Death Whisperer 2 Review: Thai Horror Sequel, Starring Eye Candy Nadech Kugimiya, Is Big On Action, Not So Big On Chills (2025)

Death Whisperer 2 (NC16)

Starring Nadech Kugimiya, Denise Jelilcha Kapaun, Nutthacha Jessica Padovan

Directed by Taweewat Wantha

The best-looking family that's being stalked by a vicious demon returns.

In 2023’s Thai horror hit, Death Whisperer, this rural brood of parents and six siblings — all their names start with “Y” as in Yak, Yad, Yam, etc — was so relentlessly attacked by a merciless very-unkempt-woman-in-black evil spirit looking for a host body that one of the Brady, sorry, Bloody Bunch of young cuties was tragically killed.

Man, that was a bold plot point in a good chiller with a great no-escape atmosphere about a family having the severe bad luck of living near an extremely accursed old tree.

This time, this sequel is more action-based but isn't as spooky. Primarily because it isn’t as fresh or inventive as the original.

That one had a clever scene involving creepily opaque mosquito nets that really stuck in your mind. Plus the setting, circa 1975, is no longer a besieged village house set in the middle of a dark remote nowhere.

Thailand is an ancient superstitious country. It’s top-notch horror meisters know how to amp up this voodoo-level fear factor. Check out the Nang Nak-style mob-burning-demon-hut drama here. It’s mumbo-jumbo folklore but it’s also effective in a don’t-mess-with-historically-weird-stuff way.

Luckily though, there’s still enough horror kick driven by the affection and tightness of the very likeable “Y” family here. And especially the charisma of the hunky main man and protective eldest brother, Yak (Nadech Kugimiya from The Con-Heartist).

This guy must be adopted. There’s no way such a Pan Asian fella can come biologically from his earthy parents. So, we’re fixated. I mean, when bad things happen to runway models, we’re just that much more curious.

Especially when the dude goes Ghostbuster Rambo in the jungle and shows off his manly ruggedness armed with a shotgun firing “blessed” bullets. “I won't die until I get rid of that damn ghost,” he swears vengeance upon the chanting female spirit who likes to shove her entire ghastly arm into the throat of her victims. Yak obsessively seeks payback for his dead sis, Yam (Rattanawadee Wongthong), who I must say looks damn hot for a coldly departed soul from the first instalment.

Okay, this pic is basically a two-fer.

The first half, the stronger one, is Predator-in-the-Thai-jungle. By linking the supernatural dots, Yak lands in a fearsome “man-eating” forest to face a “ghost army” controlled by the black spirit. His demon-hunting party of army sergeant pal, Paphan (Ongart Cheamcharoenpornkul), from the first flick with whom he exchanges humour among haunts, shaman and gung-ho young idiots becomes easy prey, of course, for the local denizens.

Best sequence is a tense one where the whole bunch is perched atop a platform among the trees to escape the spirits lurking below. You wanna stay in this jungle for the thrills but alas, Yak comes from a big clan that requires screen time too.

The second part, a less interesting, more standard and more confusing who's-next-to-be-possessed portion, is The Shining set in a where-the-hell-is-everybody Thai hotel on a dark and stormy night. Yad (Denise Jelilcha Kapaun), surviving big sis, is getting married in a place where, you know, a zombie-fied mom drags a huge pick axe, Jack Nicholson-style, along a mahogany corridor to terrify the bejesus out of her little girl.

I tell you, Nutthacha Jessica Padovan, playing Yee, the youngest child, surely deserves at least 50 free Labubu dolls for the screams which returning director/co-writer Taweewat Wantha make her do.

The helmer knows that for his haunt to truly work, he needs to utilise the defenceless women in his tale and especially, his hero hunk. The way Kugimiya seems to be an unsquashable pain in the ghosted butt is amulet-grasping ludicrous.

But he's Death Whisperer 2's most potent spirit.

Both natural and supernatural. (3/5 stars)