I stumbled upon the 2005 Thai horror fantasy movie "Jom Kha Mung Wej" (aka "Necromancer"), and opted to watch it given the title. Sure, I had never heard about this movie from writers Piyapan Choopetch and Kittikorn Liasirikun, but Thailand tends to make some rather enjoyable horror movies. And of course with "Jom Kha Mung Wej" being an Asian horror movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I had to watch it.

Well, I didn't get much out of watching "Jom Kha Mung Wej". Perhaps it is because I am not a Thai, nor especially traversed with Thai folk lore and superstitions. The movie is heavily centered on superstitions, and if you are unfamiliar with Thai superstitions and rituals connected there to, then you won't actually find much entertainment value in "Jom Kha Mung Wej", I'm afraid.

"Jom Kha Mung Wej" fell short of providing me with much of any entertainment or enjoyment, and it was difficult to keep up with the story, as nothing made sense, and I literally didn't know or understand what went on. So "Jom Kha Mung Wej" is a movie for a select Thai audience.

I wasn't familiar with the actors and actresses in the movie, but they put on adequate enough performances, despite the fact that I didn't understand what was going on.

If you are a fan of Asian horror, then you shouldn't waste your time on "Jom Kha Mung Wej", unless you are familiar with Thai traditions and superstitions.

My rating of "Jom Kha Mung Wej" lands on a two out of ten stars.

Well… I find this movie a great one. My friend and I enjoy it very much. We watched it twice. The movie revolves around the primitive Khmer ( or the Thai version of Khmer) black magic. It needs some cultural background and concept to understand the use of this magic. The dark art was commonly practiced in Thailand in the past. But those two cops try to learn and use such art in modern days. So the only way they can learn and posses the power of this art is to steal the existing dark-art associated items from others because such art did not get written in any specific manuscript or taught in any school or appeared on any historical sites but secretly passed down from generation to generation. So each family has a limited share of knowledge on this dark art. (Such art starts to be forgotten and less practice in modern-day Thai society.) However, I think foreigners may have some difficulties understanding the story and its tension. Thai people, told by their parents, generally accept the idea that such dark art exists and have common knowledge on some practices shown in the movie. So normally the Thais don't have any difficulties in understanding the context or feeling the intangible fear mounting in the movie. For example, the prison guards know that Itti posses the black magic and get very frightened (because they know what Itti is capable of doing.) I also wonder if any foreigner will understand the scene at a Pan-Yak prayer ceremony and its significant. ( It's the scene when Itti walked up to the monk and put his hand on a boy's head.) The magic buffalo and the nail appeared in the movie are common black magic used for people- killing purpose and every Thai know it by heart. If this movie is going to be viewed internationally, it may need to get a new cut with some introduction on the use of those black magic tricks and its regulation. Also, another cultural notion of the black magic in the movie is normally those who practice such black magic are those who have enemies. They either practice it to protect themselves or hurt others. This kind of black magic has two sides, beneficial or harmful to those who use it. So whoever practices it will need to strictly follow the regulation, like refraining from doing so many common things or eating only some specific kind of food. In the movie, Santi will have to stop eating squash that he likes. So only those who have enemies and must hurt others will sacrifice their normal lives and live by these special rules. They are in a way like 'The Highlanders'. Only the people of their kind can be their equals.

I like this movie because it's a cultural specific movie. If you understand the idea or have some cultural background knowledge, you will enjoy the movie. Also, I find it educational on the Thai black magic, which has its origin from ancient Khmer. Few people are practicing it these days. I think more practice of this black art can be found in another two Thai horrors: Art of the Devil (Khon Len Khong ) and Art of the Devil II (Long Khong). Some foreign comments on both movies called the dark art 'voo doo'. It's certainly not the African 'voo doo', of course! Thai has its own black magic. We call it "Khong" - directly translated as the "Thing". "Khon Len Khong" (Art of the Devil) can be directly translated as the "Thing" player ( or The practitioner of the "Thing"). In this movie, the "Thing" player is translated to be the "Necromancer" as the English title. "Long Khong" ( Art of the Devil II) is directly translated as Daring or Challenging the "Thing".