Director Vatanyu Ingkaviat is best known for their work in TV, writing for the likes of Petrichor, Thank You Teacher, 23:23, and Remember You, among many others. Once again exploring the intricacies of human relationships and humanity itself, Ingkaviat makes their feature directorial debut with Tomb Watcher, a warped haunted house tale casting a chilling gaze over the gray area between love and obsession.
Tomb Watcher begins by following the seemingly picture-perfect love story of artist Cheev (Thanavate Siriwattanagul) and his hard-working, successful, and wealthy wife Lunthom (Woranuch BhiromBhakdi). He says that he immediately knew they were meant to be together and felt like the luckiest man in the world. They wed and move into a beautiful home, with Cheev promising to make her the happiest woman alive. But one fateful day, she slips into a coma and becomes unresponsive, eventually dying and leaving Cheev devastated. But that soon proves not to be the case when we jump to the present and find Cheev with his mistress, Rossukhon (Arachaporn Pokinpakorn), waiting to bury Lunthom before tying the knot themselves. However, for Cheev to receive Lunthom's vast fortune, a clause in her will states that both he and Ros need to stay in the former couple's remote home for 100 days and care for her body. Should they leave ahead of time, they forfeit everything. Soon after they arrive at the property, Ros begins to suspect that Lunthom's spirit is haunting them both.
Like many Thai horror films before it, Tomb Watcher follows the traditional trope of the wronged female spirit seeking revenge. The narrative regularly flashes back to peel away the layers of Lunthom and Cheev's relationship. We see the devastation she faced over repeatedly being lied to and cheated on, while also seeing Cheev's unhappiness in what he saw as a stifling marriage in which he never spent time with his wife. Discrepancies between the claims Cheev makes and what we see when we jump into the past leave room for doubt when it comes to exactly what happened between the couple, heightened as Cheev and Ros begin to clash over whether or not they believe they are being haunted.
As well as the chilling examination of a toxic relationship and the devastating effect of a declining marriage, Tomb Watcher has plenty of traditional scares to chill audiences to the bone. Tracking shots from Lunthom's perspective put the audience in her ghostly shoes as she torments Ros and Cheev, while the third act descends into a heart-pounding cat-and-mouse chase by way of possession. The blend of genres and plot points can often make the film feel muddled and directionless, but it somewhat matches the overall sense of a descent into madness for Ros and Cheev as they face being forced to live in a makeshift mausoleum of their own making.
Tomb Watcher's premise is simple and forces the audience to consider whether they could sit with a terrible action they committed and a person they wronged, forcing them to face their actions and why they did what they did, or would they lose it all and escape screaming into the night. While it never quite seems to reach its full, terrifying climax, Tomb Watcher is a suitably eerie directorial debut with a unique central premise and thoughtful exploration of the complexities of love and relationships.
Tomb Watcher had its UK premiere at FrightFest 2025 on 24 August
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