During the Vietnam War, a Viet Cong soldier stationed in the claustrophobic Cu Chi tunnels is haunted by the ghost of a fallen comrade.

Dao (Lap Phan), a Viet Cong soldier, is giving proper burial to a fallen fellow soldier due to his belief that a dead person’s soul may wonder the Earth for eternity if their body is improperly buried. When the enemy is getting closer to their site, Dao is warned by Quan (Henry Vo), another fellow soldier, to leave as soon as possible before they get caught. Dao doesn’t want to leave before finishing his ritual, especially since moments before he began to feel something strange wandering in the tunnels. As soon as Dao finishes, or so he thinks, he starts to be chased by a paranormal presence. But, is it really a ghost or is it symptom caused by the limited traveling space inside the tunnels?

Wandering Soul (2016) is a short film based in the psychological operation of the same name played by the United States during the Vietnam War. Basically, the operation consisted of playing strange audios with altered voices that pretended to be the souls in pain of the fallen Viet Cong soldiers. What effect did this experiment have? The final result is unknown. However, in these times it can be seen as a cruel way to play with the beliefs of a person considering what the Vietnamese people believe in.

Wandering Soul is an interesting short film as it mixes elements of the horror genre with a war story in the background. The story is good, concise and well adapted to the facts on which it’s based; in addition to that, it does not exhaust the viewer with many unexpected turns and the story has an end. The effects are very well put while using low light in the eerie atmosphere; as this way the purpose of the details are more effective.

Wandering Soul is creepy yet fascinating. It will make you jump several times and feel distressed by the soundtrack. It is another type of subgenre that should be considered more often when creating horror war movies; more emphasis on the psychological factor than on the supernatural elements.