Television newsmagazines are full of stories detailing the almost impossible closeness of twins. Whether feeling each other’s emotions, sensing their sibling’s illness or death, or just looking and/or acting alike even when separated at birth, twins share an enviable bond that’s nearly impossible for the rest of us to understand.
This is just “normal” twins, mind you. Throw in the added complication that comes from being physically joined after birth, the phenomenon known as “conjoined twins” or, less politically correct, “Siamese Twins,” and this bond becomes even more powerful, surviving even the great mystery of death.
Such is apparently the case with Pim and Ploy (Masha Wattanapanitch), conjoined twins so close they would have been inseparable even if they hadn’t been born joined at the sternum. That is, until Wee (Vittaya Wasukraipaisan) entered the picture, falling for Pim and becoming the proverbial apple in her eyes, much to Ploy’s jealous consternation.
Now years later, following a birthday party psychic’s prognostication that something she’d lost was about to re-enter Pim’s life, Pim and Wee return to Korea to care for Pim’s mother, recently felled by a stroke. Pim’s return sparks long-suppressed pangs of guilt over Ploy’s mysterious death, helped along, no doubt by the increasingly creepy and violent manifestations of her very deceased sister.
As Ploy’s ghostly intrusions drive Pim ever further towards a mental breakdown, the mysteries surrounding their tortured family history and the unique circumstances surrounding Pim and Wee’s relationship begin to unravel in an increasingly violent fashion.
“Alone” does a good job of wrapping both a mystery and a twisted romance inside its horror trappings. It’s a bit heavy on the “gotcha!” stingers, and the shock of seeing a ghoul in the mirror starts to wear out some after the tenth or fifteenth time it happens.
That being said, co-directors Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom have concocted a film that works for the most part and they manage to save their biggest and best surprise for the end of the film.
You’re wasting a golden opportunity if you don’t take a jumpy, attractive date to see this spooky horror flick. You’ll be glad you didn’t see “Alone” alone.
