School Tales - The series: the real horror for teenagers is bullying and social media

School Tales - The series

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Teen horror, the main genre of the American film summer, and Thai horror marry happily in School Tales: The Series, an anthology of fear from today on Netflix. Eight episodes, directed by a handful of local filmmakers specializing in the genre, focusing on the themes of social media and bullying in the school environment, and inspired by urban legends and folklore, are ideal for a thrilling weekend to pass in front of the screen while the night is crossed by violent summer storms.

In the first story, 7am, a student is forced by his classmates to go to school at dawn to photograph the blackboard in their classroom, on which, every morning, a vengeful spirit writes the name of a subject: who he will forget the text, he will be kidnapped by the ghost and forgotten by the rest of the class. In Vengeful Spell, a student jealous of another finds a malignant box capable of causing hallucinations and a horrible death to the victims whose name is written under her foot. In Beautiful, an ugly girl becomes beautiful in one night by magic, throwing the beauty of the school into despair. In The book of Corpses, a librarian reveals to a student victim of cruel companions the existence of a diary where the stories written there come true. In Headless Teacher, a couple of students help their teacher's revived corpse find their decapitated head. In Lunch, a high school student obsessed with social media popularity reveals live video that the canteen cook makes a delicious soup with horrifying ingredients. In Curse, three repeaters force a nerd to risk his life to have a wish granted by a ghost nurse. In A Walk in School, a young streamer with a skeleton in the closet ventures to school at night to prove that all the previous stories are nonsense.

School Tales: The series harks back to J-horror, ai manga (the anthology itself is taken from comics) of horror schools - and at the Japanese cinema of the early millennium based on the stories of spirits of revenge. But it is also yet another example, in television version, of the thriving and exciting Thai horror cinema which in recent years has produced dozens and dozens of films of some success also in the West (the example of Shutter, the ghost movie on the ghost perched on the shoulders of its victims). Or like Inhuman Kiss, a youthful love story centered on the legend of the krasue, a female ghost whose head - complete with trachea and internal organs in tow - detaches from the body at night to wander in search of victims.

Beautiful

JUKRIN KONGDON / NETFLIX And ​​just one of these desperate creatures appears in one of the stories, one of the many characters inspired by the joint folklore of Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia, or the countries of Southeast Asia that delight horror fans with tasty films full of magic and desire for revenge. All the stories, except Headless Teacher, which we will discuss separately, keep the same register and the same thread (the victim - dead or alive - who rebels against his tormentors, or the student obsessed with social networks and the popularity that come punished for their own megalomania). The directors, all veterans of horror cinema, have changed, such as Mike Phontharis Chotkijsadarsopon (Pee Nak), James Thanadon Nuansut (The Unborn Child), Songsak Mongkolthong (The Unborn) and Tum Puttipong Saisrikew of Art of Devil 2. The style remains fairly homogeneous; half of the narrative is dedicated to action and fear and the other half to social criticism, just like in recent Korean teen horror films like We're Not Alive and Home Sweet Home.

There is none of these stories that make you die of fear, but neither is anyone that leaves you indifferent. Hallucinated, supergory, they materialize the monsters generated by the psyche as well as those that really inhabit the classrooms of the schools. Often morbid and perverse, they also know how to be melancholy. disheartened, victims abandoned to themselves who could have been saved if their pain had not drowned in absolute indifference. There are no free jumpscare in School Tales, every scary moment is measured out and for every scene that leaves fear to suggestion, there is another that lingers in well-splattered and vivid representations.

School Tales The Series. (L to R) Waratthip Kittisiripaisan as Ping, Pingpong Thongchai Thongkanthom as Teacher Waiwan, Punnavich Pattanasiri as Tim in episode “The Headless Teacher” of School Tales The Series. Cr. Jukrin Kongdon / Netflix © 2022 JUKRIN KONGDON / NETFLIX A separate speech must be made for Headless Teacher by Phontharis Chotkijsadarsopon, a hilarious, bizarre, and tender story that suggests a vehement passion of the director for the more light-hearted works of Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson , by Stuart Gordon and Don Coscarelli through Edgar Wright. A massive, masculine-looking teacher played by comedian Thongchai "Pingpong" Thongkanthom has the air of a sergeant but is actually an upright and friendly person with a protective attitude towards his students. Two of them are haunted by his beheaded corpse until they search for the missing part, resulting in a series of bizarre situations. Headless Teacher also finds time to parody other Thai popular genres, starting with the highly exported BL (“Boy Love”). It is the only story with a happy ending and the one that alone would be worth the vision of School Tales: The series. We are looking forward to a second season.