Square-jawed cop Jake (Wiliam Moseley, Peter from the early-2000s Narnia movies, all grown up) arrives in Bangkok with his wife Prang (Urassaya Sperbund) and moppet daughter Loo (Akeira Hadden) to visit Prang’s mother. Unfortunately for this nuclear family, a demon has broken through on to this earthly realm, its first point of contact right in Bangkok and all hell has quite literally broken loose. Actually the film, which is an adaptation of a computer game (called Home Sweet Home) popular in Thailand, rather dawdles with touristy scenes of Jake, Prang and Loo daytripping around the city, and one has to wonder if some of the production money was put up by a tourism board with its own agenda.
Nevertheless, Jake tries to kill possessed bad guy Mek (Michele Morrone, rather a hoot) in a shopping mall and that’s when it all kicks off. Suddenly, half the population of Bangkok seem possessed and are trying to kill the other half, and Prang and Loo are separated from Jake and must cross the city on a municipal bus as they try to avoid being murdered by the marauding millions. Elsewhere, a ginormous demon made of fire and CGI pixels moves its slow thighs through the urban landscape, a rough beast whose 93 minutes has come round at last in time for the absurd apocalyptic conclusion.
Directors Steffen Hacker and Alexander Kiesl (plus the uncredited screenwriters) throw just about every mythology into the mix, from paganism to Buddhism to a bit of Hollywood horror-movie lore. The end result isn’t pretty, but as genre fare it’s at least energetic and Sperbund contributes a credible performance as Prang, one the film deserves.
• Rebirth: Home Sweet Home is on digital platforms from 14 April, and on DVD and Blu-Ray from 21 April.
