Scaremonger
Director: Aman Chang
Year: 2001
Rating: 4.0
Aman Chang has had
a varied filmography in his few years of directing – from Cat III nonsense
like a few of the Raped by an Angel films to action fare such as Body Weapon
and Fist Power to the comic foibles of Mr. Wai-go, Love and Sex of Eastern
Hollywood and Cop Shop Babes. He has jumped from genre to genre – but he
brings a consistently low brow commercial mentality to them all. Another
common characteristic of most of his films is that they are simply not very
good (though I would venture that Mr. Wai-go and Love and Sex are rather
fun). Though often slickly produced, they are generally devoid of any intelligence
whatsoever – all style over substance. Scaremonger is even a step down for
Chang – it is still utterly vapid but doesn’t even offer his usual visual
or titillating pleasures.
Chang has to be given credit (?) here for somehow managing to get to the
90-minute mark with a story as flimsy as a see through negligee. Of course,
to accomplish this he has to throw in more filler than in a basic fast food
hamburger – but it isn’t nearly as tasty. What begins as a potential horror
story wanders around forever searching for its identity – is it a comedy (well
it tries), is it a romance (well not exactly), is it supernatural (stupidly
so) or is it just what ever came into Chang’s head on a given day. Of the
running time only a small percentage of it is really devoted to what one might
consider the main story – the rest is just mindless riffing.
There is one positive that comes out of this viewing experience – Angela
Tong. I have seen her in a few other films – Bio-Zombie, PR Girls, Last Ghost
Standing – but all of a sudden she appears all grown up and generates a very
sensual and smoky presence. She is someone that I want to see more of in adult
roles. Chang though limits her screen time to a few scenes and concentrates
on the threesome of Sam Lee, Jerry Lam and newcomer Myolie Wu. Sam is up to
his usual wide-mouthed shtick, Myolie comes across as a Vivian Hsu clone and
Jerry is fast approaching a place on my list of “most annoying Hong Kong actors”
along with Eric Kot and Natalis Chan. Chang seemingly allows him to do whatever
he pleases even performing a five minute standup routine with a blow up doll
that has no place in the film and is not in the least bit amusing. Jerry
is tolerable in a supporting role – but as one of the leads he makes you
reach desperately for the fast-forward on the remote like a drowning man
for a life preserver.
Like a sultry siren, Angela slinks her way through a crowded disco and lays
her bedroom eyes on men like heat-seeking missiles – and makes her choice
according to blood type –AB is the blood du jour. She easily convinces them
to come home with her where they are quickly turned into bloody fillets. Someone
is hungry - and even children will do. Sam Lee and Jerry are looking into
these mysterious deaths and recruit a ghost hunter – Myolie – who is as tough
as a Hello Kitty toy on holiday. Myolie brings along her “little spirit”
who for some reason is an Englishman that likes to milk at Jerry’s breast.
The film then devolves into a lot of pointless attempts at comedy and romance
before it comes back to the horror aspects of the film. In a luscious turn,
Angela has been luring men back to her apartment to feed her zombie husband
and the threesome soon come face to face with him. There are enticing glimpses
within the film of something that could have been interesting – but it bypasses
all of these for tedious pap and annoying dialogue and not nearly enough
Angela.
