Anyone who has nursed a baby through colic - those jags of continued crying that have no medical explanation - has probably felt as though they were living through a bad movie.

After a frazzled few weeks with her first child, Piyaros Soonthornwipak turned her colicky nightmares into a script and handed it to her husband, director Bundit Thongdee, who approached producer Prachya Pinkaew.

That was three years ago. Today "Colic" is the title of a new horror film by rookie director Patchanon Thamajira, which opens Thursday at theatres nationwide.

Patchanon admits that making a horror flick is not easy in an era that has seen such successes as Thai terror stories "Shutter", "The Eye" and "Nang Nak" let alone a series of Korean and Japanese ghostbusters.

"Maybe the idea is not really suitable for a conventional horror film. But this is my first chance to make a movie and I am trying my best. As long as they are satisfied with the product, then there's room for the film," says the 35-year-old director.

The film tells the story of urban newly-weds Pongphob (Withaya Wasukraipisarn) and Phrae (Pimpan Chalayayakup) who have an unplanned baby.

Unprepared to take care of a child, the young parents don't know what to do when the boy (who by now is a toddler) starts having unexplained crying fits that coincide with other strange and nasty incidents in their lives.

The director never explains the mystery, but fills the entire two hours with tense scenes and cruel events that leave plenty to the imagination.

"There is no ghost like in Korean or Japanese movies. My film is full of obscurities which leave the audience eager to find out the truth," he says.

The film has undergone a complete transformation since arriving in Patchanon's hands three years ago when Prachya sent it to Pun Company, the in-house promotional firm of Sahamongkol Films.

The original plot drew on the ancient superstition that those who do bad things to others ride on the shoulders of the dead for the rest of their lives, and featured a ghost perched on the shoulder of the protagonist.

"We'd already finished the project but had to recreate the plot because of its similarity to 'Shutter'," he explains.

With a Bt20-million budget already allocated to the movie, Patchanon was not going to give up his dream.

A film graduate from Rangsit University, he was beginning to despair of ever breaking on to the local movie scene despite having won two prestigious White Elephant Short Film awards for his student work.

Perhaps, he says, it was his quiet personality that made it hard to pitch his projects.

Rather than hang around, he worked in a video-rental shop, as a freelancer editing music videos, headed to Hong Kong as a member of a film crew and finally landed a job in the movie promotion businesses.

"There's nothing in promotional work that is an advantage for directing except knowing which scenes should be taken for the promotion, although it is useful for the story," he notes.

"But it did teach me that a movie doesn't belong to the director only. A lot of factors are involved and also huge money. So I don't mind compromising as long as it doesn't kill the film," he says.

Patchanon admits he is not a horror fan. For his short films, he drew on real life. "Wat" tells the story of a man who dreams of a monk but is disappointed when he witnesses the commercial side to temple life.

In "Mod", a teenage boy gets his girlfriend pregnant then, while trying to find a way out, spends all his money betting on a football game.

"I'd love to do a drama film but "Colic" is the first film I was offered as a director. How could I possibly turn it down?" he says.

"Of course I yearn for a chance to work on a movie of my own choice, maybe an independent and non-commercial film. In the meantime, I hope people enjoy 'Colic'; I have put my best efforts into making it."

Parinyaporn Pajee

The Nation