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Review
by Kozo: |
A
bunch of semi-hot idols get freaked out in The
Haunted School, a so-so teen horror flick produced
by the guy who directed the film that inspired The
Departed. Infernal Affairs co-director
Andrew Lau had a hand in this deadly-generic genre
entry, though it's former exploitation king "Cash"
Chin Man-Kei who's at the helm. Chin certainly seems
to have learned from Lau; Haunted School is
full of flashy editing tricks and completely superfluous
style. Shock sound effects, overamped screams, MTV-style
flashes and cuts - Chin employs a full repertoire
of stylish film technique in an attempt to jazz up
this tired genre. He partly succeeds; Haunted School
is egregiously stylish, which could amuse ADD-addled
audiences looking for more than the usual slow-moving
Asian horror fare. Whether or not you should see the
film is relative to what you're expecting. Those looking
for transcendent Asian horror should look elsewhere,
while those looking for afterschool time killing with
similarly-uniformed high school friends may be partially
amused. However, regardless of who you are, this is
not a good film.
The action picks up
at an all-girls school which is about to get four
new students. The problem: they're all boys. The arrival
of Hon-Keung (Tsui Tin-Yau of Shine), Dick (Steven
Cheung of Sun Boy'z), Ben (Dennis Mak of Sun Boy'z)
and Charlie (EEG product Don Li) sends the all-girl
student body into a tizzy, but stern teacher Miss
Fong (Amande Lee) vehemently disapproves. She cites
the school's many strangely stringent rules, including
one that forbids the students from falling in love.
However, the rules have more to them than a punishment
of detention; the school actually has a mysterious
tragic history tied to the rules, which is spelled
out rather explicitly in the film's opening credits.
Basically, you break a rule and some ghostly spectre
of the school comes after you, usually resulting in
your untimely death and the appearance of a black
person-shaped shadow on the school lobby wall. Each
day a cleaning lady tries to wipe off the shadow,
but it never seems to disappear. One would think that
little fact would make everybody leave the school
right away, but it seems the school has still been
in business for twenty-plus years with disturbing
person-shaped shadows clinging to the walls. Parents:
please do better research when choosing schools for
your kids.
Once kids start getting
offed, its apparent that people better take these
rules seriously. That the rules run counter to your
usual youth activities - dating, smoking, generally
acting rebellious - offers up some decent suspense
in Haunted School. That suspense, however,
is usually negated by the bombastic style, which basically
telegraphs whatever ill fortune is about to occur.
Fast cutting, screen flashes, and plenty of bloodcurdling
screams all combine to make this one of the most tiring
teen horror films around. Even more, the characters
themselves aren't interesting enough to make what
happens to them matter. Their conflicts and issues
are routine, and when they start falling in love,
one is hard pressed to care. When Charlie breaks into
the girls dormitory to tell Cat (Kelly Fu) that he
loves her, the resulting syrupy confession of affection
borders on nauseating. Likewise, the budding romance
between Hon-Keung and frigid head prefect Yat-Man
(Theresa Fu of Cookies) isn't very interesting either.
The two are probably the most watchable in this group
of young idols (sorry Steven of Boy'z, but you lose
this battle), but their pairing feels like just another
requirement on whatever genre checklist the filmmakers
devised. Some creativity or surprise would be welcome,
but there seems to be none on offer here.
Still, it's not all disappointing
if one remembers what they're watching. Haunted
School is routine stuff, and hits many of its
marks well enough that viewers who dig this exact
genre may find the proceedings to be passably diverting.
There are the occasional freaky images, and Menfond
Digital's work is effective when it's not cheesy or
fake-looking. Also, there's always some guilty pleasure
in watching teen idols get offed one by one. Those
who go in with the proper expectations will probably
not be disappointed by Haunted School. Unfortunately,
those expectations aren't very high, and having those
lowered expectations pretty much means that you expect
to pay money for a middling-to-poor movie experience.
The ability to appreciate bad movies is virtually
required if you expect to tolerate Haunted School.
Either that, or you must be so enamored of one or
more of these idols that you'll watch them in nearly
anything. As there are two members of Sun Boy'z (Steven
Cheung and Dennis Mak) and also two members of the
now-defunct Life is Beautiful (Toby Leung and Macy
Chan), one suspects that attracting these types of
moviegoers was exactly what the filmmakers intended.
Which ultimately means that Haunted School is probably not for most of us. (Kozo 2007) |
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