Make Me Shudder 2: Shudder Me Mae Nak (มัธยมปากหมาท้าแม่นาค) (2014)

Make Me Shudder 2 is a decent enough amusement if you can speak Thai. Otherwise, you’ll miss more than half of the jokes

This Thai horror-comedy has 2 gimmicks going for it. It’s a parody of the legendary folktale of Mae Nak. That’s the one where a soldier returns home to his wife after a long war, oblivious to the clues that she’s been long dead and the village has been forced to play along with her loving subterfuge. The other gimmick is throwing a bunch of foul-mouthed modern Thai schoolboys into the story. That’s the new talent-scouted comedy gang of teens from the comedy segments in 4Bia, Phobia2, and last year’s Make Me Shudder.

If you’re watching this outside Thailand, I’ll have to warn you that the international English subtitles do not translate any of the street slang, generally offensive language, and double entendres that spew from the mouths of the fresh-faced cast.

It’s a pity given that this constitutes their comedy act. It’s even more a pity because part of the Mae Nak parody involves throwing these modern bad schoolboys into ancient Siam and having them trade insults with its most famous and scariest ghost... and having the ghost pick up their anachronistic speech.

The bits that translate across are its comedy sketch show style re‑enactments of setpieces from the 1999 Nang Nak film. Even so, the relatively low hit-to-miss ratio is indicative of the relative inexperience of the team on this project.

Make Me Shudder 2 is a decent enough amusement if you can speak Thai. Otherwise, you’ll miss more than half of the jokes.