Here are my theories for The Medium (2021) because no one did and I am frustrated.
I am scared of ghosts.
Yup, just starting it off with this statement so you can manage your expectations as you read on. I am the typical “too scared but curious” kind of loser who can’t watch horror movies alone and overthink too much after watching till I don’t dare to sleep afterwards. So forgive me but I think I’m a fucking champion for surviving this movie in the cinema theatre, especially on a late night screening during the 7th month.
Just a quick explanation of the 7th month for those who don’t know: 7th (lunar) Month, also called the Ghost Month, is a traditional Taoist and Buddhist festival held in certain East Asian countries. The gates of Hell open and all ghosts..erm basically come out to play for a whole month, with the Ghost Festival falling on the 15th night. I am not overly afraid and wary of spirits, but I do believe they have some form of existence co-existing with us and the least I can do is to give them ample respect to basically not fuck anything up. Leave me alone and I’m good.
Anyway, back to the main point, I gave a brief review on @elliellellielle (same handle on Instagram) but because of the word limit, I am posting my own theory for what I think went down and triggered the whole series of events in this movie, as well as my questions that were left unanswered. Carry on reading at your own cost because it’s full of spoilers.
Theories
[Theory #1] Ming was already possessed before the start of the movie
We were led to wonder if the exact point in time when Ming started on a decline was when she got possessed and behaving more and more out of control. But I am convinced that whatever’s possessing her has already been in her right from the very first scene that she appeared in, which is her dad’s funeral.
Note that Nim already felt something inauspicious when she drove to Ming’s dad’s funeral and saw a dead animal lying on the road. Nim also asked Ming was okay as she was the first one who discovered his body. Then the weird scene at night after Ming screamed at her uncle for calling her a slut, and the blind old lady making eye contact with her before she was discovered dead the next morning. Later on, we found out that Mac, Ming’s brother, actually died by suicide and not by a motorcycle accident. It was a cover up for the fact that Mac and Ming were in an incestuous relationship.
The above are all separate events that could somehow link to her subsequent over-sexualised behaviour where her possessed self had rough sex with a random guy in her office (causing her to get fired afterwards)+ the seemingly unimportant story at the start where Nim was saying how all men from Ming’s dad’s side of the family die young. It was only towards the end where we realised what Ming’s grandfather did probably was 1 of the 2 triggers for the subsequent events (I’ll explain this later for my next theory). While Ming appeared normal at the start of the movie, I think whatever possessed her is more of a sleeper agent at the start. It is definitely a spirit that plans long-term to hit the different bases before swooping in for the big kill in the end. I am led to believe that Mac’s suicide and the dead animal on the road when Nim drove to Ming’s dad’s funeral was all her possessed doing.
[Theory #2] The “Big Boss” for Ming’s possession and the subsequent massacre are the vengeful spirits from the thread factory
The 2 most viable triggers that led to Mink’s possession are undoubtedly Ming’s grandfather burning down his thread factory + Noi rejecting the succession of Bayan.
Premise:
- Ming’s grandfather died young as he got caught burning down his thread factory for insurance payouts so he committed suicide. It is not as simple as it sounds as we see a lot of skeletons in the abandoned factory at the latter half of the movie. Ming’s grandfather basically took down his employees as casualties when he burned that factory down.
- Noi is Ming’s mother. The maternal side of the family has passed down the succession of having the spirit Bayan possessing over a female family member for generations. As the eldest daughter, Noi exhibited symptoms in her early 20s that Bayan was about to start possessing her. But she rejected and fled to Christianity in order to get away from the succession so Nim ended up being the next successor. Noi’s rejection might be a trigger itself.
- Nim’s impactful confession at the end of the movie where she tearfully admitted she wasn’t sure that the ceremony to expel the spirits out of Mink will succeed because after all these years, she actually doesn’t know if what possessed Nim is even Bayan or if Bayan even came to her in the first place at all.
I have a couple of probable combinations as to the trigger of Ming’s possession and the subsequent fuckery that annihilated everyone because I am unsure myself.
- Bayan is truly the kind and helpful spirit as Nim said. But when Noi rejected the succession in her early 20s, Bayan permanently left the family. This left them vulnerable to attacks from evil spirits, which led to the thread factory’s vengeful spirits to run the show afterwards. This links with why Bayan’s statue was beheaded, it may be the vengeful spirits’ doing.
- Bayan might not be as good as we think. The moment Noi rejected Bayan’s succession is when Bayan became vengeful and teamed up (lol) with the equally vengeful spirits from the thread factory.
- Noi’s rejection to Bayan never mattered. Sure, it sucks and probably gets you bad karma. But the sole thing that triggered everything is burning down the thread factory. It didn’t help that it was covered during the movie where the dead’s offsprings continued cursing their family, hoping for them to get bad karma. That may explain why Yasanthian (the evil spirit that its identity was kept unknown and hinted its presence throughout the movie) came into play afterwards. Yasanthian may be the spirit that birthed from the vengeful spirits and their living offspring’s cursing. Ming was merely the sheep lying in the crossfire.
I’m leaning more towards the combination of #1 and #3. I am inclined to believe that Yasanthian possessed Noi at the last moment where she gleefully stuck the joss sticks upside down and screwed their last chance at completing the expulsion ceremony. And that possession is in itself, the last step at completing the revenge against the whole family and anybody who is present to assist with the ceremony. Maybe Noi’s rejection to Bayan never mattered but she still got roped in due to her marriage with her husband. That simple.
My Unanswered Questions
- Why did the priest laugh before driving off to the last ceremony at the thread factory? The documentary crew asked isn’t it dangerous to drive with Noi being tied up and he said it doesn’t matter and asked them if they saw the wordings at the back of the car as it was already marked with the words “This car is red”. Did the priest knowingly sabotaged the ceremony because they were traveling in a marked car to the thread factory or, even better, he tricked them into doing the ceremony that has the opposite effect. My friend had a very good possible explanation to this: The priest knew Ming is doomed from the start and he was just going through the motions (cue to the scene where Nim was asking the priest why is he doing all those “performances” and he said it’s for money). It was just that he didn’t expect Ming’s aunt to sabotage the ceremony and he ended up succumbing to the “big boss” as well when he thought he was done with the ceremony and pulled off the white ribbon that was supposedly the one to protect them.
- If the expulsion ceremony was legitimate, why was Noi the one tied up to the ceremony and not Ming?
- Just how much does Nim know? I just find it amazing that if she knew that she was just pretending to have Bayan in her all these years, she actually is brilliant in knowing some of the answers right away. Cases in point: knowing right away that Mac did not die due to a motorcycle accident and that the siblings were committing incest + praying to Mac in hopes to appease his vengeance and find Ming after she disappeared but she immediately knew that Mac wasn’t behind it as she cracked an egg that released dark liquid instead of the usual egg white and yolk and she knew to go to the thread factory to find Ming. Since she’s pretending to be a shaman, how does she know all these things? Was she involved in some matters more than we know?
Okay, now that I am done word vomiting my random trail of thoughts that have been bothering me after the movie, I shall rest my brain and (hopefully) stop obsessing about what really happened. I honestly can’t wait for more people to watch this movie so there’s a chance of more theories being posted online. And I shall stay away from horror movies for a good period of time now. I’m so bloody scared lol.
