School Tales the Series (2022)

The horror of mediocre writing and directing.

If these directors are thought to be skilled in the art of scaring audiences, Thai horror has a long way to go…

7AM and Vengeful Spell - 4.5/10
These two are one and the same - extremely similar in all aspects: theme, writing, directing, the atmosphere, ending...
Both had a weird mix of cheap ghost horror, bullying and teen romance, all not blended well.

Beautiful - 8.5/10
Easily the best episode out of them all. It had a low-key modern dark fairy tale vibe to it with the way the scenes were shot and the music choice. It also focused more on the individual characters and not pointless drama between teens. There was still some rivalry between girls, but it was "smaller" and more realistic in terms of motivation. To put it simply - it made sense.

It also has quite a statement behind all the "silly horror" - how beauty standards and social pressure can truly mess up a young girl and how far she would be willing to go, to fit in and achieve what is thought to be the success.

Songsak Mongkolthong - you did a good job both directing and writing wise!
The effects were really good too. Minimalistic for most part - great choice. Put all the heavy work in the last few scenes - great choice. Proper use of practical effects for most shots - great choice.

The Book of Corpses - 6.5/10
Best part of this episode? Acting from Orn and the overall visuals. For sure one of the "prettiest" episodes (excluding special effects). The story was kind of basic and how it was shown was not exactly engaging.
The more they showed the supernatural, the more ridiculous and over the top it got. And cheap... And gross… One scene was just... unnecessary. Special effects, there was legit just one moment that looked good, and I'm sure practical effects had a lot to do with it

The Headless Teacher - 2.5/10
It was 40 minutes of a bullshit over the top slapstick horror comedy with bullshit plot, to end with pedophilia and sexual harassment of students.
Easily the worst of all episodes. This one I don’t even want to talk about. It was borderline offensive, distasteful at best.

Lunch - 5/10
When the episode opens with the main dude being a complete asshole, I kind of lose interest in watching in fear he might actually NOT die by the end. Ton being bad at acting did not help, I wanted the character dead even faster.
This could have been a lot better if they set up the plot twist in any way. They spilled the story with an opening shot, so there was no surprise later.

Curse - 7/10
By the time I got to this episode, I can’t be sure if it’s decent, or my standards just hit rock bottom. One thing I know for a fact - it was pretty and had a good atmosphere, even though the design of the nurse was mediocre.
Yes, the story was nothing new - the bullied student seeks revenge with the help of a ghost, just to get screwed at the end himself. We all know it, but at least it was presented well. Fiat’s good acting helped a lot to sell it too.

A Walk in School - 7.5/10
I think I need someone to explain the timeline for me, because it makes no sense.
That said, except for the confusing ending, it was fun. Had some simple ghost stories vibe, with low-key comedy. The dynamics between the non-believer Boys and believer Tum were great.
The emotional ending felt flat, but it might be because I was too focused on making sense out of it, so the “feels” did not hit me. The set up was good, just the execution left something to desire.

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Worth watching! But 5th episode is a no from me.

I won't spoil you too much with my review.

I would say that the series is worth watching. The actors did a good job. There is a new main character in every episode & every episode has its own story.

I like how in episode 1 the main character is done with his classmates bossing him around and at the end he gets his revenge. I knew that he had some plan because you could really see when you looked at him that his personality is changing... or maybe this is not the correct word, maybe I should rather say that you could really see that he is reaching his breaking point and it's only a matter of time when he will explode.
However I have a little criticism about this episode. I think ghost effect looks a little bit laughable and not scary at all.

In episode 2 I only wish I'd see some real tears from the actress, since it looks like she is regretting what she did out of jealousy, but I can just hear sounds of crying... and tears are nowhere to be seen. Also be prepared if you are like me and you hate seeing feet. You will be seeing feet a lot :(

I think people can relate to episode 3. Every day we hear what's beautiful and what's not beautiful. And I'm pretty sure everyone wished to be more beautiful than they are (in real life even the ones that are pretty by society standards still wish for something that they can't have). This episode reminded me of people obsessing over idols looks. And also "throwing away" their favorite idols when their looks change (either plastic surgery, weight or just their style) one day they were everything to their obsessed fans, the next day they're nothing when more beautiful person comes along. It was interesting episode and it was interesting to see how far these girls will go to become more beautiful.

4th episode also had some realism in it. You try to help others and tell what happened but then you also get in trouble with bullies. I would say that the ghosts and demons looked really great in this episode, and this makes me wonder why the ghost effect was that bad in the first episode. But I hated the wigs because they looked very fake.

In 5th episode I didn't like "the headless teacher" at the very beginning. The teacher acts more like you would act in a comedy... In previous episodes there were a lot of shady characters, you just knew that there was something wrong with them and they were suspicious to you, which was amazing. So this totally ruined the vibe of the series to me. Such acting just didn't fit into this series. I know the actor had such directions... and I would like such acting if this was comedy but it wasn't. I watched the start on 1.5x speed because I just couldn't watch this any longer. I was only at 11 minute mark and I was already so done with this episode. Comedic acting from everyone... yet this is not a comedy. And it didn't get any better. It was bad till the end. I hated every single second of it. And even when I was watching on 1.5x speed it seemed so long... it's like I watched 3 episodes instead of one.

I was really glad when 6th episode was finally normal again. I expected the old lady to have the missing body part of her son in that white cloth (when the cook mentioned missing body part I knew right away that whatever was wrapped in that cloth. So yes it was a bit predictable but still a great episode.) I did not expect that the school boy will actually kill an animal so he could prove his point. Great acting from everyone, I loved the old cooking lady.

Even though there was already theme about bullying in the series 7th episode was still great. There is nothing much to say other than the acting was good. The boy went from scared to pretty much "insane" when he realized that his wish came true.

8th episode was the best out of all of them. Even though all of them (except the 5th episode) were great, the last one was truly amazing. It was very touching at the end and yes I got tears in my eyes. It was a masterpiece.

The scariest things in this series are not ghosts, blood, death, suicide but what people do when they reach their breaking point when people bully them every day. Doing things out of jealousy as soon as they hear something and they don't even try to confirm if what someone told them is even true or not. Obsessing over other people and forgetting your worth.

Was I scared watching the series? No. But I have been watching horror movies since I was a kid. But it's worth watching. Even if you're not freaked out by ghosts, blood etc.

I think I could totally re-watch this series when a lot of time passes and I have nothing better to watch. But I would never watch episode 5 again.

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