Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
“Dead Friend Forever – DFF” is a Thai thriller-horror, which will remind some viewers of horror-mysteries like “I Know What You Did Last Summer”, where a group of young friends are targeted by a masked killer over something horrible they did a few years ago. Be prepared for mild gore, violence, deaths, plenty of grey characters and a whole lot of chaos.
Directed by Ma-Deaw Chookiat Sakveerakul and Chantana Tiprachart, “Dead Friend Forever – DFF” features an ensemble cast. It follows eight friends heading to a remote but plush mountain cabin to have a farewell party for one of them who is going away to study abroad. When the friends decide to film a horror movie for fun, eerie events begin to take place, spooking five members of the group who think they are being cursed by Non, a former friend who disappeared. The remaining three claim to have no idea who Non is and try to find out what really happened to him and why the rest refuse to reveal any details. But until they unravel the truth, violent events threaten to leave them dead, one by one.
Episode one of “Dead Friend Forever – DFF” begins with the friends having a ‘going away’ party for Jin (Copper Phuriwat Chotiratanasak) at the wealthy Por’s (Us Nititorn Akkarachotsopon) bungalow in the woods, where there’s no cellphone reception or WiFi. Their party takes a dark turn when Por follows a mysterious shadow out; he is chased by a masked assailant and is then fatally stabbed by a branch in the woods. The rest of the friends try to get help, only to realize they are practically trapped in the area, with their car not working and the landline connection cut off. Some of the others feel there’s a ninth person in the house trying to target them. Tee (JJay Patiphan Fueangfunuwat) and Top (Jet Jetsadakorn Bundit) are the most freaked out, both convinced that Non must be planning to kill them one by one, just like in a horror movie five of them had made in high school at the same location. Phee (Ta Nannakun Pakapatpornpob), Tan (Mio Athens Werapatanakul), and Tee’s boyfriend White (Fuaiz Thanawat Shinawatra) are the most curious to know the truth about this Non, as they joined the friend group later.
The next two episodes are slightly challenging to watch because the script isn’t very coherent, and it’s hard to establish if “Dead Friend Forever – DFF” is a campy slasher-thriller or a supernatural horror show with actual ghosts. A local forest lore about a deity called Janta, whose followers offer him live human sacrifices for their wishes to be granted, is thrown into the tale to give the story another eerie angle. Besides, the writers keep up the suspense surrounding the mystery character Non, so until viewers finally get the backstory, you wonder just how bad things could’ve been in high school for somebody to go on a murder spree. Or is a follower of Janta looking for live sacrifices? Or is there something else afoot? Romance, friendship, greed, betrayals, ambition, bullying, self-harm, revenge, sex, drugs, there’s a little bit of everything you’d find in a teen drama here.
Flashbacks of who Non was and what really went down in the friend group are shown from episode 4 onward, where Barcode Tinnasit Isarapongporn takes center stage as the shy, asocial, and creative Non, who helps the wealthy Por and his group write a horror script, which helps them win funding to create it. However, Non is amply bullied by Por, Tee, and Top during the filming process. But it wasn’t just regular bullying; Non is taken for a ride and thrown into a vicious cycle of abuse, which takes a heavy toll on him. A big twist at the end of episode six helps to set the ground to explain a significant amount of events that remained under a cloud until then. Episode seven is perhaps the highlight of this show, which introduces Non’s secret partner, who nobody else (strangely) seems to know about. It’s a roller-coaster edition that begins with a cute montage of Non’s romantic life, but by the end of the episode, the bullying becomes excessive, and you wish the show could just go back to the present, where things are much simpler – a masked murderer is on a killing spree.
Barcode Tinnasit Isarapongporn, who made his acting debut with “KinnPorsche” (along with Ta), delivers a riveting performance as the young, gullible Non, who goes on to make many questionable decisions himself. From being a studious, creative, upright teen who is bullied, Non evolves into a morally grey character. Despite being portrayed as intelligent, he easily falls into traps and isn’t averse to going down the wrong path to save his skin. Ta Nannakun Pakapatpornpob as Phee emerges as the primary protagonist in the series – he is level-headed, calculative, and has great chemistry with his co-stars.
All the other young actors in the cast too deliver entertaining performances, although Jet Jetsadakorn Bundit wasn’t able to portray his character’s fears with conviction. Fuaiz Thanawat Shinawatra as White was a whole different mood from the rest of the characters, he is like the ‘soft princess’ of the squad, who didn’t even want to come on the trip and is caught in a nightmare that’s about a person he has nothing to do with. JJay Patiphan Fueangfunuwat is Tee, who constantly reminded me of popular Thai actor Mew Suppasit of “TharnType” fame. Like most of his other friends, Tee is a selfish bully, but gets an unnecessary redemptive arc towards the end of the show. Mio Athens Werapatanakul is understated as the shady Tan, just as his role requires him to be.
The cinematography for “Dead Friend Forever – DFF” shines best during the non-horror bits, although, most of the violent-bloody scenes are executed well, with a campy loud style, so the shock value of the gory sequences might be too much for some viewers, but regular horror fans would want to see more of them. Some of the camera shots were annoying in some episodes, with some cuts/transitions being jumpy and jarring, but for most parts, the series is visually engaging. The background music does a fantastic job of setting the mood for different scenes, from the haunted/scary sequences to the romantic-soft flashbacks. The original track “No More Dream” composed by Jeff Satur and sung by Barcode for the show is a moody love ballad which caught my attention and definitely made me want to revisit it.
While the pacing of “Dead Friend Forever – DFF” can be quite erratic, major revelations in the last few episode help viewers find the pieces of the missing puzzle, even though some parts remain unexplained and exaggerated. The creators should’ve ideally wrapped up the show by episode eleven, where the cat is out of the bag, but they go on to extend the series and episode 12 was a complete “mind-fuck” edition. There’s just no better way to describe it. And in the end, viewers also get a small “two years later” epilogue scene, which instead of ending the show on a conclusive note, brings the curtain down with a open-end which does not sync well with the time jump. The writers should’ve come up with something else. Overall, this is a pretty entertaining show for horror-thriller enthusiasts, so watch it if you are in mood for some youngsters going crazy in an isolated cabin in the woods.
Rating: 7 on 10. You can watch “Dead Friend Forever – DFF” on iQiYi.
Read Next: ‘The Exorcist: Believer’ Movie Review
Also Read: Einstein and the Bomb Review (Audio Version Below)