Michael Ledo
This is a Thai film. Like a Bollywood production, Thai believes 2 hours is the proper length for a film, not 90 minutes. The characters are built and rather slowly. Thai films also like bright colors, this one goes a little easy.Mr. T is our main character. He is carefully preparing a house in an upscale community for his family to move into. He works for Empire Supplements, a multilevel marketing company. He has had a few good months and believes his boss when he tells him about the company's bright future. He has a supporting wife, a 14 year old daughter who hated leaving Bangkok, and a younger son.The story is not about the ghost, but about this particular family and how the ghost effects their life. The events are triggered when a young Burmese maid is found locked in a refrigerator with her face cut in half. We really know nothing about the ghost(s), their motive, why they are there, or how close is the nearest Indian burial. It is about the disruptive nature of the ghost on the family.The special effects are light and consists of shadows, rapidly moving figures, and now you see it, now you don't type of stuff. It appears the women gossip as much in the Buddhist temple as American women do in church. They don't hire Mexican help, but Burmese.The ending of the film, which was one I didn't see coming, doesn't give you any closure about the ghosts.PARENTAL GUIDE: No F-bombs, sex, or nudity. The "S" word was used.
lojitsu
A-Z Horror Movie of the Day..."Ladda Land" (NR - 2011 - Thai)Genre: Paranormal/PsychoMy Score: 6.9Cast=4 Acting=8 Plot=7 Ending=8 Story=8 Scare=4 Jump=5 F/X=7 Creep=9 Psycho=9When a family moves an upscale housing development with beautiful homes, they discover life in their new neighborhood isn't so perfect when they encounter a series of terrifying, paranormal events that drives the family to the edge of insanity.This movie is so deep that you might not get it the first time around. It plays like a regular ghost story, but there is a whole other aspect that really made it interesting. It's a bit of a slow burn...more dramatic than terrifying. But this Thai film is not one to pass up if you like any type of Asian horror. It's a decent to madness that I was happy to watch!!
symbolman
And by pure horror a mean Thai horror - the master and king and ruler of them all horrors! This movie and/or story is for all you horror and suspense fans. It's also for all you drama fans and family love fans. And, last but not least: No electric special effects, no animations, only some masks.The story is pretty simple. A mid-young (over thirty) husband and father of two moves the family from Bangkok to another city in a nice suburban area called Laddaland. The area is, of course, guarded and fenced - a typical artificial "safe" place.He is the only employed member of their family with somehow steady job that allowed him this move in a first place (mortgage,wife not employed anymore).One day, brutally mutilated body of a young girl is found in one of the houses in the neighborhood, and soon after that, strange things begin to happen and the story slowly begin to unravel. But, the more we go in to the scary minutes and hours of the movie, the more is the story overflown with personal grief, money problems, job loses, anger, personal depression, lack of acknowledgment and LOVE. We start to see that it's all just one horror story, here and now, and they are the only ones that can say NO to it.And the less they resist the more they are drawn in to the world of depression, sadness and hate.All the ghost that are scaring are just the modern alternative to Zombies:"The ghosts of Capitalism!" As I said, this is a movie that uses RAW power to remind us about the current situation in the world is already exactly like in this movie, except without ghosts. If you don't call beggars and homeless Ghosts....I highly, highly recommend it! PSIt's more Drama then Horror ;)
poe426
LADDALAND is yet another example of why Asian fright films are so vastly superior to American "horror movies." In this one, things seen and unseen, as well as things heard and unheard, combine to create the kind of all-important mood that is most often missing from U.$. movies. Here, we have a heavy-handed head of household whose dysfunctional family lives in one of those gated communities where it's easy to become "walled-in." There's a cat-cam and the wandering ghost of a murdered maid and a chilling game of hide-and-seek with a kid who turns out to be dead. As mentioned, the mood is sustained throughout (this is one of the most riveting movies I've seen in a while) and the ending is at once poignant and shocking. If you're looking for a solid fright film that delivers on all levels, look no further.
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