Directed by Wisit Sasanatieng, Netflix’s latest thriller comedy film from Thailand, “The Murderer,” is a promising approach to this genre. This Thai thriller movie claims to be different and definitely lives up to that promise. From the start, it’s clear that “The Murderer” is not a normal crime comedy. Instead, it takes a fresh look at the genre and keeps the audience interested from beginning to end. The calculated chaos in the film outsmarts the brilliance of the writing. The screenplay lacks the potential to make it outstanding, but all in all, if you want to have fun watching a crime comedy, “The Murderer” can definitely provide that.
*Spoilers Ahead*
The Murderer (2023) Netflix Plot Summary And Movie Synopsis:
We are introduced to Sai and Earl, who are traveling to Sai’s parents’ house. They are eager to meet June, Sai’s brother’s daughter, who is the victim of her parents’ divorce. Sai’s brother Kai is divorced from Tukta, who now claims to be June’s guardian. Tukta is now married to Charlie, who is a kind-hearted, fun-loving American. Earl, on the other hand, is British and married to Sai.
Sai’s father, Boonluck, mother, Jan, and Auntie Par are living together in the house, taking care of June. Sai and Earl visit them when Tukta and Charlie arrive. A tropical storm is on the verge of landing a critical blow on the house, so Earl is planning to protect the windows of the house with wood pillars.
Charlie, since he loves construction work, wants to lend a hand to Earl. Tukta is not happy with his decision, but she leaves her husband and goes on her own. Sai goes inside the house to help her mother and aunt with household work. Boonluck, Sai’s father, is unhappy with his ‘farang’ (foreign) sons-in-law. He is always shouting at them, but both Earl and Charlie take him lightly since he is an old person and father to their wives.
June comes from the market, and Earl welcomes her with all his warmth. In the meantime, we see Jan complaining about June being a burden to them in front of Sai. Sai does not like to hear these things, so she asks her mother to stop thinking of them in such a way. June is a family, and the family takes care of each other. Amidst all this, June comes in and hugs Sai. Sai tells her that after dinner, she will give her a present. Jan tells Sai that Phet is also coming to dinner. Phet is Sai’s ex-husband, so it makes her a bit uncomfortable. Right after dinner, Sai gives June the present she promised. It is a mobile phone that makes June very happy.
Suddenly there is a power cut, and Earl tells Sai to wait in the room while he checks on what is going on. A few moments later, Earl comes in, covered with blood all over his body. Sai doesn’t understand what is happening. She comes downstairs and finds Boonluck shouting that Earl has killed Kai and Phet in front of his eyes. Sai doesn’t believe anything he says, as she knows that Earl himself is severely injured and needs medication. She asks auntie Par to go upstairs and find her the first-aid box. Sai asks Boonluck to show the bodies of Kai and Phet if, indeed, they are killed.
Boonluck takes her and Jan outside, but there are no bodies. Right at that moment, Auntie Par’s body thrashed on the ground; her neck broke, and she died in front of the three. Boonluck now believes that Earl must have thrown her out of the window. They become very cautious about him. The night goes wild, and everyone else is killed, apart from Sai, June, and Jan. Even Tukta and Charlie are dead.
Jan calls a police officer amidst all of this, and the officer wrongly visits Charlie and Tukta’s house. The officer tells them about a call he received from Boonluck’s house. Tukta is worried about June, and she tells the officer that the two of them will guide him to the address. Charlie and Tukta are also killed. Earl is the prime suspect in all these killings. The police start to investigate, and every clue falls against Earl. It is about time that Earl gets the death penalty. But a crucial piece of evidence comes in at the very last moment and changes the whole scenario.
The Murderer (2023) Netflix Movie Ending Explained:
How is Earl proven Innocent?
The phone that Sai gave to June is a piece of proof. June is so happy about getting a new phone that she starts taking videos immediately that night. In the first video she made, Kai and Phet were drinking and yelling. In the clip, the cops see Earl walk in and gently ask them to end their party because a storm is coming.
At that moment, Earl notices that a wooden stake has lost a nail and is now hanging from the window. He turns on a flashlight and tries again to nail a nail to the wooden pillar. Kai and Phet laugh when he hits a nail with the hammer. They make a sound like the hammer is hitting them.
When Boonluck sees this from far away, the whole thing turns into a misunderstanding. He thinks that Earl is hitting Kai and Phet with the hammer because of the shadow and the shouts. Later, in one of the videos, the cops see that Phet is killed when a car rolls over him, meaning that Earl is not the murderer. Earl’s life is spared because of these videos, and he is now free to go.
What actually happened that Night?
At the end of the film, when we get a close-up of June and see what she has been up to, everything becomes clear. She goes to play with Charlie and Tukta’s son one day, and she finds a magic mushroom called psilocybin. It can change one’s mind and make one hallucinate. Those who eat it will see things that aren’t there. June is sick and tired of her family. She knows that Sai and Earl are the only ones who love her. She hears Jan and everyone else talking about how hard it is to take care of her. So, she makes up her mind to get rid of them for good. She picks up some of those mushrooms and puts them in the soup.
On that night, everyone eats the soup except Earl and Sai, who don’t like the soup by the look of it. Everyone acts the way they do that night because of the side effect of the mushroom. They all started seeing things. Boonluck dies when he sees the ghost of his mother, who is actually June, standing before him. Jan, on the other hand, gets away from all of this and is now in the hospital. The cops are watching her. The cops come to the conclusion that the mushroom is the cause of all the chaotic things that happened that night.
However, the head of the investigation, Inspector Nawat, had no idea that a little girl like June could plan such a horrible mass murder. Anyway, June, Sai, Earl, and Tukta’s son leave the town and are on their way to a better life.
