New Year’s Eve, a sinister guest, and the Buddhist principles curiously intersect in this year’s surprise gem, Countdown, a Thai psychological thriller about the depth and darkness of our secrets and lies.

Teen stars Pachara Chirathivat (SuckSeed, The Billionaire), Jarinporn Joonkiat (Dear Galileo), and Pattarasaya Kreursuwansiri (The Bedside Detective) play three seemingly ordinary roommates in New York City celebrating the end of 2012 with marijuana and alcohol. But their bacchanal turns into a nightmare when an uninvited visitor unveils his flagitious motive, forcing the three to fight for their lives. However, as the night darkens and the three roommates’ furtive pasts get decorticated, true demons are revealed—demons that, shamefully, may be not that different from any of us.

Quick pace and rapid editing keep the tone suspenseful and engaging, while crepitated fingers and crawling cockroaches confirm that this film is not for the fainthearted. Though largely violent, the plot inserts a powerful moral of the story that invites the audience to reflect on their own lives after the movie ends.

David Asavanant (Tom-Yum-Goong) shines as the film’s psychotic antagonist delivering the rhadamanthine punishment. And Jarinporn effectively abandons her innocent characters she has frequently played to assume the role of a young woman with a dark, secret past.

But the secrets are revealed too easily, and their somewhat “simple” nature softens the explosive impact they could have made. Pattarasaya’s uninteresting portrayal of a superficial student still remains the film’s weakest link. And the film’s concluding epilogue about sins and redemptions borders on being preachy and self-righteous.

Psychological thrillers are a niche and nascent genre in the Thai cinema, bound to receive more international praise than domestic appreciation. But Countdown might just change that. Its unique blend of violence and Buddhism manages to both deliver entertainment and make its key message relevant to the young Thai audience.