Alone

Saw Alone, a Thai horror about a pair of conjoined sisters who separate. One dies, but haunts the other. The film has mirrors galore (even pairs of mirrors sometimes) and opens with a cake being cut exactly in two. This symbolism is the hardest stab at capital-A-Art the film makes and it's not a very strong one. That aside, the film is quite scary, using jump-scares to great effect. By the end of the film it crystallizes into a sort of slasher, once it becomes clear who the actual villain is. (Side note: I have a little bit of sympathy for the killer. Do their years together mean nothing?) The cause of the haunting is revealed via sepia-toned flashback and is (as usual) deeply tragic.

I don't have much to say here. I thought the film was quite generic, relying on jump scares and quick cuts to be creepy. Totally lacking in any kind of cleverness that I could discern, the storyline is more tragic than terrifying and the plot is needlessly complicated and needlessly explained (not that the plot is overly complex anyway, but why bother revealing that everyone grew up together as well? It just feels too cute and convenient to me.) The film seems to function more like a mystery, I thought, but with jumps and ghosts mixed in. The reveal is the most interesting thing about this film and even then, you can kind of smell a twist coming (those of you who routinely guess twists will have no problem with this one.) Then again, then again. As I often say, I'm a total wimp who tries very hard not to be scared and am therefore missing out on 90% of what makes a horror tick. So I may well have missed the mark totally. Ah well. 1 down, 41 to go.

PS - Googling "imdb Alone" brings up a link to the imdb page but has the plot summary for The Eye, a completely different, Hong Kong film. Get it together, Goog.