Director: Fruit Chan
Year: 2009
Country: USA/Japan/South Africa
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Traveling to Romania to finish a legendary movie, a troubled director and his crew must deal with the effects of a deadly curse over the production in the form of a deadly ghost killing off anyone involved and must deal with it before succumbing to the same effects as the previous crew.
Review:
Overall, this one was pretty enjoyable if a wholly disappointing effort. This one really tends to get going with the rather enjoyable and exciting back-story here detailing the effects of the gypsy curse and revelations about the early film. It's quite the creepy story that would've made for a rather enjoyable film had it ever been filmed. This makes the filming of these scenes quite enjoyable as there's a fine sense of atmosphere displayed there during these scenes when looking back at them through the film cameras which makes many of these accidents quite thrilling. From falling lights, broken rigs, and failing light-work all conspiring against the crew in a slew of grisly incidents, they come off rather nicely here to carry on the legacy of the curse. In addition to the few startling ghost attacks on the stage-rafters and the ambush down in the basement, these all set up the final half as the curse comes about with more deadly accidents. With events taking place in the development lab, a thrilling revelation sequence on the movie set as the replayed events of the original story are enacted, and then finally meeting up with the main spirit, these help it somewhat against the big flaws here.
Among the biggest flaws is the fact that there's just no end to the rather convoluted and completely meaningless visions he keeps experiencing. The most distressing factor here is that these don't really further the movie at all. Rather than serving as a way to keep going on the filmed movie or even gaining insight into how to defeat the ghostly being stalking around the set, they're more used to showcase supposedly creepy images and jump-scares. This becomes troubling since those investigative elements are what's to be expected in this kind of situation here that doesn't mean much instead as there's little purpose to the visions. The idea of exploring the connection between the cursed film and the life of the tragic gypsy woman should’ve been a more coherent aspect such is the importance it holds within the storyline, and are simply being there instead to remind us how troubled he is. It also doesn't help matters that all these scenes do is serve to highlight the film's next big problem in the uneven pacing.
The uneven pacing is a huge issue as there are so many stretches here where nothing really happens. The filming of the movie and the different backstage interactions with the cast and crew trying to fix the problems with their shoot play out in very long stretches that there are times when this one tends to run aground and derail itself by not going for the main storyline involving the curse on display against the film crew as they deal with their own petty problems or utilizing his moronic visions that keep the ghost actually off-screen so long into this one its main appearance isn’t until the final battle. That causes some big problems with a running time far longer than necessary as a result due to this overlong padding. That in itself is the biggest issue holding this one back, as while the lame CGI for the lone ghost sequence might be another detriment, it's not as bad compared to these other factors that hold this one down.
Overview: **.5/5
With some big issues that really hold back the film from its few solid positives, the film is a bit more watchable than expected but still has plenty wrong with it that holds this back overall. Really only give this one a shot if you're a Fruit Chan completist or just curious about this one, while all others really have no need to look at this one.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
Comments
Post a Comment