Vinyan (2008) User Reviews (79)

Vinyan : a different ghost movie

[acromegalix · 6/10 · 11 April 2009]

The great mistake in Vinyan is to have tried to sell it as a classical horror movie from Hollywood, like The Ruines or The Grudge.

Don't expect any cheap thrills or funny Fx, it's a deep drama about an occidental woman in Asia, falling into madness after the loss of her child, with a post-tsunami background.

I can understand why some people are so disappointed, the subject is disturbing and unusual : how can you accept the loss of your child without a clear evidence of his death, and how can you express your own pain in a devastated country where most people are going through intense sufferings, violence and poverty ?

Even if Vinyan is not perfect, i really liked the very dark atmosphere that stay with you long after the end of the film. I'm not a huge fan of Emmanuelle Béart but I think she is quite convincing in this role, far from her usual characters.

Avant-garde gone awry

[K-nightt · 5/10 · 2 January 2010]

I completely get what the director was trying to do, and it was a mock-valiant effort on his part; the dark settings, the dream-like shots, and the faux-delusional performance by the main actress. The philosophical undertones are there, they just need to be dug out from beneath the hard-to-buy acting and set-ups. We are all interchangeable, at a physical and psychic level; in her state of utmost despair, Jeanne was hurdled into a psychotic state of mind, and very interestingly incorporating the semblance of delusional misidentification syndrome (namely, Fregoli syndrome); any and all of those children were Joshua. I do believe that this film could have gotten its point across, because the premise is actually appealing; unfortunately that was not enough to leave me with more than an empty sensation after it ended. The dude playing Paul was not believable, and his reactions to the bizarre situations arising were deadened by his own disbelief as an actor. Jeanne just figured that adopting the dead fish expression throughout the film would be sufficient, apart from a possible ripoff from the Piano Teacher with regards to the sex scene in which any and all human emotion has long abandoned her carcass. Now, the only crude emotion she displayed was during the final scene, and I believe this was not a scripted reaction; her smiling showed simply her obvious arousal with the situation, in a very primitive and sexualized manner, irrespective of any taboos people may have about the particular content. Again, it was the symbolic transfiguring into the literal, as the psychogenic breast was incorporated into the lives of children who had no healthy attachment to a caregiver, so we can look at the scene as a form of regression on their part, reacquiring the breast in an attempt to somehow be reborn through her... and she experienced the giving of life in this straining-to-be-poignant moment, and was thus reborn as well.

Confused timeline

[cxpxhampton · 6/10 · 18 February 2022]

Superb scenery with some top class cinematography.

Fake lips however, if I remember correctly weren't really a thing back in 2005. The poor leading lady always appears to either have just been stung by a wasp on her top lip, or punched in the face.

Taken for a ride.

An okay film for drama fans...but not for horror fans

[danteinferno1300 · 3/10 · 18 October 2009]

"A truly terrifying horror experience" is the quote on the front of the DVD, attributed to Bizarre magazine, which is a bizarre indeed comment, for this film is not a horror.

A Western couple living in Indochina lost their son six-months ago in the 2004 Tsunami and the wife believes she sees the lost son in a video about a village in Burma full of orphans. Somehow she convinces her husband to cough up lots of cash to some Triads to get them into Burma to seek out the boy.

Then there's lots of travelling, some very nice shots of the Indochina landscape, plenty of hysterics and tantrums from the wife, the most passionless sex scene ever, and finally something interesting appears to be about to happen but in fact turns out to be rather vague. Then it ends.

I was, needless to say, somewhat disappointed.

It's not a terrible film. The acting is certainly fine and the general set-up quite original and intriguing. But the characters are rather shallow, the storyline vague, and the ending a 'Huh?...Meh!' sort of moment. The set-up really needs a great big dollop of suspension of disbelief too. The couple think their son is in a Burmese village because they see a boy (in a distant shot, from behind) wearing a Manchester United top like the one their son was wearing when he vanished. Aren't there probably ten-million kids in world with such tops? I can get that the mother - half mad with grief - might go along, but surely her husband would have made a bit more of an effort to stop her from handing over their savings to some dodgy gangsters to go on this insane wild goose chase.

The worst thing is the marketing. If it was labelled a drama then I wouldn't have bothered with it. But instead it's labelled a horror meaning horror-fans like me get suckered into buying it and finding that there's nothing about this film that's from the horror genre except for the old horror cliché that the leading lady is a hysterical nut case.

If you like drama films whereby characters indulge in power struggles by sulking and throwing tantrums, you'll probably think this is okay, but the horror fans it cunningly reigns in with it's packaging will find they've wasted 93 minutes of their lives.

Haunting descent into jungle hell

[Wuchakk · 7/10 · 1 April 2013]

An American couple in Thailand discover possible evidence that their young son who died in a tsunami six months earlier is still alive and living in the jungles of Myanmar (Burma). They pay some dubious characters a lot of money to go up river into the forbidden country. Things go from bad to worse.

Many viewers denounce "Vinyan" (2008) because it's not a typical horror film, but that's precisely why it's worthwhile. It's original. It's equal parts haunting, beautiful, strange and creepy. The plot is thin, yet the story maintains your attention.

The acting is excellent all around and you buy these people as real. The five main characters being: Paul and Jeane Bellmer (Rufus Sewell and Emmanuelle Béart), a human trafficker named Thaksin Gao, the captain of the small boat named Sonchaï and the couple's liaison, Kim (Julie Dreyfus).

Memorable parts abound, such as Kim's subtle-but-clear seduction of Paul, the beautiful floating-lanterns at the beach ceremony and the awesome tree fortress.

The meaning of the film is ambiguous, but it provokes thought on several things: The nature of grief (letting go or not letting go), obsession, madness, tribal instincts, going feral and more.

As for the tribe of lost kids in the last act, are they 'vinyan' -- angry, confused spirits who suffered horrible deaths -- or are they simply a pack of kids gone wild in the jungle à la "Lord of the Flies"? I say the evidence points to the latter.

In any case, "Vinyan" has elements of films like "Apocalypse Now," "The Emerald Forest," "Fitzcaraldo" (or "Aguirre") and the aforementioned "Lord of the Flies."

The film runs 1 hour, 36 minutes, and was shot in Thailand.

GRADE: B+

Thank god for RedBox

[cyclone259 · 1/10 · 18 May 2009]

"When someone dies a horrible death, their spirit becomes confused and angry." Which is exactly how I felt after watching this fiasco.

Before anyone lashes back at me for not understanding and getting the 'subtle meaning' of this film and all of its little nuances, I will say 'yes I got it'. The journey though was tedious and plodding, but I watched it all hoping for it to get better.

There is nothing 'otherworldly' about Vinyan and once again, I was led to believe by the description that this was a horror movie, but instead it was just horrible. I won't go into the actual plot, but all I can say is by the end of the film my wife and I looked at each other in disbelief that we'd just spent 90 minutes watching it.

"Has their search for their son led them to a fate more horrific than death?" No, just the audience. Like I said, it was only a buck to rent and I still wanted my money back.

Good Looking and ultimately Creepy chiller

[tim-764-291856 · 7/10 · 6 September 2012]

Seems that many hated this mysterious chiller. Some thought it great, I quite liked it.

The premise was a little different to the usual, with added credibility of the tsunami link and thus a genuine, human emotion for the couple to search for their missing child. Such emotion can be justifiably overblown in movies - making psychological issues out of almost anything.

Yes, it looked good, very good. The attractive, sexy leads, (Emmanuelle Beart and Rufus Sewell, who still managed to remain mostly believable) the sultry landscapes and the monsoon weather, all adding to a great, eerie atmosphere. That it is compared, albeit only visually, to Apocalypse Now is to its credit, surely. Yes, it is ultimately mumbo- jumbo black magic nonsense but that hardly mattered, this is a moody chiller, not world class drama.

The final scenes are not only well done, but pretty chilling, too. Not out and out horror, but ones that make you momentarily stare in numbed disbelief. The whole is greatly helped by a hauntingly atmospheric score by François-Eudes Chanfrault.

No, I won't be searching for other films by director Fabrice du Welz but I've seen a lot worse movies in my time and for what it set out to do, was quite good.

Don't do it!!!!

[toogy · 1/10 · 7 July 2009]

This movie was absolutely dreadful!!! It was in no way, shape, or form a horror or suspense movie, as it was ridiculously labeled. Others have mentioned this as well, and while I have nothing to say that others before me have not, I need to vent about how horrible it was just to purge myself of the depressing, sickening stain it left on my soul! If you like stories about horrible things that happen to distraught, desperate people and descents into madness, then this one's for you. Otherwise, forgo the pain and suffering and save yourself money, time, and regret. The first half of the movie was incredibly slow; the last half's excruciatingly slower march toward inevitable doom was as predictable as a Greek tragedy. I was glad to have reached the ending, which I found neither thought provoking nor surprising. Moral of the story #1: Don't take a grieving spouse teetering on the edge of insanity on an obviously, ill fated journey to the dark corners of this world. Moral #2: Don't put your life and money in the hands of thugs, especially if they make outrageous promises in return for large sums of money. Moral #3 (the most important one of all): Don't rent a movie before reading the reviews!!

the movie needs it's atmosphere

[trashgang · 7/10 · 23 December 2011]

Fabrice Du Welz is that kind of director who doesn't make a film every year. The best known so far directed by him was Calvaire (2004). A horror that really took you by the throat. Vinyan was his follow-up made 4 years later. It's a complete other flick, still, it delivers some dark moments. People are arguing about it in what genre you would classify it, sure, it's a drama but the overall atmosphere gives it a horror feeling too. Towards the end it do goes darker and darker and once the children take over the jungle it surely reminded me of Children Of The Corn.

As I said, it's the atmosphere that defines this flick. The opening sequence already gives you the feeling what you will get. And i mean before Jeanne Bellmer (Emmanuelle Béart) comes out of the water. The acting by her and Rufus Sewell is excellent. The score used is creepy too and adds toward the atmosphere. It isn't arty but it leans against it. The director surely knew what he wanted.

The drama lays in the fact that Jeanne has lost her child and wants to find him back against all the negative advise. So she travels with her husband to the country she's thinking they could find him, but they need help from the locals, but the deeper they go in the woods the worser it gets. The horror lays in the fact that once they are deep in the wood and are depending on some guys money takes over and people are dying for it. Naturally the locals doesn't like what's going on and are out for revenge. It's low on blood but the last scene is worth watching.

Excellent performances, great camera-work, good score, that's what makes it a special experience to watch. And for those who want to see Emmanuelle Béart in her nudies, she goes full frontal.

Gore 1/5 Nudity 1,5/5 Effects 2/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

Boring...pointless...awful

[blackfield · 1/10 · 16 April 2009]

This has to be the most boring, god-awful movie I have ever seen. It's an hour and a half that drags on. No dialogue. No plot. No development, just scene after scene of mopey Rufus and that french woman.

The movie starts out mediocre, a couple is seizing one last hope of finding their missing child, but it goes quickly down hill from there. The wife is obviously completely insane but the husband just goes along with it. Even when she gives away all their money when they're in the middle of nowhere...even when she tries to drown herself...even when she goes nuts eating rice!?

Within 30 minutes I was starting to just repeat to myself "don't care...don't care" and reaching for the remote to fast forward past all the traveling scenes. There's about 20 minutes of actual movie, and then 1:10 hours of them walking or driving or boating or walking again...

There's no tension. There's no suspense. There's no pacing. The whole movie can be summarized as such:

1) Close up on wife's face. Hey look, she's sad and dead inside. 2) Wife freaks out and pushes husband further into the search. 3) Husband gets upset because he keeps following his crazy wife. 4) Traveling scene 5) Traveling scene 6 -> 19) Traveling scene 20) Hey look, they finally arrive and...nothing happens. GOTO 1

This repeats 3 times and you're done. Congrats, you just watched a boring, pointless, awful movie.

A Disturbing Journey to Insanity

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 24 October 2010]

In Phuket Island, Thailand, the architect Paul Bellmer (Rufus Sewell) and his wife Jeanne (Emmanuelle Béart) lost their son Joshua in a tsunami six months ago. Jeanne is disturbed and has not accepted the loss of her beloved son. While watching some footages from Myanmar (former Burma), Jeanne is convinced that a boy wearing a Manchester United shirt in a poor village is Joshua, and Paul accepts to seek out their son in the sea gypsies camp. They hire the trafficker Thaksin Gao (Petch Osathanugrah) and they travel in the boat of master Sonchai (Amporn Pankratok) to search Joshua. After a series of weird incidents, Sonchai leaves the trio in an abandoned village. They have to walk through the jungle where they face a journey to hell.

"Vinyan" is a disturbing journey to insanity visibly inspired in "Apocalypse Now" and with the same style of "Antichrist". The slow paced plot is supported by a good screenplay, stylish cinematography that keeps the environment of a nightmare and another outstanding performance of Emmanuelle Béart. I agree that this type of movie is not for everyone, but those that like original psychological horror stories without gore, explosions and special effects, will certainly enjoy "Vinyan". My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Espíritos Condenados" ("Doomed Spirits")

A tormented mind makes the strangest turns

[LazySod · 7/10 · 22 June 2009]

A father and a mother are living in Thailand, months after the tsunami that destroyed so many lives there. They lost their son in the flooding and are halfway between hopeful and completely lost and refusing to go home. When they hear the news of people selling children as slaves and see a picture of what might be their son they go out to search for more information.

Starting as the painful search for a missing family member this film clearly shows the choices one makes when faced with a problem one never should have to face. The desolation in the eyes of the parents is clear, the desperation of their choices is completely believable. And from there it goes - as the search leads them over the dark rivers one cannot escape the pain as the two of them are slide deeper and deeper into madness. Everything that happens matches the possibilities of a situation like this and that makes the film all that harder to chew down on. It's a sad tale and the ending is strange, but fitting.

7 out of 10 missing children

hmmmmm .......

[darrenlstewart · 1/10 · 30 August 2010]

really, really bad. Characters extract no empathy, sub-plots and arcs appear utterly irrelevant and the ending, oh my God, the ending. I wont say too much as this might spoil things for those with the stamina to stay for the duration but I am sure the young teenage lads were fighting for prime position. The whole thing was a complete waste of time and probably one of the all time worst films I have ever seen. My wife, who is prone to falling asleep when films don't grab her attention, stayed awake because she could not believe how bad it was.

I know there will be the "arty" types who will post comments about how haunting it was and how any contrary comment comes from the Philistines amongst us but please, please, avoid this film if you value your time. It was and is, absolute tosh.

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

[charjung · 1/10 · 31 December 2009]

I love suspense, thriller and horror movies. I saw the trailers for this movie when it was in theaters, and it's trailers often came on from movies I rented. Sadly the trailer is the best thing about this movie. There is no redeeming quality to the lead actress. I wanted to slap and shake her throughout the film. Several things happen that are so implausible that you have to keep saying to yourself, "It's only a movie - that makes no sense." I was so intrigued by the description if this film. The idea has a lot of potential, but the way it's handled is a bore. We laughed when we should have been scared and talked over the "scary" part. There is no suspense or thrill, and the only horror is that I sat through the whole thing.

Underrated and misunderstood

[divinours · 7/10 · 1 February 2013]

I had low expectations for this movie but was very pleasantly surprised. The slow pace of the storyline allows a gradual build-up of the atmosphere, which kept me interested to the end. This is helped by great set of locations (derelict villages and temples, rotting jungles...) that are masterfully depicted - both vividly and with a dreamlike quality that increases as the movie progresses. The actors are good (Petch Osathanugrah is particularly creepy) but do not overplay their roles, contributing to the dreamlike sensation. As the end draws near, the boundaries of reality, imagination and symbolism dissolve...

Most of the negative reviews here seem to come from people expecting a horror/gore movie or comparing Vinyan to Lynch's work. While there are graphic aspects to the movie, very creepy characters and an ending open to interpretation, these comparisons are inadequate. Forget about them and watch Vinyan with an open mind - you might not like it (it is one of its kind and not for everyone) but you won't regret having watched it.

This Is One F***ed Up Film!

[unemployedvirgin · 4/10 · 26 June 2011]

Having just seen it, i feel like i've been completely ripped off..and i didn't even pay to watch! So here's how this train-wreck of a tale goes..a rich couple find themselves thinking that their son has somehow survived a tsunami after 6 months and is living somewhere in Burma.

The opening plot seems simple enough, this is the part where i liked it and empathised with the characters (great casting). The soundtrack was always on point and the style of camera work being a third person voyeuristic p.o.v. seemed to flow well.

However, then we get into a repeated pattern of the wife (Emmanuelle Béart) going berserk every 20 minutes at the thought of finding her supposed living son. The following is not a sexist joke but c'mon get off the damn period!! It's not realistic when a woman goes into such a possessed state that you start wanting to reach into the television screen and slap her repeatedly across the face, hoping she gains consciousness. It got to a point where as the viewer i was rooting for her to get chewed up by a mythical squid during a couple boat scenes!

This goes on and on, as the forests get greener and the island/s get foggier, totally starting to lose the basis of any storyline...and then it happens: just when you think you've got this movie figured out, the leading man gets cannibalised by thousands of face painted children in a bloody jungle while this idiot of a "soul mate" watches, it ends with her looking up in the air naked whilst being covered in mud by the same messed up kids..smiling.

I mean..i know i'm not the first one to scream "WHAT THE F***". Sure the colour contrasting and director of photography give this film an extra boost of emotion but how am i the viewer meant to be coaxed along with a screenplay this s***. Yes i'm ranting on but trust me fellow reviewing reader..you watch this film and you will feel the exact same way.

If there is any upside to this it might be the fact that there's a couple tits and ass scenes as well as one short sex scene for a change in tone. On one hand i do agree that it's definitely an original idea but the execution was so poorly played out that during the first hour you tend to lose interest and kinda hope there something better around the corner to save this sinking ship.

A Conclusion you ask? not worth the spare time, although interesting and eerie it lacks the fundamentals of good storytelling. Thank You & Goodnight!

Effective, visually stunning, but quite uneven

[rlaine · 7/10 · 10 December 2010]

I had no idea should this be a horror movie or a drama, so I was not mislead by marketing. I was just going to watch an out-of-Hollywood movie about a couple who lost their children in the tsunami. The sons body was never found and the mother thinks he sees their son on a video filmed in a Burmese village, and the couple goes looking for him.

Very interesting from the beginning. There is a lot of mystery and themes of human trafficking etc involved and it seems the movie will follow a fairly conventional storyline. During the first half of the movie there is great buildup, amazing locations, dialog that moves the movie forward. All in all great.

Then, after a couple of incidents, the movie changes tone. It's been said that it reminds of Apocalypse Now, and it's not far fetched. The dialog is close to none in the latter half as the couple seems to be dwelling deeper into insanity. In my mind this did not work very well, as the beginning of the movie really seems to build up a somewhat different movie. Yet it's quite understandable considering the theme of loosing ones child.

The locations are very nice to look at and they're a good reason to catch this movie if not for anything else.

In any case, I think this IS a horror movie deep down, just not one you expect these days with lot's of gore (altho there is one very gory scene), jumpy scares and stereotypical characters. It is intense, creepy and will probably have an effect on grown up people and parents. Not necessarily understood by younger viewers looking for easier thrills.

Not one single redeeming factor except that it finished

[alex-662-311109 · 1/10 · 14 April 2010]

Like others who registered simply to leave a review I too did the same.

I just sat there incredulous that it was possible to raise the money to make this abomination. I do not know where or how to berate this movie so lets start with some technical aspects.

I see that they used film but the incompetence of the grading, developing, colourisation needs to be seen to be believed. It looked like they used digital cameras and then a really cheap grading system to add grain. Sound was appallingly mixed, badly balanced and careless. It seems they had no access to ADR facilities or the main actors refused to be involved. Editing was sloppy and needs serious tightening up.

Direction was lacking in every way, it seems there was a shooting ratio of 1:1 so you got stuck with whatever you ended up on the first take. The characters were so badly portrayed I had no empathy or interest whatsoever for them and the consequences of their actions. Talk about wooden I began to poke my screen. I am sure the actors do not talk about this movie when people ask them what they have done

What the hell was going on with that on the side 'love interest? Where did that lead to ,why? Pointless. Who cares?

The script and plot were laughable and incoherent leaving you with nothing. I am losing the will to live just thinking about the trite, inconsequential, schoolboy, badly thought out, improbable nature of what I saw. As for the last scene my jaw hit the ground as I realised, yes they could reach depths that would top the previous drivel.

Anyhow I have wasted enough time .

I am rarely driven to write something like this so I guess that is some measure of success but I am furious to have wasted my precious time watching this garbage. I am furious that this proves without a doubt raising money to make a film is nothing to do with the film and I am furious that there must be so many other so much more worthwhile things that are not being made.

Are the people who put this together professionals? Have they made films before? Is this a rich kid trying something out?

Anyhow the long and the short if it is watch paint dry instead, do not waste your time with this film. Do not support this level of incompetence in case they go on to make more.

I am astounded that there are reviews that rate this movie highly, maybe there are two movies with the same name. I wish I could vote 0 out of 10.

creepy and violent thriller

[thewalkingpuns · 6/10 · 21 February 2022]

This was pretty creepy and a lot more violent of a film then you would think based on the plot. Cast acted well. The story of their missing son could have been explored more because I couldn't really tell if they find him or not. The feral children gave the scare factor which added an almost horror element to it. Overall not bad but I did hope for a little more.

Bad, awful, wasteful...and that was the good part

[jjscribe · 1/10 · 3 October 2009]

Vin Yan is neither a horror or a thriller. It would fall more under drama, however this mislabelling is the least of the problems with this film. This film lacks artistic merit, any claims that the cinematography is excellent is moot. National Geographics offers excellent cinematography without the excruciating experience of a clueless meandering plot.

The editing is shoddy at best. Editing should help to provide some sort of continuity and flow to the film. It helps with pace. This movie has the gate of a shuffling zombie. It's scenes jump from night to day, with no real semblance of natural flow. It feels like Du Welz sifted through his terrible shots, and picked the least terrible, then spliced them together in a rough order.

You not only have to suspend a portion of disbelief, you have to suspend all sense of intelligence to sit through this film. The premise of a boy lost in a tsunami, only to later appear in a video is shaky. The fact that a seemingly intelligent couple would hand over large sums of money to some shady character that can barely hold himself together is unbelievable. The fact that the wife's decent into madness would be overlooked and glossed over by her husband, who in a small way encourages this behaviour, is completely asinine.

What disturbed me the most was the final scene, where small young boys fondle and wash Emmanuelle Beart in mud. As a matter of fact this film is an indirect commentary on the exploitation of children. Du Welz seems to have needlessly shown young girls and boys of questionable age in various forms of nudity and undress. If anything, the main characters lack of empathy with the plight of these kids, and their single minded quest of madness is unsettling at best. Where was child services during the filming of this drek? Oh right, he shot this in Thailand where I'm sure the laws suited his exploitive needs, and where he could dispense with such trivialities as morality.

This film is devoid of redeeming qualities. I would not wish anyone to have to sit through this. If we are lucky, all evidence of this film will be erased from history, and we as a human race may claim our place at the top of the evolutionary chain once again.

Worst Movie Ever!

A strange and hypnotic journey

[rolf_denny · 9/10 · 12 December 2010]

Before watching "Vinyan",I read some comments of IMDb users. Most of all said that the movie is a crap, that nobody should waste one hour and a half of your life watching it. Well, I guess that I saw some other movie.

First of all, the comparisons with David Lynch's works are not fair. Vinyan takes a direction that Lynch never got on his works (an original approach to ghost stories). So, don't believe if you read that this movie is a bad copy of Lynch's works.

Fabrice du Welz shows again why he's a great director,a truly great horror director (how can some critics call Darren Lynn Bousman, Eli Roth an Rob Zombie the "horror directors of the new generation"?). The atmosphere of his craft is fabulous, he manages to make the tension and insanity grow slowly and steadily.

Another great achievement of Welz is documentary feel that he impressed with his direction. The locations of the movies are also great, big and mysterious jungles, like if they were abyss that you just enter, but never leaves them.

Emanuelle Béart,with his explosive beauty, and Rufus Sewell give great performances. The process of disintegration of their marriage showed by them as they delve into the jungle is awesome.

Finally, this is the kind of movie that, before you try to comprehend it, you must feel it.

If you like it, watch "Calvaire", Welz's previous work, a real horror gem.

Forbidden voyage

[rooee · 7/10 · 21 June 2013]

I got a sneaking sense throughout Fabrice Du Welz's second feature film that much of the "horror" might be of the xenophobic, funny-looking-locals variety, but in the end there's more to the film than that. It's solid in its themes, drenched in atmosphere, and boasts two powerhouse performances.

The story concerns a pre-middle-aged couple, played by Rufus Sewell and Emmanuelle Beart, who lost their son in the 2004 mega-tsunami. Jeanne is convinced that Joshua is still alive, in Burma. Paul isn't so sure, but goes along with the idea, out of love for his wife. They soon find themselves being ferried between obliterated coastal villages, funds dwindling, hope dwindling.

What ensues is an intense psychological drama, with elements of horror. It becomes clear that Paul and Jeanne have distorted their shared memory of their son. He becomes a corrupting element in their relationship; an object to be possessed, if only one parent can prove that their grief, and thus their love, is greater.

Paul and Jeanne, a haunted, mixed-nationality couple, stumbling through an alien culture, never fully emerge from the long shadow of Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now, but Vinyan has some ideas of its own. The Lord of the Flies-esque final sequences are particularly memorable and distressing, archetypal in their menace, and throughout Du Welz is imaginative in his manipulation of sound and image to increase our dis-ease.

In a sense, this is torture porn for the psyche, rather than the soma. The mental breakdown of both man and wife is protracted and uncomfortable; extreme and occasionally implausible, although never silly. Always, the spectre of grief looms, so it's hard not to feel for the characters - something that many modern horror movies cannot claim.

stay away from this movie

[doorsguy71 · 1/10 · 24 October 2009]

This is the first time I've ever commented on a movie on IMDb, but I could not let this one go. This is by far the worst movie I have ever seen, The sound is terrible, the story line is terrible and Emmanuelle Béart is terrible. I have seen Rufus Sewell in other movies and he is a good actor, why he did Vinyan I haven't a clue. Unless you think you need to be punished for something, STAY AWAY FROM THIS MOVIE!!! It definitely makes the top Ten of worst films ever made. The plot is weak and it seems to drag in many parts of the movie. It also seemed as if the Director added sexual content that really had nothing to do with the movie. I believe watching paint dry would have been a better use of my time.

absolute crap!

[dr-dunk · 1/10 · 17 July 2009]

wow i cant believe i actually watched this train-wreck to the end. where do i start the stupid lady in the movie has about the brains of a 5 year old and what is up with these so called unknown horrors...they are fricken kids who throw rocks what kind of horror is that...i waited and waited for something to actually happen but it didn't. i would rather lie in a pool of needles then watch this disgustingly boring movie well actually its a disgrace to even call it a movie what i don't understand is all these people making movies with half a budget and making such crap story's instead of leaving it to the real professionals who have the required money to make an enjoyable movie its is absolute and utter crap avoid at all costs

Trip into the heart of darkness needs to be taken on its own terms to work. As it is its an eerie uneven tale

[dbborroughs · 7/10 · 16 August 2009]

Couple who lost their son in the tsunami in the Thailand are shocked to discover a figure that might be their son in video footage taken by a reporter deep in the jungle. Biting the bullet and wanting to find out for sure the couple heads into the jungle and their own heart of darkness. Dark brooding film is very much like the Joseph Conrad story that inspired Apocalypse Now. This is a story that takes the couple not only into the mysteries of the jungle but the mysteries of themselves. Nominally a horror film (the vinyan of the title are evil spirits) the film is actually something much different. Its a brooding meditation on love, loss and other things. Its a film filled with dread and uncertainty and an eerieness thats hard to shake. I was expecting a horror film of typical sort and instead I found a puzzle that I'm going to have to attempt again. I'm not sure what I really make of the film. Certainly the film is one of the most oppressively beautiful ones I've seen. The jungle is clearly the third lead character since it is in almost every frame of the film. The look of the film will haunt you. At the same time I kind of suspected where the film was going.Its a film that echoes other films (who's names I won't mention because that might reveal too much) which isn't to say that there is a problem with that, only that you may know what may lay at the end (which is what it has to be). I like the film, but at the same time I know I have to see it again because it was so not what I was expecting that I know it interfered with my feelings for it. Worth a look for those wanting off beat psychological horror.