Hell (2005)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Highly Overrated But Still Good

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Usually Thai movies are good and of enjoyable character, but of course every now and then a wide swing and even wider miss will be made. "Hell" (aka "Narok") was one such movie.The story is about a group of people who are in an accident and end up in Hell because of their sins and behavior. Yep, that's right! Some parts of the scenes in Hell were good, but in overall this movie was just too much of a snoozefest and offered very little entertainment.The acting in the movie was adequate, although it is nowhere near impressive. It was as to be expected of a movie such as this.The movie has an appropriate title, because it was Hell getting through it, and a constant struggle not to get up and find another movie to watch.I wasted my time and money on this movie, so you don't have to. And now the DVD will just land on the DVD shelf to fade into oblivion, never to be watched again.

Being a huge fan of Thailand horror films and watching the trailer for this I decided to pick it up. I don't want to say it was a mistake but I will say it was not worth my money. The problem with this movie was the story. It drove on and on with the same concept and got pretty tedious after the first 30 minutes. The plot pretty much goes like this.. A couple of kids and some old man are driving in the night their car gets hit, the people go to hell, they're tortured and beaten, one of them becomes an asshole and they decide it's times to get out of hell. If I had known this before going to pick up the DVD I would have never gotten it because it does not sound so different from many horror films using extreme gore to appeal to audiences.One thing I found really awkward was the fact that most the male demons were dark skinned. Now if you're not from Thailand you probably don't know that in Thailand right now people of a lighter skin completion are taken more seriously then people of dark skin. They're also thought to be more attractive which is why the actors are typically always light skinned. Now to me I found this to be discriminatory. I'm not saying they purposely did that but I would have preferred it if there were some light skinned demons in the movie.. Other then those very sexy female demons who obviously were only there to add some steam it..The visuals were great! I absolutely loved the scenery and the effects. I enjoyed the fact that Hell does not look to far apart from earth. Kind makes you a little more creeped out, well maybe just me. No complaints for me on this matter..Now like I said, I am not going to say this movie was a mistake to pick up because even though it was not great it was actually enjoyable to watch for the first 30 minutes but I will say that if you are indecisive about putting that last 5 bucks on gas or on renting this movie then turn that money into an ozone killer because it really is not worth it.5 out of 10 from me.

A group of friends are critically injured after their van is involved in a head-on collision with a lorry. While doctors attempt to save their lives, the souls of these unfortunate crash victims are prematurely sent to hell where they suffer torment and torture according to how sinful they were during their lives.Two of the group are judged to be sin-free, and are allowed to skip the nasty stuff and proceed straight to reincarnation. But being the good souls that they are, they pass up on the chance of rebirth and instead set off to rescue their pals.Not a bad concept, but with a dreary script in which characters endlessly stumble from one part of Hell to another (whilst being chased by demons that look like reject Orcs from Middle Earth), this film quickly becomes repetitive and rather boring, despite some interesting visuals and a fair smattering of quite nasty gore. What could have been a wild ride of horror (especially if there had been a bigger budget, to avoid settling for sub-par CGI effects), ends up as a rather weak adventure film which is dragged down further by its clumsy morality.Worth seeing for its occasionally impressive visions of 'the hot place' and often gratuitously nasty scenes of torture, Hell is passable entertainment that tries hard to impress, but one can't help wonder what a more accomplished group of film-makers would have made of the whole 'escape from Hell' idea.

I liked this movie. The plot is pretty stupid but the atmosphere and "beautiful" landscapes from hell make it worth watching. Oh... and the torture scenes too hehehe. The hell looks great and the demons and other monsters look convincing enough. Naturally the devil and the demons with horns and cloven hoofs from western tradition are replaced with monsters from thai folklore (i think). The devil looks like a bloated samurai, and the demons like thai-uruk-hai. But it doesn't matter because they look pretty cool. Fans of Asian fantasy/horror movies will like this movie, but if you're not into Asian movies you'll probably would enjoy Lord of the Rings (or Willow) more. Narok is not a masterpiece, but it's a movie worth watching. It's a great movie to watch when you're having a hangover as we say in Finland.