The Maid | DVD Review

From Singapore comes cultural mish-mash The Maid, described by Tartan’s press release as the country’s, “first homegrown horror movie”.

“Every year for thirty days during the lunar seventh month, the Chinese believe that the gates of hell are thrown open. Vengeful spirits or hungry ghosts wander among the living, seeking revenge and justice before the gates of hell are closed again for another year.” It’s during this seventh month that a Filipino maid travels to Singapore to take up residence with an eccentric middle class family amid culture shock and a dark family secret.

What distinguishes The Maid is the introduction of this curious Chinese cultural event. For the benefit of those such as myself who’ve never been to that part of the world, why exactly the people of Singapore celebrate the traditions of a culture that’s roughly five countries removed is something that’s never explained. The film’s vantage point is from that of an outsider in the care of natives, who’s unwittingly thrust into unfamiliar surroundings. For this reason, director Kelvin Tong suggests The Maid represents themes of trust and what happens when it’s been abused. Also distinct is the fact The Maid is shot as a bilingual film, equal parts English and what I assume is Malayalam. Turns out there are four official languages in Singapore of which English is the most common. Normally when Asian films attempt to incorporate English, the results are less than spectacular (think R Point). The Maid pulls this off better than most, but the fact is there are a number of lines that are borderline incomprehensible. Not that this really hinders the plot – you always know what’s going on, you’d just think it would be better considering.

The film is also hampered by some bizarre editing. There are a number of scenes that jump-cut to an entirely different scenario without warning or explanation, thereby disrupting any kind of fluid movement the film could have had. Possible explanations include;
1) that the Western release was re-edited to come in under 90 minutes and thus, segues be damned
2) the scenes were deliberately done that way to put the viewer off balance (to my opinion, unsuccessfully)
3) that the filmmakers just didn’t do a very good job of bridging these scenes together.

Just by way of a technical note, the film looks as though it’s been ‘squished’ by about 20% vertically, or ‘elongated’ horizontally depending on how you want to look at it. It didn’t really bother me, just pointing that out.

You won’t find a lot by way of special features – one twenty minute ‘Making Of…’ and a theatrical trailer. The making of is informative and interesting albeit short. You’ll find the obvious here; cast interviews, some discussion about the film’s social context, what the filmmakers were trying to achieve, etc.

The Maid has a number of effective horror elements including a cogent, somewhat disturbing plot set against a psuedo-religious foreign backdrop (lending it a sort of Serpent And The Rainbow vibe). Unfortunately, it lacks the bite and necessary cohesiveness to make it all stick convincingly.

Movie rating – 2

Disc Rating – 1.5