Moviemov Italian Film Festival revisits Thai horror

Paween and Banjong in action, promoting Italian cinema in Bangkok.

Returning for its third edition, the Moviemov Italian Film Festival again offers an unusual mix of award-winning contemporary and classic Italian movies with a handful of Thai flicks thrown in.

Part of the Italian Festival in Thailand, the Moviemov fest this year pays tribute to director Ettore Scola with a retrospective of his work, mostly commedia all'italiana (Italian-style comedies), from the 1960s to the '90s.

The Italian Showcase of films from the past year or so includes the latest by such directors as Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty) and Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore (The Best Offer). It also features work by three up-and-coming young female directors, Francesca Comencini with A Special Day, Maria Sole Tognazzi's Viaggio sola and Elisa Fuksas with Nina.

And, owing to the record-setting box-office success of GTH’s ghost comedy Pee Mak Phra Khanong, the Moviemov fest's Thai Showcase will feature three more hit horrors from the GTH studio, Alone, Body and Phobia 2.

Here's the line-up of the Thai Showcase:

• July 27, 6.30pm, Alone (แฝด, Faed), 2007 – Director pair Banjong Pisanthanakhun and Parkpoom Wongpoom followed up their 2004 hit Shutter with this thriller about a formerly conjoined twin haunted by her dead sister. Marsha Wattanapanich stars in a dual role.
• July 27, 8pm, Phobia 2 (ห้าแพร่ง, Haa Phrang), 2009 – Paween Purijitpanya, Visute Poolvoralaks, Songyos Sugmakanan, Parkpoom and Banjong each take turns telling short horror stories, with karma catching up to a misbehaving novice monk and a dishonest car saleswoman. A hospital patient has a frightful night in a shared ward while young backpackers hitch a ride that turns terrifying. Finally, Marsha turns up in a parody of her Alone role in a comic segment about a scared film crew.
• July 28, 8.30pm, Body (ศพ 19, Body Sop 19), 2007 – Paween directs this stylishly gory thriller about a college student (Arak Amornsupasiri) who has visions of a ghostly woman who appears to have been dismembered and put back together.

The Moviemov Italian Film Festival is open to the public from Thursday July 25 until Sunday July 28 at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld. Movies will be screened with English and Thai subtitles. Admission is free, so give yourself plenty of time to stand in line beforehand to collect your freebie tickets. For more details, visit the festival website.