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Review
by Kozo: |
It's low-budget Hong Kong horror in the nearly direct-to-video
Unplugging Nightmare. Yoyo Mung stars as a Chi,
a reporter who's been plagued by the same freaky nightmare
since childhood. In the dream, she sees a creepy old
house and a mysterious woman in a rocking chair. Luckily,
the dream only seems to cause her morning stress, and
no apparent long-term damage. Meanwhile, her new editor/boyfriend
Joe (Edmond Leung) assigns her to a series of articles
on reputed haunted houses. With pal/coworker Kei (Jo
Koo) in tow, Chi happens upon—surprise—the
exact same house that infests her dreams! Suddenly her
nightmares become day-intruding visions, and her stress
starts to manifest itself in supreme moodiness. She
also makes a new friend in handsome Man (Michael Tong),
who may or may not be connected to her freaky visions.
As the visions get more vivid, ultimate truths and possible
revelations seem right around the corner. But will the
biggest nightmare of all be Joe's increasingly unnerving
jealousy?
As low-budget exercises
in horror go, Unplugging Nightmare isn't the
worst film out there. While not scary at all, the film
does manage a decent cheapo horror look of blues, grays,
and occasional reds, and the cast is made up of familiar,
if not A-list faces. Yoyo Mung and Jo Koo are two young
actresses who've always seemed destined for more than Troublesome Night duty, so thier presence in
the cast is promising...though possibly worrisome for
their agents. On the other hand, Michael Tong and Edmond
Leung are no strangers to the direct-to-video thing,
so both should just be glad that Unplugging Nightmare wasn't shot on or released directly to video—though
its theatrical play likely consisted of three screens
and a total of twenty-five showings. With all the above
working for (Or against?) the film, Unplugging Nightmare turns out to be standard cable TV fodder for those who
dig the stars or are merely bored silly. Those looking
for a more substantial film, or at least a workable
Asian horror entry like Visible Secret, should
definitely skip Unplugging Nightmare because
it does nothing that requires attention or even a passing
glance. There are scarier, more intelligent, and much
better horror flicks out there. If we ignored logic
and quality, then maybe we could call this an average
film. But really, it isn't one. (Kozo 2004) |
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