The Horror Show
The Noise
by Adrian Teh
Ghost stories are universal and every culture has them. Tales of haunted houses permeate our imagination. There are even YouTube channels dedicated to investigating ghost stories. Everybody loves a good ghost story, and The Noise is a good ghost story.
The Noise is a fantastic film from Malaysia about love, betrayal, death, and letting go. Le Ren and his girlfriend, Min Min, move into this picturesque old house in the suburbs. The life they have there is perfect. If they only knew that the house was not as empty as they thought.
The movie does something really cool to give you the backstory of why the ghost is there. It's told with some beautiful animation in the opening of the film. We are told the story of the little boy who loves playing with his bag of marbles and his abusive mother. When she is shunned by the men in her life she blames her son, locks him away in a cupboard, and then hangs herself. The boy dies alone, locked away, destined to haunt the house for eternity, always looking for someone to play with.
Le Ren is the one who releases the spirit of the boy by opening the cupboard. The boy then targets Le Ren with all his ghost shenanigans until Le Ren confronts him. All the boy says is “Play with me.” Le Ren tells him he will if he promises not to hurt Min Min.
I don't want to tell too much of the story of Le Ren & Min Min because there is a crazy twist in the middle of the film. It was kind of sudden, but it worked and made the second half of The Noise really interesting.
The Noise is very dramatic, which can be kinda cheesy at times, but I contribute this to cultural differences. The music swells like a soap opera when the couple are being romantic and the strings are loud and jarring when the scares happen. It's almost like a Greek chorus.
The effects were okay. The ghosts are really odd at first, but you do get used to them. Matter of fact, there is a really cool overlay that they put over the ghosts that is like a double exposure. It's a great touch that redeems the silliness of the way they look.
I am a huge fan of most foreign horror. This is the first time I've checked out a horror movie from Malaysia. I think I will be searching out even more. If you can look past the cheesy parts, The Noise really is a great ghost story that keeps you enthralled until the end. It's a lot of fun.
Robin Thompson, HMS
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