The Long Walk review – inventive Laotian horror of ghosts and time travel

A magnetic central performance from Yannawoutthi Chanthalungsy anchors Matty Do's excellently spooky tale of destructive hubris

Following the critically acclaimed Dearest Sister, Laos's first female director, Mattie Do, has crafted another enigmatic tale that sets itself apart from the usual horror fare, offering plenty of genre pleasures while retaining an arthouse aesthetic. In an impoverished Laotian village, an unnamed farmer (Yannawoutthi Chanthalungsy) leads a near-hermit-like existence. His daily rituals involve scavenging for metal scraps, which he sells for little money. His reticent demeanour, however, betrays none of his discontent.

Yet, just as secrets lie beneath the landscape, he has skeletons in his closet. He is haunted by his mother's death from severe lung disease, and while people whisper about his ability to speak to the dead, no one knows that, since his childhood encounter with a ghost, he has taken it upon himself to relieve dying women of their suffering by euthanising them. As their apparitions wander for eternity, these spectres embody his own inability to break free of the past.