Dial "D" for Demon
They’re everywhere. They’re all around us. There
is no escape from them. Ghosts and bad HK horror films that is. Most of
us fortunately can’t see the ghosts, but regretfully we all can see the
horror films. Director Billy Tang once again takes us into the low rent
district of supposed HK horror. This is admittedly a step up from his recent
Raped by an Angel 5 – but it feels like a story with forty-five minutes
of ideas expanded like a hot air balloon into a ninety-minute film. So
we get lots of scenes of people running upstairs and then downstairs and
then back upstairs and so on. There are some good moments towards the end
but by then all but Job will have lost patience with this flick – and even
Job never had to sit through a low budget HK horror film.
Jordan Chan can sometimes be very charming and
interesting in films and other times he can be irritating beyond my endurance.
He chooses the latter mode for this film and his performance consists of
him yelling at everyone – all the time. This isn’t so much acting as having
a cathartic outlet. He should pay for sessions like this. At any rate,
his character has the ability to see ghosts with his sixth sense (gee where
did they come up with this idea?) and he explains to his co-workers that
they are everywhere. But as long as you don’t bother them, they won’t bother
you.
He and five friends decide to rent a house on
a small island for a weekend of fun and relaxation. Along for the trip
is his girlfriend, two female friends and two illicit lovers (Terrence
Yin – of the recent Rave Fever – and Ann d’ Alexandry d’ Orengiani – Love
Generation HK). Things go badly right from the beginning as Jordan fights
with his girlfriend and then begins seeing ghosts everywhere. There is
something wrong here though with this ghost he explains to the others –
this is a vengeful and monstrous spirit.
They try to escape but every road leads back
to the house they are staying in – and every hallway leads back to the
same room. They start getting messages on their beepers – that they are
next to die – and soon one by one the six people start to be killed off.
There isn’t really much here – a few nice scenes
of panic – though the one of them all stomping on their beepers was sort
of funny – and there is a certain poignancy when they begin to realize
that they are all likely to be dead before the morning comes.
It’s nice seeing Ann d’ Alexandry d’ Orengiani
again – even in a film like this. She was very good in a few films that
I saw a while back, but have not seen her in anything lately. She definitely
has one of the loveliest faces around. This film might have made a good
segment in an anthology horror film – but as it is:
My rating for this film: 5.5
