Death House starts with two sisters arriving at an isolated family property, expecting to deal with the kind of personal and family problems that probably seem manageable compared with what is waiting inside the house, but that changes pretty quickly when strange things begin happening and one of the sisters starts behaving in increasingly disturbing ways – the house has a history, the family has secrets, and before long it becomes clear that whatever is happening here is connected to something much older than their arrival.
There Is Something Very Wrong With This House
The two sisters arrive at the remote property only to find themselves trapped in a situation that becomes increasingly difficult to explain, which turns into something much more sinister as the house begins affecting their perception of what is real – one sister appears to undergo a disturbing transformation, taking on increasingly demonic and inhuman characteristics, while the other becomes desperate to understand what is actually happening.
There is also a much bigger secret underneath all of this, involving their family history and an ancient evil connected to the property, so this isn’t simply a case of two people wandering into a haunted house and discovering a ghost – there appears to be a direct connection between the people trapped inside and whatever has been living there.
Trailer
Mak Pichjuli Makes His Feature Debut
Death House is directed by Mak Pichjuli, who also brings together Dy PanhaVimealea and Sothearith Pen in the two credited leading roles – the film was produced and distributed by Sastra Film, one of the Cambodian companies that has been particularly active in pushing local horror into cinemas.
The film is also remarkably short by current horror standards, running at around 80 minutes according to Cambodian cinema listings.
A House With a History
One of the more appealing things about the film is that the horror appears to be connected to family history rather than simply being a random haunting, which gives the house a slightly different role, as there seems to be a reason this particular family is involved, with the property’s history and the family’s past becoming increasingly difficult to separate.
The supernatural threat also appears to involve an ancient malice, which will give the film a more traditional folklore-inspired foundation while still allowing it to play with psychological horror and physical transformation.
That combination is probably where the film could get particularly dark.
Small Runtime, Big Nightmare
At around 80 minutes, Death House doesn’t appear interested in hanging around forever, which could be a real advantage here because the premise is straightforward enough that it doesn’t need endless exposition.
The images from the trailer also suggest that the film isn’t relying entirely on invisible ghosts and people hearing mysterious noises in corridors, as there appears to be some proper creature and transformation work involved, particularly with the sister who begins displaying those disturbing changes.
And with Sastra Film continuing to put Cambodian horror into cinemas, this is another local production worth keeping an eye on rather than assuming the only interesting Southeast Asian horror is coming from Thailand or Indonesia.
Check out some more Cambodian horror movies.
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