This
is a terrifying film from Thailand. It exists in a world where raw
terror mingles with everyone's fear of the unknown. Here is the story
of a reality television show set in the ruins of the Cambodian Death
Camp 3-11, a prison in Khmer Rouge where a sadistic commander was
responsible for torturing and killing thousands of people during the
Cambodian War (1975-79). Eleven contestants
are thrown together in this dangerously absurd version of Big
Brother. The competition is simple: the contestant who stays
longest in the camp wins 5 million baht (US 130,000), the most ever
offered on a Thai game show. Of course, the show’s staff have
set up cheeky traps to scare the participants, but something else
is stirring in the shadows, something very deadly.
In truly sick
fashion, the live television show gives the contestants the uniforms
of long-deceased victims and they sleep in beds of the prisoners who
were slaughtered in the genocide. It is a grim concept but the idea
of this game is solid, despite being horribly disrespectful. On one
hand here is a genuinely scary horror film, but on the other it is
callous exploitation.
Imagine if a season
of Survivor took place inside Auschwitz Concentration
Camp. The backlash would be over-whelming. This film caused a huge
controversy when Cambodian officials accused the producers of "treating
the Cambodian genocide as a business opportunity and dealing with
the Khmer Rouge Death Camp 3-11 with insensitivity." The film
was banned in Cambodia. The producers, Karun Kumanuwong and Pantham
Thongsang, made a public apology but the movie was released on schedule
throughout Asia. Protest was swift and intense, causing distributors
to pull the film from theaters in the middle of the third week.
The eleven contestants in the movie were all real-life former contestants
from the first season of Academy Fantasia, a popular
RealityTV show in Thailand.
A Thai film with English subtitles;
uncut (100 mins)
widescreen format, DVDs encoded for ALL REGION NTSC,
playable on any American DVD machine.
Extras include original theatrical trailer.
Graphic
Violence/Gore/Drugs/Sexual Situations
For Mature Audiences
