HBO’s Folklore: The Great Wall of Horror watches Pob (episode 4)
By Devin Shea
In another installment of The Great Wall of Horror, we may our way to Thailand for another episode of HBO’s Folklore to learn of their ghostly visitors.
It has been a minute but The Great Wall of Horror is back again with another episode of the hit HBO series Folklore. For those that haven’t heard of the show yet, Folklore is a six-episode series featuring a different Asian country and a different superstition or legend. So far, the episodes have been scary, emotional and extremely well done. In this episode, we travel to Thailand for the episode “Pob.”
“Pob” is directed by Pan-Ek Ratanaruang and stars Nuttapon Sawasdee, Thomas Burton von Blarcom, and Parama Wutthikornditsakul. The story follows a blogger. His mother is very ill and hospitalized. He struggles to keep up with the hospital bills with his job reporting on crimes.
When an American living in Thailand is murdered, he is called to the crime scene for photography. While photographing the property, he comes upon a Pob, a ravenous ghost in Thai culture. The Pob confesses to murdering the American and tells his story to the reporter. When Pob wants his story published, the reporter tells him that if he does, he will be ostracized by the writing community, but makes him a deal that neither of them can refuse.
Image courtesy of HBO
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This is an episode that sticks out in the series but not necessarily for all good reasons. I am a fan of Thai horror (we went over Pee Mak in an earlier installment) but ‘Pob” is strange. This episode of Folklore was shot almost completely in black and white. Comparative to the episodes so far, this one is VERY slow.
Literally nothing happened in the first five minutes of the episode except a moving shot. The acting of the Thai actors were really good but the American actor left a lot to be desired. Now, there was a level of humor and lots of funny moments, so parts of me wonder if the bad acting was a purposeful choice or maybe it was good old fashioned bad acting.
Regardless of the acting quality and the slow moments, “Pob” was still an enjoyable episode of Folklore. It was nice delving into Thai superstition in a serious way while it kept distinct bits of humor that is so common in Asian horror. Check back in to 1428 Elm for the next Great Wall of Horror and episode five of Folklore, Malaysian “Toyol.”
If you missed the first episodes, they were “A Mother’s Love,” “Tatami,” and “Nobody.”
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Have you been watching Folklore? What’s your favorite episode so far? Let us know in the comments!