The pseudo-documentary, often regarded as an offshoot of the found-footage genre, occupies a unique place in horror. Films like Lake Mungo, The Taking of Deborah Logan, Noroi: The Curse, Incantation, Celluloid Nightmares [Muzan-e], The Blair Witch Project, What We Do in the Shadows, Ghostwatch, and [REC] show how flexible the format can be. The movies I just listed range from bleak realism to outright parody.

While pseudo-documentaries cover a broad range of tones and subjects, supernatural horror remains their most frequent and effective application.

So what happens when you get Bangjong Pisanthanakin, the director of Shutter (2004) and Na Hong-jin, the director of The Wailing (2016) together to make their own pseudo-documentary? You get The Medium, a 2021 supernatural thriller about Thai deities that gives off serious Noroi: The Curse vibes.

The Medium follows a documentary crew filming a local shaman named Nim (Sawanee Utoomma), but they change their focus after learning that their subject has a niece that is showing signs of being susceptible to the spirit world. So instead of making a film about a medium of Ba Yan, they decide to make a film about the generational transfer of the spirit into a younger host.

But Mink (Narilya Gulmongkolpech), the niece, shows symptoms that suggest she might not actually be receiving the benevolent goddess Ba Yan, but spirits that are much darker.

Na Hong-jin of The Wailing fame is credited for the story and as a producer on this film, and the plots between the films, both involving shamans, have other similarities too. (Full disclosure: The Wailing is the better movie.) Both films also play with our interpretation, though The Medium is more about the chaotic, unknowable spirit world logic in a way similar to Noroi: The Curse, as opposed to the two contradicting interpretations The Wailing offers.

But pay attention. Little details like the illegal selling of dog meat have bigger implications on the overall plot than you might think. There are clues to the spirits’ behaviour hidden in lines of dialogue spread throughout the film.

The Medium also plays a lot with strained family dynamics that play into the story in fascinating ways. Nim’s older sister, Noi, had originally rejected Ba Yan because she didn’t want to live the life of a shaman. Noi becomes suspicious of Nim when she takes notice of Mink’s behaviour, hoping her daughter can avoid being a supernatural host like she had before. And their brother, Manit, plays the middle between Nim and Noi but seems to somehow always make things worse.

But Mink’s behaviour suggests that multiple spirits may have taken possession of her. At one point, she acts like a little girl while with her friend. She gets violent on a bus before being removed. And security cameras show her having sex with multiple men at night inside her workplace. Gulmongkolpech does a good job with a demanding role that requires her to be different people before just becoming plain monstrous.

All this, of course, is leading towards a lengthy final act that throws everything it can at us.

The Medium doesn’t reinvent possession movie scares, though the added realism gives familiar horrors some added potency. But, admittedly, there are some cracks in Pisanthanakin’s use of the pseudo-documentary. The finale keeps you wondering just how many people were employed by this seemingly small budget documentary? There certainly seems to be a lot of cameras rolling, even after it’s obviously time to get the hell out.. And, considering all that carnage in the end, who put the final cut of the documentary together?

Where Pisanthanakin deserves the most credit is in how he ties all the pieces of The Medium together. This is a story where I get to spend enough time with the characters to understand their pain and desperation. This is a family being torn apart while simultaneously being tied together by their desire to rescue Mink. And it’s heartbreaking watching them all continuously fail.

Financially, The Medium went on to be a hit in both Thailand and South Korea. North American audiences can currently stream it on Shudder. If you’re a fan of either the pseudo-documentary format or supernatural found footage, The Medium is worth your time.