THE HOUSEMAID (2016 - Vietnamese)

Studio:       IFC Midnight
Director:    Derek Nguyen
Writer:       Derek Nguyen
Producer:  Timothy Linh Bui
Stars:     Kate Nhung, Jean-Michel Richaud, Kim Xuan, Rosie Fellner, Phi Phung, Kien An

Review Score:

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Summary:

A Vietnamese housemaid awakens a plantation’s murderous ghost when she begins a romance with the French officer who owns the land.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

After French military officer and landowner Captain Sebastien Laurent is found murdered in his bed, housemaid Linh explains her story to two policemen: French Officer Renault and Vietnamese Officer Guy.

Vietnam – 1953 – Having walked 40 kilometers barefoot, Linh arrives at Sa-Cat Estate, a rubber plantation, looking for employment. Head housekeeper Mrs. Han takes pity on Linh’s plight of being an orphan whose entire family was killed in an air raid. Han offers to take on Linh as a housemaid for a probationary period.

Linh meets stern groundskeeper Mr. Chau as well as the estate’s cook Mrs. Ngo. Ngo reveals that she is also considered a witch who practices herbal remedies. Ngo warns that Sa-Cat is a place of death with ground soaked by the blood of abused plantation workers whose spirits now roam the woods.

Ngo recounts the tale of Madame Camille, Sebastien’s dead wife. Camille went mad waiting for Sebastien to return from war, drowning their baby in his bath and then keeping his corpse until it rotted. Consumed with grief, Camille drowned herself in the lake, although her body was never recovered. Camille’s wailing can now be heard at night in the manor.

Linh begins settling into her housemaid role. She also begins suffering from haunting nightmares of Madame Camille.

Having been shot by revolutionaries on his drive home, Sebastien crashes his car outside. Han and Ngo treat his wound. The two women then argue over administering Eastern or Western medicine, with Han reminding Ngo that Eastern herbalism is forbidden.

Han leaves Linh in charge of Sebastien’s care when she is summoned to Saigon to see her sick mother. When Sebastien’s fever worsens, Linh reluctantly allows Ngo to administer herbal medicine. Ngo recites an incantation over Sebastien, during which Camille’s ghost rises from the nearby lake. Ngo collapses. Linh briefly sees Camille’s ghost when it appears in Sebastien’s bedroom.

Over the course of his continued care, Sebastien and Linh gradually develop a romance. Visions of Camille also continue haunting Linh.

Three military men come to the manor to discuss the ongoing war over dinner. One of the men tries raping Linh. Sebastien intervenes, and banishes the men from his house.

Chau and Ngo leave the manor to celebrate Tet with their respective families back home. With nowhere else to go, Linh stays behind. Linh discovers historical records documenting decades of plantation workers in Sebastien’s office.

While alone in the forest, Linh confronts the ghosts of several dead plantation workers. A vision of Camille surrounded by crows chases Linh into Sebastien’s arms.

Ngo and Chau return to work. Ngo is surprised when Sebastien has Linh eat dinner with him. Sebastien and Linh have sex.

Chau confronts Linh in a room once used for torturing workers. Chau admits he was formerly a plantation overseer who whipped and starved workers he deemed ungrateful.

Sebastien’s fiancée Madeleine returns from France to live at Sa-Cat. When Madeleine deduces that Sebastien is having an affair with the housemaid, she plants her bracelet in Linh’s room and accuses Linh of stealing it. Sebastien sees through Madeleine’s ruse and kicks her out of the house. Madeleine threatens to ruin Sebastien with his family in Paris before leaving. Linh and Sebastien have sex again once Madeleine is gone.

Driving through the woods, Madeleine hits something in the road, stops, and gets out of her car. Camille rises from the road and supernaturally powers the car to chase down and kill Madeleine.

Mrs. Han returns to Sa-Cat. Unable to accept that Linh is the new head housekeeper, Sebastien terminates Han’s employment. Linh and Han insult each other as Han leaves the manor.

Han confronts multiple plantation ghouls in the forest before facing Camille. Han pleads that she has not betrayed Camille and is still a French informant. A noose descends from a tree limb above. Han is hanged alongside several vanishing ghosts.

Later, Camille chases Chau. Camille corners Chau and asks, “where did you bury them?” Chau responds, “in the woods” before Camille kills him with an ax.

Sebastien tells Linh that he has been summoned back to battle. They have sex once more, during which Sebastien sees Linh morph into Camille. Sebastien screams, “stop haunting me” while choking Linh. Sebastien regains his composure and lets Linh go.

Linh is later drawn back to the bedroom by the sounds of Sebastien screaming. Linh finds Sebastien murdered in his bed.

Officer Renault questions Linh’s claim that Camille’s ghost killed Sebastien. But with nothing to hold her on, the police let Linh go.

Afterward, Linh privately meets with Officer Guy, who is revealed to be Linh’s brother. They discuss how their parents were plantation workers executed by Han and Chau under Sebastien’s approval. Linh made up her backstory and posed as Camille to take revenge on everyone at Sa-Cat as part of a coordinated plot with her brother. Linh actually stabbed Sebastien to death during sex. Following Chau’s revelation, she then dug up her parents’ skeletons in the forest.

While leaving the manor together, Mrs. Ngo passes the file for a former child laborer to Linh, revealing that she knows who Linh really is and understands why she murdered Sebastien, Chau, and Han. However, Ngo asks Linh why she killed Madeleine too. Linh tells Ngo that she had nothing to do with Madeleine’s death, suggesting Camille’s ghost actually exists.

Linh sees Camille holding her baby in a second story window before vanishing. Linh locks the estate gates and leaves through the woods.

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Review:

This is the logline I saw for “The Housemaid” before knowing anything else about the movie: “When an orphaned Vietnamese girl is hired to be a housemaid at a haunted rubber plantation in 1953 French Indochina, she unexpectedly falls in love with the French landowner and awakens the vengeful ghost of his dead wife, who is out for blood.”

Remove the word “haunted” as well as everything after “French landowner” and the majority of that sentence seems suited to describe an Oscar bait melodrama.  I read this synopsis and considered skipping the film, presuming it to predominantly be a PBS period romance with only a tame supernatural tinge.

Initial assumptions might not believe a politicized wartime setting of conflicting cultures in colonial Asia would be the best backdrop for a ghoulish ghost story.  With flushed cheeks I humbly confess, such assumptions are dead wrong.  “The Housemaid” is an elegantly eerie thriller with the grand Gothic style of “Dark Shadows” before Barnabas Collins became the star of the show.

“The Housemaid” gives off all the right vibes from the get go.  Likely filmed on a modest six-figure budget, the production’s scope feels much bigger than just five principal actors in a single location (although it was actually shot with more than one place standing in for the sprawling estate where everything occurs).  Fantastic scenery is beautifully captured by Sam Chase’s cinematography.  Jerome Leroy’s moodily melodic score with haunting piano pieces then ties a ribbon around this sumptuously sinister atmosphere.

In addition to music, much of the mood comes from camera setups that prominently feature oil lamps illuminating ominously painted portraits, or the cracked walls of once beauteous rooms that are now shadows of their former selves.  The dark forest outside and the haunting hallways inside offer as much character as the cast.

“The Housemaid” incorporates a fair deal of jump scares too, yet they are creatively woven into the fabric of dread draping over everything.  It’s a far cry between the cheapness of a cat bolting from a cupboard to emptily jazz a viewer and the contextual creepiness happening here.  Loud rips and sharp cuts quicken the pulse in a manner that stays true to the tone, which is what primes the pump for the film’s frights in the first place.

Horror, romance, and drama adroitly trade each other as dance partners while “The Housemaid” blends genres into its unique texture.  Supernatural spooks quiet down considerably during the movie’s midsection, however.  And even with a trio of sex scenes that include discreet nudity, the romance element is far from scorching hot.  The housemaid’s subservience and her employer’s seriousness squelch a lot of their sizzle.  105 minutes isn’t a long runtime, though tightening several of these sagging scenes would add tautness to the narrative thread.

That being said, one rarely encounters a directorial feature debut with as many successes as this one.  “The Housemaid” is deceptively ambitious with its 1953 setting, large locations to light, and carousel of rotating notes to hit.  Yet Derek Nguyen cautiously keeps that ambition in check through carefully measured style that is always thoughtful and often terrifying.

The capsule summary implies possible pretension or stuffiness that doesn’t sound ready-made to race right up a horror film fan’s alley.  But think less “Masterpiece Theater” and more “The Woman in Black” with a splash of James Wan.  There’s an excellent chance “The Housemaid” will surprise you with its smartly crafted story and exceptionally executed chills.

Fun footnote: The Ministry of Culture, Vietnam’s government censorship body for cinema, formally bans ghost stories.  “The Housemaid” is one of the first films to be approved by the country despite its supernatural content.  The director speculates this may be due to the fact that the ghost isn’t Vietnamese.  There are also several twists to the mystery that may have mildly confused the Ministry into thinking certain objectionable (to them) content wasn’t what it appeared to be.  This marks “The Housemaid” as a genuine milestone in Vietnamese film.

NOTE: The film’s Vietnamese title is “Co Hau Gai.”

Review Score:  80

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