MY EX
DVD. MVM.

Thai horror has never quite achieved the same reputation as its Japanese, Korean or Hong Kong counterparts, despite sharing many of the same themes and stylistic approaches - it just doesn’t seem to have managed to make anything as effectively scary, and My Ex is unlikely to change that.

Shahkrit Yamnarm is Ken, a movie star with an eye for the ladies but an issue with commitment, hopping from relationship to relationship, his latest conquest being co-star Ploy (Wanida Termthanaporn). This doesn’t go down at all well with ex’s Meen (Navadee Mokkhavesa) and Bow (Atthama Chiwanitchapan), one of whom takes it especially badly, and before long, Ken, Ploy, his agent and a paparazzi are all experiencing strange and deadly encounters with a ghostly figure.

My Ex has one genuine jump-out-of-your-seat moment, one revoltingly gory death and one moment of spectacular tastelessness, but is otherwise rather lacking. Ken’s girlfriends seem to have all come from the same mould (I genuinely did struggle to tell them apart as they all look, talk, dress and mope alike) and he has the personality of a log, making it hard to give a damn about what happens to any of them. Other than being famous, you wonder what Ken has that makes him the centre of so much passionate attention.

Director Piyapan Choopetch throws in all the expected supernatural elements – angry looking long haired ghosts that only the viewer can see, moody lighting, etc – but the film has the pacing and undeserved melodrama of a TV soap. It’s a pity, as there is potential here, but the final execution leaves a lot to be desired.

DAVID FLINT

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