The Cursed Land (film)

The Cursed Land (แดนสาป, ) is a 2024 Thai supernatural horror film starring Ananda Everingham, Bront Palarae, Jennis Oprasert and Seeda Puapimon.

Plot summary
Mit, a chief factory engineer moves with his teenage daughter May to two-story ancient wooden house in Nong Chok, a Muslim-majority suburb of Bangkok. His wife had just died due to his carelessness. This made him feel deeply guilty and often had headaches for no apparent reason. From the first day he moved in, Mit felt alienated and distrustful of the locals, which they only said he can renovate this house. But do not move or throw away anything from the house.

One of those people is Heem, a Muslim man who often prowls in front of the house in an untrustworthy manner. A thorough sceptic, Mit gets rid of the talismans in the house, defying the warnings of the locals, and in the process unleashes vengeful djinns and its 200-year-old curse.

Cast

 * Ananda Everingham as Mit, 40-year-old widower
 * Bront Palarae as Heem, Muslim man looks suspicious. In fact, he is a black magic practitioner from the deep south
 * Jennis Oprasert as May, Mit's only 19-year-old daughter, an architecture student
 * Seeda Puapimon as Zainab, an old Muslim shawoman who lives alone in the jungle hut in the deep south
 * Priya Sangkhachinda as Yah, May's friend, a local Muslim nice girl
 * Firdaus Karim as Kadir, a Malay war slave who was forcibly taken from the Patani Kingdom during the beginning of Bangkok (Rattanakosin era), to dig the canal Khlong Saen Saep in the area currently Nong Chok. He died unjustly and was cursed with vengeance, causing all the horror stories
 * Han Zalini as Mud, another Malay war slave was the cause of horror stories here

Production and release
The Cursed Land is set in the rainforests of Malaya Peninsula. It was filmed in a real location in the Baha-Hala Forestland, Narathiwat Province in lower southern Thailand, which is the border with Malaysia. The house is assumed to be Mit and May's new home was filmed at Ban Khiao (บ้านเขียว,, "green house"), a real ancient wooden house that is famous for being a haunted house in Ayutthaya Province.

When the film releases a trailer and poster to promote it. It appears to be ghostly Muslim women in prayer clothes. There is criticism that this is an insult to Islam. The producer has denied this and has issued a written clarification.

It is the second film about superstition and supernatural beings among Muslims after The Djinn's Curse, which was released in November 2023, making them rare content in the Thai film industry. Panu Aree, the director and co-writer is also a Muslim.

The film releases domestically on July 11, 2024, and has been shown at several international film festivals such as International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in the Netherlands, Ho Chi Minh City International Film Festival in Vietnam, Asian Film Festivals in Italy, Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) in South Korea, and New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) in USA.

Facebook Jubphitnang criticized that "It's like they're taking us into a haunted house, the Muslim version of The Conjuring".