Vinyan Movie Review

A vivid example of style over substance, this textured film creates an overwhelming sense of emotion and dread, but never manages to find a point to it all. It merely gives into the grisliness, leaving us shaken and unstirred.

Six months after their son was killed in a tsunami, Janet and Paul (Beart and Sewell) are still living in Phuket nursing their grief. But Janet is convinced that he must be alive and living up-river in Burma, so convinces Paul to fund a desperate expedition. Their first guide (Pankratok) is a bit of a crook, but they soon link with Thaksin (Osthanugrah) and another expat, Kim (Dreyfus). And the further they venture into this strange region, the more bizarre things get.

The title refers to spirits that are trapped between life and death, and this is clearly a reference to Janet and Paul themselves. Their offhanded bitterness is palpable, as is Janet's obsessive longing and Paul's patient yearning to help. And these emotions just get stronger as the story progresses. Soon Janet is a crazed nutcase, dragging them into increasingly dangerous territory.
Frankly, we just wish Paul would leave her to her inner demons. Because we know it can't end well.

Filmmaker Du Welz has a lurid visual sensibility that captures the nightmarish aspects of the settings (and some of the beauty). This is dense and oppressive, but we go with it due to a glimmer of hope on the horizon. As it progresses, though, the parallels with Don't Look Now (parents dealing with grief over a child's death) and Apocalypse Now (voyage upriver into hell) give way to some seriously indulgent filmmaking. And once he abandons the emotional resonance of the premise, Du Welz and his cast are up the creek without a paddle.

Eventually it devolves into a nasty horror movie about a demonic army of jungle vampire children. And while it's deeply creepy and even stomach-churningly gruesome (which is a good thing in a horror film), it's also utterly vacuous without characters we have a connection to or a story with any logic. In the end, the only way to see this is as a symbolic journey into the tortured brains of grieving parents. But by the time we get there, we don't care.