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A review by anbar
Infidel by Pornsak Pichetshote
3.0
2.5 stars. A standard haunted-building story, but racial tensions play an important part: after a mentally disturbed tenant of Middle Eastern origin caused a deadly explosion in his apartment building (quickly labeled terrorism, because Middle Easterner), opinions and attitudes among the remaining (and new) tenants are divided. When a young Muslim tenant starts feeling and seeing weird things, she attributes it to stress and medication, but things get worse and now, of course, she is a Muslim woman 'behaving oddly' in a building full of already paranoid people. From there, it's pretty much a standard haunting story.
It was good for what it is, though not doing anything really new (other than starring POC instead of a hapless white couple/friend-group). The interplay of tense relationships within family, friend-groups, and the tenant community was well-done, but I found the root of the ghost(s) themselves a little too vague: in practice it seems to have a virulent beef against women and POC, and the POC part makes sense when you find stuff out but not so much the women part. Was the fiance's grudge against his mom because of the ghost, or pre-existing? Is the the atmosphere of mounting suspicion among the tenants caused by the ghost, or not? That isn't clear.
Still, fans of dark ghost stories like 'The Ring' might enjoy this.
It was good for what it is, though not doing anything really new (other than starring POC instead of a hapless white couple/friend-group). The interplay of tense relationships within family, friend-groups, and the tenant community was well-done, but I found the root of the ghost(s) themselves a little too vague: in practice it seems to have a virulent beef against women and POC, and the POC part makes sense when you find stuff out but not so much the women part. Was the fiance's grudge against his mom because of the ghost, or pre-existing? Is the the atmosphere of mounting suspicion among the tenants caused by the ghost, or not? That isn't clear.
Still, fans of dark ghost stories like 'The Ring' might enjoy this.