“Starfish and coffee,

Maple syrup and jam,

Butterscotch clouds, a tangerine,

And a side order of ham.”

-Prince “Starfish and Coffee”

THE HOUSEMAID is the first Vietnamese horror movie I have ever seen. Granted, there aren’t a lot to choose from judging by a quick google search, but it still felt nice to broaden my horror horizons a little more with this one. Released a couple of years ago in Vietnam, THE HOUSEMAID currently stands as the third-highest-grossing horror film in the history of the country, and it has now been released stateside by IFC Midnight on VOD. VENGEFUL HEART, SCANDAL, and HOLLOW are three of the other more recent Vietnamese horror successes– VENGEFUL HEART’s plot revolves around the recipient of a heart donation who begins to see visions that she believes are from the previous owner of the heart–I really want to see that one.

THE HOUSEMAID is the one I watched though, and I think it’s a nice introduction to the small, but seemingly burgeoning horror scene in Vietnam, as it’s a film with a voice that is distinctly Vietnamese, and belongs to director, Derek Nguyen. According to an interview with Rue Morgue, Nguyen and his family stayed in Vietnam until “the last day, when the North Vietnamese forces entered the gates of Saigon. From there, we ran to the docks and ended up on a barge that floated out to sea, and we were miraculously picked up by the American Navy.” Nguyen would eventually settle in Orange County, and go on to study at UC Santa Barbara, and NYU film school. It’s a neat story, and for more on it you should check out the interview conducted by the great, Michael Gingold. The interview covers a lot of Nguyen’s background; a background that is visible throughout THE HOUSEMAID.

Set in Vietnam during the first Indochina war, THE HOUSEMAID mixes together the supernatural with actual historical events. Linh (Nhung Kate) shows up on the grounds of the Sa-Cet estate looking for a housemaid job. The head housekeeper  at the estate takes her in partly due to a feeling of pity for her as Linh’s family was killed in a bombing during the war. Many others at the estate believe the grounds to be haunted, as legend has it that the late wife of the estate’s owner, Sebastien, strangled their child in its crib and killed herself in the lake near the estate.

Sebastien himself is still kickin’ though, and fighting in the war. After taking a bullet wound in battle, he returns to the Sa-Cet estate for treatment. Much of the film’s second act revolves around the story of Linh and Sebastien as they become entangled in a steamy affair, while bits of information are doled out regarding the estate’s disturbing past as a brutal labor camp. It’s the labor camp’s past that plays the key role in the supernatural aspect of THE HOUSEMAID, and it’s also the films strongest aspect, as it sprinkles in “spook-a-blast” style set-pieces throughout the film that are a ton of fun, even if they are also a bit silly.

Silly is the word I would use to describe much of THE HOUSEMAID. It splits it’s time between wannabe prestige period drama, and Raimi-esque haunted house thrills, and I’m not sure it completely works. The love story that dominates so much of the film’s second act definitely does not. It’s ham-fisted, melodramatic, and never rises above the level of a soap opera. For example: there’s a moment where Sebastien is confronted by his current wife about his affair, and he theatrically screams out, “Tell all of Paris for all I care!!!”. I don’t know how you don’t giggle at that shit. But, Romantic Period Drama/Haunted House Spookshow isn’t a mash-up we get very often, so it’s fun to just roll with it.

Horror fans—and film fans in general—get hung up on the idea of “tone” all the time. I’m guilty of it too. I’m not gonna argue against the importance of tonal consistency, particularly in a horror film where you are trying to scare people. But sometimes it’s fun to just sit back and watch a movie swing wildly back and forth between different tones. I’ll admit, I giggled and rolled my eyes at some of the more heavy-handed moments in THE HOUSEMAID– In addition to the part where Sebastien screams like a drama queen about his wife telling all of Paris, there’s a part in this movie where he stands in front of Linh and says “Hit me” and she slaps him a bunch of times while dramatic music swells in the background before they have sex. COME ONNNNNN. But then the movie jumps from these moments and into a scene with ghost-zombies attacking a woman in the woods, or a woman in a black veil whipping an ax at the screen like it’s some sort of 80’s 3d schlock-fest, and I fell for it’s charms. Consistent tone is important, especially for horror, but it’s not an end-all be-all, and sometimes it’s fun to watch a movie that does whatever the hell it feels like.

While the more “dramatic” parts of the THE HOUSEMAID are it’s weakest moments, I like that they are there. The story feels personal for the director, both because it’s a story focused on an obviously important period of time for Vietnam, but also because much of the story seems to be inspired by the story of the director’s Vietnamese grandmother. Here’s a little more of what Nguyen had to say to Rue Morgue:

“It was actually inspired by the life of my grandmother. She was a housemaid in a large estate in Vietnam, and ended up falling in love with the head of the household. I know there are many other different films dealing with housemaids, but this one was based on her. She also loved ghost stories, and would tell them to me when I was a kid. She believed that spirits lived in trees, and when I was a kid, I thought that was kind of creepy. So whenever I went up to a tree, I was like, ‘There’s a spirit in there!’”

THE HOUSEMAID is a prime example of a movie that is tonally inconsistent, but so what? As shown by that quote from Nguyen, people are tonally inconsistent. People can be silly, over-dramatic, scary, earnest, and a whole bunch of other things at the same time, so maybe it’s okay for a movie to be that way too. Also, while I think a lot of the moments in the film that revolve around the period-piece-romance aspect are the weakest, and the most tonally inconsistent parts of THE HOUSEMAID, they are also the moments that give the movie a feeling distinct to the country that it comes from, and that’s pretty cool too.