Director: Kevin Ko
Year: 2009
Country: Taiwan
Alternate Titles: Jue ming pai dui
Genre: Torture Slasher
Plot:
Attending a lavish party, a group of strangers intending to use the celebration as a means of networking with an elite society instead find the whole affair is a cover for the hosts to spend the evening torturing and murdering them for past indiscretions and must find a way to stop it from continuing.
Review:
Overall, this one is solid enough despite some issues. One of the better features here is a fine and workable premise that sets everything in motion. Operating under the guise of a networking party for the super-elite but featuring a much darker underbelly that provides the impetus for the action to follow, everything comes together quite nicely. With the original party plans serving to get the group to the particular event unaware of the true intent behind the festivities, the darkness of the eventual reveal as a setup intending to torture and kill them in brutally horrific means is rather shocking. When added alongside the secondary storyline about each of the guests being sent there purposefully by an associate of the club to punish them for indiscretions that were committed against them so that everyone is lying to a degree, the main setup of the film comes off well enough.
That serves the film perfectly to launch into its main impetus with the stand-out practical gore effects. As befits a film in this particular style, the work here is brutal and graphic with impactful outcomes designed to spill as much carnage as possible which causes plenty of extreme discomfort in the variety of kills featured here. Containing slit throats, snapped limbs, close-quarter gunshot wounds, and mutilations with hand tools is just a taste of the stuff on display throughout here as the party takes a dark turn and the true purpose of their presence is discovered. This provides a great base for the encounters throughout where the brutality inflicted by the Elite society trying to kill them and the counterpoints by the victims trying to fight back leave this with some highly effective moments to give this a lot to like.
This one has some big issues with it. The biggest factor is something outside of the film's control but the overall concept which makes it feel like any other film in its particular genre. Featuring so many of the same elements commonly associated with the style including the usual favoring of brutal violence at the expense of character-building, a pessimistic tone without any kind of comedic levity to break the tone, and much more, this one loses a lot of its identity by being another entry in this style without much else to really differentiate it from many other films. That also brings about some pacing issues when he confronts the leader of the torturers explaining everything which just reinforces these aspects so it's quite dull at points. This is especially true for those who aren’t bothered by the gore and want more substance in their films which this lacks, as both of these end up bringing this one down.
Overview: ***/5
Incredibly effective in this style but doing very little else to separate it from the pack, this manages to be a generally watchable affair but has few other factors that make it worthwhile. Those who appreciate the style or approach featured here as well as general Asian horror fanatics will be the most likely target here while most others who aren’t into those factors should heed caution with this one.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
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