, and Sawanee Utoomma was simply magnificent in her highly reserved delivery to let this simmering urban horror build by itself. It's a highly patient mystery…

This is my most anticipated Shudder film and let's say I was very disappointed because this film failed to deliver. It's a mockumentary folk horror from Thailand, about a documentary team following Nim, a shaman based in Northern Thai, and encounters her niece Mink who has strange symptoms that seem to be indicate inheritance of shamanism. The team decides to follow Mink, hoping to capture the shaman lineage passing on to the next generation, but her behavior becomes more extreme, bizarre and terrifying. This wasn’t as good as I was expecting. I feel like I just wasted my time. As a mockumentary, this film isn't convincing enough. It starts off very promising with so many interesting elements going on, the…

For much of The Medium’s first act, its faux-documentary verisimilitude is handled masterfully. Not quite Noroi or Mungo levels of real, but the artifice of a polished investigative special is very convincing. Presenting itself as an exploration of Thai spiritualism, actress Sawanee Utoomma is so genuine and natural in the role of shaman Nim while a camera crew shadows her day-to-day. The authentic docu-editing/pacing grant the gradual eerie intrusions a truly unnatural air. Thai religious lore among rural jungle landscapes acts as a uniquely fascinating backdrop for The Medium’s story of tested faith and generational secrets. If we’re going purely by The Wailing, the script contributions from director Na Hong-jin are certainly felt in the grounding of rituals and invocations…

third entry for my film club with my hgs. this week, it's horror!

what goes around comes around ig 🤷‍♀️ the true horror in this is the generational curse. it started with brutality and violence and also continued to the present generation. i'm glad the film touched on that because it's one of my fave themes in the media, how inescapable it is. no matter what they do, they're fucked, with the sins of their ancestors down to siblings' betrayal, and down to mink's incestuous relationship with her brother. they're trapped.

i like that na hong-jin worked in this because i love whatever he did in the wailing. and i can see his influence in here. especially with how atmospheric…

London Film Festival gets off to a bang! I'd forgotten I picked this one because of Na Hong-jin's involvement (writer/producer) but was strongly reminded of The Wailing at times. This is another possession-based mind-melter that has his nihilistic fingerprints all over it.

Despite having some Korean involvement, particularly on the marketing front, it's actually a Thai production and the sub-tropical setting gives it a distinctive character that feels authentic. It's a very slow burn and I was just beginning to lose patience with its insistence on the existence of various invisible skybosses and the idea that frogs and centipedes have souls and if you pool enough of them together you make a demon (all pretty hard to swallow for a…