Day 115: Rigor Mortis

This Hong Kong horror is, apparently, an homage to the Mr. Vampire series of films that I have never seen. The star of those films moves into a run-down apartment block where he immediately tries to kill himself. He is taken over by the spirits of twin dead girls and swiftly exorcised by a retired vampire hunter who runs a noodle bar. Look, I am making this sound kind of awesome when it is, in fact, only average.

After the botched suicide, the second act is pretty slow as all pieces are put in place for a black magic artist to create a vampire that the twin girls can possess. I will say, I was happy with some choices they made in terms of who survives this building up period. A character that would never be harmed in a U.S. movie gets obliterated here. We get the backstory of the dead girls and the origin of the vampire as the suicidal guy befriends the vampire hunter and others in the apartments.

The final third is pretty fun as the main character does battle with the possessed vampire. A weird coda ends the movie on a weirdly hopeful but still dark as hell note. This is pretty much a downer all the way around. If you like high-concept, foreign horror, check this out. Otherwise, I would say watch Attack the Block instead. Oh, I will say the film looks pretty damn cool.