Parents' Guide to The Whole Truth

This supernatural horror tale is better than one might expect, but not as good as it might have been. The Whole Truth is a Thai horror movie that comes across as heavily influenced by movies like The Ring and The Grudge, but manages to find its own footing through a fast-paced story that builds suspense towards the big reveal at the end without spending any more time than necessary on getting to know the characters. The acting is above average, if melodramatic at times, and the creepy vibe in the set design and the horror imagery keeps the audience engaged. There's enough to it (even if just barely) to keep the audience curious enough to want to know where all of this is going.

Unfortunately, it doesn't really lead to anything satisfying, and the two-hour-and-five-minute running time ends up feeling like it's at least 30 minutes longer than it needs to be. Side stories fall short, to say nothing of plot twists that come across as forced and manipulative rather than entertaining and rewarding. The background music is excessive and obnoxious -- it's like any time someone blinks or turns their head, shrill and discordant industrial horror noise screeches and scrapes to the point that you start to believe that the filmmakers either have no faith in themselves in providing the scares, no faith in the audience to be scared without audio cues, or all of the above. These decisions by the filmmakers result in a movie that isn't as good or as scary as it might have been with more editing and less reliance on horror cliches.