31 Days of Asian Horror: The Medium (2021)

The Medium was probably my most anticipated movie of the year, and luckily Shudder picked it up after it made its festival rounds. The movie was a joint Thai/Korean production, premiering at the Bucheon International Film Festival and released in Korean theaters on July 14th. Directed by Thai director Banjong Pisanthanakun (Shutter), and produced by Korean director Na Hong Jin who is known for the 2016 possession film, The Wailing, it was primed to be a great film.

The Medium follows a documentary crew as they travel to Isan in northeastern Thailand to document the life of a local shaman, Nim (Sawanee Utoomma). While there the crew notices how strange her niece, Ming (Narilya Gulmongkolpech), has been acting and starts to focus their attention on her increasing outbursts and aggression, thinking that they might be witnessing her possession by the spirit of Bayan, an ancestral God that has been possessing women in the family for generations, and who currently inhabits Nim.

We see most of the movie through the lens of the documentary crew, as a pretty polished film. The focus of the film, even when we start to see Ming develop symptoms, is that of the family and their practice and it allowed for an interesting look into the culture of the religion which I think enhanced the viewing. A lot of movies like this get lost culturally when you don’t have any basis on the religion or the practices, and the movie allowed for there to be ‘learning’ points without stopping the momentum. While the movie takes a bit to get to some of the scarier parts, I felt that there was a lot of subtle horror that was slowly worked in well through Nim’s character and seeing her at a loss for what to do and her potential loss of faith. It’s a quiet and uncomfortable scare that is sad as you watched her struggle to figure out why this was happening, and the destruction of her family that has already seen so much.

Narilya’s portrayal of Ming is fantastic throughout the film. Her descent into madness caused by her possession was creepy and naturally intensified as the movie progressed. The moments she’s discussing her despair and the uncertainty about what is going on and the haunting images in her dreams was terrifying and only further was helped as she was able to accurately show the subtle differences when the evil spirit was possessing her and when it was Ming struggling to keep it out.

I really enjoyed the movie and had a combination of moments I look for in my horror. Along with my love of slow quiet burns, the cinematography was gorgeous and the landscape only helped further my immersement in what was going on.

The Medium is currently streaming on Shudder.

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