If you haven’t seen the awesomeness that is 4BIA, then I’m sorry. Your life is surely lacking. 4BIA comes from Thailand, and is (shockingly!) 4 tales of horror, each from pretty great directors, including Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom (the original Shutter and Alone). What are the four tales about?
1. Loneliness (by Youngyoot Tongkontund)
Loneliness can cause a young girl to do stupid things, like a working girl in Loneliness. She’s lonely, unemployed and heartbroken. At this point, she’s on edge when receiving an unknown text message asking for her friendship. She starts communicating with the anonymous sender. Will she be regretting after finding out who he is?
2. Deadly Charm (by Paween Purijidpanya)
Imagine a childish payback like write a joke about your friend’s parents on the blackboard. Then imagine a payback of vocational schoolboys who curse people they hate on a deadly charm. Let’s see how excruciating these curses will bring to the table.
3. The Middle Man (by Banjong Pisanthanakun)
A group of teenagers is camping in the wood. They think it’ll be fun to tell a scary story while mocking what a character will act in the horror movies. Unfortunately, the mystic ghosts they encounter are those that go against the grain of traditional rules in horror films.
4. Last Fright (by Parkpoom Wongpoom)
This chapter presents the mixture of phobia. It’s an inappropriate flight for anyone with claustrophobia, nyctophobia, fear of noise, fear of air pressure, and fear of corpses. All terror is waiting for one unlucky air hostesses who will face this alone.
Continue reading more about 4BIA and it’s SEQUEL after the jump!
What I like most about the original is it’s good mix of humor in some tales, gore in others, and outright horror in the rest. It’s a great film if you can seek it out (Amazon has it for 10 bucks, but be leery – make sure the import has English subtitles).
Anyway, the purpose of me telling you all this is because, thanks to the awesome dudes at 24Framespersecond, we just received word that 4BIA is getting a sequel!
More great news coming out of Cannes, for Asian horror fans. Thai studio GMM have revealed at the fest they’re plans for a sequel to last years hit horror anthology Phobia (aka 4bia). The follow up will again be a Portmanteau Horror compilation featuring different segments, helmed by a who’s who of top Thai horror movie making talent – including: Banjong Pisanthanakun (Shutter), Paween Purijitpanya (Body), Songyos Sugmakanan (Dorm), and Parkpoom Wongpoom (Shutter, Alone). No word yet on any of the plotlines, but the film is planned for release in September, 09. Straight onto the must see list for that then.
I’m assuming it’s already filming because, ya know, September is only 4 months away.
Check out the trailer for the original 4BIA below! Oh, and 4BIA is supposed to stand for “Phobia.” I know, I know…