Sick Nurses

Many film buffs here in the United States may overlook the foreign film market. Unless you have an art film oriented theater in your town you may miss many fine movies. When you think of horror flicks your mind may consider Japan or American independent flicks as the main source. You most likely did not consider the Thai horror film genre. Maybe it’s not as large or well known as the more obvious members of the genre but there is at least one that is worth the horror flick devotee attention. This film is ‘Sick Nurses’ from Thai directors Piraphan Laoyont and Thatsaporn Siriwat. When I received the screener of this film I really didn’t know what to expect. I have come across several Thai movies over the last few years but they seem to concentrate on the action and comedy genres. There was a thriller horror combination but this movie seems to be one of the first such films for the growing Thai film industry. If ‘Sick Nurses’ is any indication horror fans are going to start really noticing Thai movies a lot more. This movie is innovative; adding an unexpected freshness to a tried and hackney part of the genre, the vengeful ghost story. There are a few missteps along the way here but overall this is a remarkable endeavor.

Laoyont and Siriwat deliver a taut flick here that will captivate the audience from the start. In a bold move for any new directors, especially in a country not know for the genre, they break most of the established rules. They not only get away with it they add a freshness that most horror directors here in the States should take note of. The time line is extremely unusual for any film. It encompasses only about ten minutes or so of real time. The film is just over 82 minutes so you might wonder how they can confine the time to such an extreme degree. One plot device that is overused by many is pulled off nicely here, the venerable flashback. After that the ghost goes after former co-workers in a brutal fashion. The methods of each young woman’s demise are customized to highlight a particular character flaw. This is itself harkens back to the seven deadly sins which is more prevalent in Western literature and films. While close in technique to something like ‘Seven’ it takes a more graphic turn here. Don’t let the title fool you. It most likely is a translation issue than anything else. This may sound like the run of the mill slasher flick but there is so much more here than that.

The film begins with a man undressing a young woman. He slowly removes her clothing as she just lies there. There is a simple reason that she doesn’t react, she is dead. The scene is actually in a Bangkok hospital where Dr. Tar (Wichan Jarujinda) and his staff of seven nurses have a little side business. Tar cleans the corpse with the assistance of one of his nurses, Nook (Chidjun Rujiphan). Nook lovingly wipes Tar’s brown as her fellow nurse looks on rather jealously. The corpse turns out to belong to Tawan (Chol Wachananont), a former nurse of the doctor. Tawan not only worked for Tar but his supposed to be his girlfriend. Now it seems that her sister is moving in on her man, literally over her dead body. While this is never a good situation in a ghost story like this one it fills the scene with ominous portent. Some of the other nurses are there ripping plastic sheets to package the body parts. The scene shifts to seven days later where the nurses grab Tawan and hold her down on the morgue table. She screams for the doctor; he turns to look from the other room but does not interfere. Through the window between rooms Tar slips one of the nurses a surgical saw which is then used to stab Tawan to death. According to the clock on the wall (symbolically filling with blood) the time is ten minutes to midnight. The minute hands flies back and forth between the ten and twelve providing a visual clue to the unique time frame of the movie. In the flashbacks Tawan leans over Tar hugging him asking if they can look at wedding rings. She refers to him as Doctor Tar. This may be another cultural difference. Here a man usually lets the woman he is sleeping with call him by his first name. There are some little quirks in the dialogue like this every so often which are most likely due to the subtitling than anything else. The time shifts again to seven days after Tawan was killed. The opening title card warned the after seven days the dead come back for the one they loved; looks like the time is up. After being rejected by Tar Tawan threatened to go to the police about their little side business. Killing her solved a romantic and economic problem all at once. As midnight of the seventh day approaches Tawan comes back as a ghost and uses the dominate personality trait against each of the murderous nurses. For example the materialistic one is attacked and killed by an animated high end hand bag. They each get what is coming to them in a very fitting fashion. Two of the goriest killings are the lesbian twins Am and Orn (Ampairut and Ampaivan Techapuwapat) which brings the surgical saw into real old school use. Tawan’s ghost will remind you of some of the Japanese spirits with long, straight black hair and blank eyes. The difference here is this is one ghost that truly knows how to get the job of revenge does right. Of course the good doctor gets to be last on the ghostly to-do list.

Like many films released to DVD by Magnolia Home Entertainment this one was more than likely not on the radar of a lot of people. This is what they do best, comb the Indy and foreign film markets and bring the most interesting films out on disc. This film will be presented in anamorphic 1.85:1 video which is clean and very well mastered. It will also have Dolby 5.1 sound tracks in both the original Thai and dubbed English. The screener copy provided for preview only had the original language and subtitles so I can’t address the dubbed version. This is one that will make a Thai horror fan out of you. Get it and enjoy.

Posted 03/06/08