Writer: Casey Lee

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Watch this if you liked: "Bangkok Love Story" and the "Hor Taew Tak" series.

"Make Me Shudder" opens with a group of teenage friends visiting a haunted mansion with a gruesome flight of stairs. After affirming their false courage and their belief in the non-existence of ghosts, the group of boys decides to challenge themselves by visiting an abandoned building near their school with an even more gruesome past.

If you are expecting a shock-filled lesson for the boys that some spirits shouldn't be taunted for good or bad reasons, this mainly solo effort of director Poj Arnon (under a pseudonym) would have them foaming at the mouth by the time they are halfway through. Not because there are well-executed shocks hidden under the creepy atmosphere, but for the intolerable silliness they have to endure, from the over-stretched pacing, poorly timed change of tone, a plot with various dead ends and a laughable message to deliver.

If the same viewers haven't found enough reasons to leave yet, they must have been attuned to the incessant and raucous screams of the go-for-broke cast for every unprovoked shadow that creeps in the perpetually dark setting. What "Make Me Shudder" heavily relies on sustaining its short but feels extended runtime is setting up the next scene from the last, all the while not being motivated by an overarching plot, but only to generate the most laughs from the one-note slapstick shtick.

Even so, the shrinking manhood of these characters eventually turn from entertaining to epileptic when it becomes clear that is all they are capable of, and Arnon tries to switch the game up at the most unnatural of times with tones that swing from parody to just random serious moments when it gets harder and harder to tell between the living and the dead. "Make Me Shudder" does head towards being more bearable when there is something to follow towards the end, but the resolution is more improvised, than actually tying up any loose ends in the debauchery.

The best way to enjoy "Make Me Shudder" is to embrace its cheap fun. Like, you would dare one of your friends to visit the dingy washroom afterwards, while the rest of you laugh at every whimper that comes out of it?


Cinema Online, 03 January 2014