marymorrissey OK 9 stars may be a little high for this movie but I did like it a lot. one that makes you very glad to have it accessible by streaming as who would really bother to rent it "genuinely chilling" at the beginning I did get a genuine chill, I can report, at the first spooky scene.As everybody is saying it's not scary much thereafter, instead it's a tender depiction of a loving relationship between 2 preteens one living the other dead, chaste of course.It was kind of a relief that certain clichés were not used. You get the idea that certain of the peripheral characters will fulfill classic subsidiary roles but they don't in fact. Another plus! Nicely shot, edited, written, acted, cast, costumed and made up. Lovely!

maura-wesen I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I love to watch horror movies but I always dread how they end because most horror movies end with a scary 'it's after you now!' kind of ending. Although this film was listed as horror, I would definitely not categorize it as such. I loved the plot, I just wish it wasn't claiming to be a horror movie. It started off creepy with not even the audience knowing what was going on, as horror movies do, but it came to a peaceful ending with the poor drowned boy finding his resolution as the main character, Ton Chatree, makes peace with his family and especially his father. I very much enjoyed this movie. The only thing that could raise it to a 10 out of 10 would be if the ending had resolved all of the conflicts brought up, rather than just the most important ones. The two other conflicts being that Vichien wasn't the only person who had died on the campus, the cook's pregnant daughter also died, but that wasn't addressed after the beginning. The other conflict was that it was clear Vichien didn't drown by accident, it looked like someone was pulling his right foot down into the water causing him to drown. If this movie was correctly labeled not as a horror movie, and if it wasn't set up as a horror movie in the beginning and then turning into a drama movie instead, this movie would be a lot better.

Scarecrow-88 Chatree(Charlie Trairat) is sent to a boardinghouse for boys due to low grades and his current poor performance in school. Once there, a tight pack tell Chatree ghost stories which set up a terror in his mind which makes nights difficult for him. Adjusting and adapting to his new environment will prove difficult and uneasy, but Chatree soon makes at least one friend who starts up a conversation with him.DORM might be a bit too sappy and sad for some horror fans wanting edgy and visceral thrills because the filmmakers care about their little protagonist and his situation. They want us to sympathize with his predicament, but understand the father's reasons for his actions. Due to bad grades, his disapproving father sends Chatree to a boarding school hoping his boy will wise up and straighten himself out for the better. We have a dinner table memory where Chatree is informed that he would be "sent away", left by his parents in an institution where all the boys sleep in cots next to each other, washing themselves in the same bathroom. After ghost stories, told to him by a group of boys hoping to frighten him, leave Chatree terrified to urinate, resulting in peeing in his cot, the kid is tormented by his fellow students, a laughingstock. The school's master, Miss Pranee(Chintara Sukapatana), has an air of mystery about her(seemingly anguished about something we later learn has to do with a death, a record player stuck in a place during a key moment of a song symbolizing the chief problem later revealed) and we wonder if there is a ghost is roaming the halls at night, whether one of the stories regarding tragedy is in fact true. The culprit which led to Chatree being placed in the school is television. But, honestly, we see that this place really isn't as terrible as it first seems and the boys aren't imprisoned or oppressed, but have freedoms outside the classroom. Chatree finally finds a friendly companion in Vichien(Sirachuch Chienthaworn) who also seems to be desiring a buddy to hang out with, the two bonding, a revelation potentially shattering their camaraderie. DORM is less a spookshow as it is a melodrama involving a ghost who no one else sees other than Chatree. Is Vichien an imaginary friend, or is he a ghost who desperately longs for a pal in Chatree? We see that Chatree avoids his father as much as possible, not taking phone calls from pops who has guilt over his decision to leave the boy at the school. Probably the most memorable scene to me is the eerie image of a laboratory full of dissected rabbits used for scientific purposes. Another haunting recurrence shows a helpless Chatree having to watch a relived drowning of Vichien. I think DORM will receive the stigma of "generic" for attaining the "restless repeated cyclical event of a ghost's demise" plot as it pertains to why the spirit still remains active where he died in the past. There's an interesting character named Nui(a sullen kid, kind of creepy, nicknamed "Dr. Nui" by his friends)who tells Chatree he was witness to a motorcycle crash resulting in a death which continued every night the same time the driver was ejected and killed after speeding around a corner too fast. Nui informs Chatree that the spirit of the dead needs to be reborn or else the pattern goes on and on for infinity..Nui says that you must free your spirit from the body in order to help the restless ghost become unborn. So Chatree may just follow his "instructions" so that Vichien can have peace. Still, a storyline about friendship transcending life and death may be a bit syrupy(the score designed to tug on the heartstrings) for some onryo fans hoping for more scares and ghoulish shenanigans. If you like movies about a kid growing up during a term in a brand new location using the supernatural as a means to further the story, then DORM might just be for you.

poe426 It's all too rare to find a fright film (or a "supernatural drama") that offers up anything new. That's okay: it's like watching a western (or any other genre film); certain conventions are a given. It's often what's done within those parameters that makes a movie interesting. THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE was built according to specs, but managed nonetheless to surprise pleasantly; as did DON'T LOOK NOW; as does DORM. The loneliness of the lead character and his acceptance of his ectoplasmic pal is just one of the pleasant surprises here. That the little dead boy is afraid of ghosts himself is just icing on the ectoplasmic cake. A funny and moving (and spooky) little movie, DORM rates a look.