Opening Day: 16 November 2006

Synopsis:

Colic is a syndrome found in infants, which causes infants to cry continuously for hours. The reason behind this illness is usually credited by medical expects to a number of factors. However, some people believe that it's linked to something supernatural.

"Colic" tells a story of a couple (Pongpob and Praeploy) who have a shotgun wedding upon discovering that Praeploy has unexpectedly become pregnant. After the wedding, Pongpob brings Phraeploy to his mother's suburban home. The night before Praeploy delivers the child, the house next to theirs catches on fire. When the baby is delivered, and is brought to their house, he screams and cries with no reason. The doctor considers the baby has colic, and tells the couple that the ailment will disappear when the baby turns 3 to 6 months old.

Several months later, the baby still hasn't stopped crying...while the family's members encounter to mysterious and unexplained experiences.

Movie Review:

Some horror films rely heavily on shock tactics – those cheap and quick jumps and thrills that get you but are forgotten once you walk out of the cinema. Then there are those that scare viewers through the psyche – a vicious ‘Ringu’ where you leave the theatre forever to be terrified. Yet somehow, Colic doesn’t seem to fit into either.

Babies are the ultimate symbol of human innocence. And though the premise of using them horror films is not new, Colic perhaps breaks new ground in a stroke of genius and originality (as well as taboos). Baby Pan is the central figure of the story, where harmful and vengeful spirits are out to harm him in gruesome and horrible ways. That dastardly scene when he puts his hand in the blender was really too much for me.

Yet, director Patchanon Thumjira accedes to adding and filling the film with terribly unnecessary and obvious scares with overt reliance on industry clichéd soundtrack orchestra hits and crescendos. These betray the true and potential ingenuity as well as the brilliance of the hype it stirred. This betrayal is more hurtful when we notice the presence of Benn; ANOTHER frightening longhaired crazy woman. Looks like they are here to stay folks, and all set to ‘terrify’ and dominate the genre. Personally it is nothing more than the continued demonisation of women. We have come a long way indeed.

Worse, the film really isn’t that scary for a horror film, and I am a self-confessed wimp when it comes to horror. Big budgets have the propensity to spell disaster for horror. The script is incredibly dull in the second act and riddled with superfluous dialogue. The incessant baby crying, useful in the beginning for the audience to sympathise with the family, but later just plain annoying. Also, the CG smoke/gas entity spirit just does not work for me – it’s more benign than creepy. I would be more terrified putting an open flame to it. The film seems to want to go the route of a population control or pre-marital sex abstinence campaign.

Yet, with all these shortcomings, Colic does deliver at some crucial points and saves itself from total box-office annihilation. There is some strong acting from the Thai thespians, save the wooden old goody-two-shoes Grandma. Prae (Pimpan Chalayanacupt) deserves a special mention. She truly pulls the ensemble together and her sheer intensity of character draws us in. We truly feel her fear, her distress and ultimately true mother’s love as she plunges head first, sacrificing herself to save her only child.

However, the innovativeness of allowing a supposed innocent babe to succumb to as well as witness acts of gore is truly outstanding as it is disturbing. The film also boasts some clever plot devices meant to deceive and manipulate, which plays out to great effect to stir up the imagination of the audience. The frantic ‘oh no!’ moments from the theatre goers never stops in the superb, agonising and nail biting finale.

Movie Rating:



(Horror for the masses. Pregnant mothers-to-be and new mums please stay away!)

Review by Darren Sim