The Medium Quicktake: Disturbing, Atmospheric, and Way Too Long
No movie this year had me all in and then all out like The Medium. As much as I enjoyed the film early on, I wanted to jump ship 90-minutes in.
Banjong Pisanthanakun’s supernatural tale has plenty going for it, so I see why some people love this movie to death. But some questionable decisions behind the camera squander The Medium’s potential, ruining what could have been one of 2021’s horror gems.
The Medium is a quasi-found footage horror flick taking place in northeast Thailand. I say quasi because despite using the found footage format the movie is scored like a standard horror movie. Dark brooding music queues chime in as events unfold, which breaks the illusion we’re watching actual found footage.
The story starts out as a documentary about the spiritual practices of the Islan people. We’re introduced to a humble seamstress named Nim (Sawanee Utoomma). Nim is a type of supernatural custodian; her body is the vessel for an ancient deity called Bayan, a protector of her people.
This honour is passed down through the women in Nim’s family. The responsibility fell on Nim after her older sister Noi (Sirani Yankittikan) refused to take on the role. When Noi’s daughter Mink (Narilya Gulmongkolpech) starts showing strange behaviour, Nim realizes her niece is possessed by a spirit. However, the sibling feud between Nim and Noi prevents the young woman from getting the treatment she needs.
Knowing they have documentary gold on their hands, the camera crew shifts their focus to Mink as she slowly succumbs to dark supernatural forces.
The Medium starts off strong in the first hour and then loses its marbles in the final act. What’s most frustrating is that Pisanthanakun’s film has all the right elements for a fun possession flick. But he doesn’t stick the landing.
The film looks fantastic, and its spooky cinematography is the real star of the show. DP Naruphol Chokanapitak’s foreboding shots of misty forests, shadow-filled rooms, and deserted streets will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. When you add Chatchai Pongprapaphan’s eerie score, The Medium has all the right tools to scare viewers senseless. Despite my mixed feelings about the film, make no mistake, it’s creepier and more disturbing than most of the horror films released this year.
The Medium’s main problem is its 130-minute runtime. A horror film clocking in over two hours isn’t an issue if the story warrants it – The Shining is 146-minutes). But that’s not the case here. Instead, the film feels padded out, like a student throwing extra words into their essay to hit a word count. All that added screen time drags out the story and saps the tension out of the final act.
Late in the film, when Mink’s condition worsens, The Medium turns into a Paranormal Activity knockoff. The camera crew place night vision cameras in Mink’s home and capture her wandering around doing terrifying shit.
And then the same thing happens again the next night and the next night. It gets tedious. Showing us Mink lurking around night after night desensitizes us to the possession’s shock factor.
The choice to use the found footage format also makes the movie less scary. Found footage horror flicks work best when they feel grounded in the real world. They expertly blur the line between the film world and our reality.
The trick is to use the genre’s lo-fi look and feel to mask the fakery onscreen. That means shooting in low light, using pixelated footage, and shaking the camera around to keep the mysterious thing out of focus.
In The Medium, the camera often holds on Mink far too long, which broke my suspension of disbelief. Her demonic grin and devilish eyes lose their menace the longer the camera focuses on her. These moments go from disturbing to silly in a blink of an eye, destroying the illusion. Mink transforms from a possessed character to a committed actress making silly faces.
I have split feelings about The Medium because I had such a great time watching it early on. But the final hour destroyed all that goodwill. I kept checking my watch over the last 45-minutes. I can’t give a movie a positive score when I spend the final act wanting it to be over.
However, I get why some people will love the final half-hour. Whereas The Medium’s first hour is a slow burn, reminiscent of The Wailing and Midsommar, it eventually shifts gears and slams the pedal to the metal. By the end, The Medium becomes a whole other animal, borrowing heavily from Paranormal Activity, Rec, Impetigore, and 28 Days Later. Considering how the film begins, by the end, all I could think was, “Well, that escalated quickly.”
The Medium features intense performances, haunting cinematography, and a disturbing atmosphere, but I lost patience the more the story overextended itself. Poor pacing and too many demonic possession movie cliches bleed the thrills out of this joyfully bleak supernatural thriller.
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