Hau mo chu

I couldn't exactly tell if they wanted to make us laugh or not, cause some scenes are pure humorous, others bring decent scares, but somewhere in the middle, you don't know if to take it serious or just go with a smile. Overall, I got to say, I had some fun with it!

So, the plot is out there for everyone, nothing new, nothing secret, a tired formula, brought again on the big screens, but with a better, fresher approach. This one will come down to everyone's personal opinion, some will like it, some will take it as wasted time, in my books, I saw a lot worse than it, so I'm glad I got to play it with my friends. Possibly, the fact that we were many, helped us to take the movie lighter than usual, therefore we all had fun, laughed many times, overall, had a good time.

If you can get in such a mood too, I think you'll do just fine. If you want pure horror tho, look elsewhere, this one will probably annoy you at best.

Cheers!

I'd like to say that this was a great movie, but it was only adequate. It wasn't particularly scary or funny, even from an Asian point of view.

I figure that the only way that the producers got money was the inclusion of Steven Cheung and Dennis Mak, both part of the Boy'z music group. It was a good way for the group to recover after Kenny Kwan left for a solo career.

Steven Cheung is fairly funny in unscripted material but that same humour doesn't work, even in the funny bits. The problem seems to be that none of the actors have chemistry together, not even Steven and Dennis. If there was some real feeling of friendship, you might feel sympathy as they're killed, yet it seems more likely that you're just hoping that the whole school will collapse and finish off everyone at the same time.

That said, it has its moments, but they could have used a better screenwriter and a cast who worked as one.

Wholly average and hampered by a stupid twist… Sometimes you wonder why the hell the director had to include a stupid and lame twist at the end that is so predictable. It ruins an otherwise, immensely average flick that may actually be adequate with lower expectations. The flick is cultivated by crap and almost non-existent acting from almost the entire cast. When Theresa Fu and Tsui Tin Yau are considered as the best thing in the movie, both in terms of acting and steer presence, you probably already know the type of picture you are getting. However, the poor acting is given some sort of credibility by some quality producing and out of place cinematography from a little guy named, Andrew Lau. Along with director, Chin Man Kei, whose body of works includes Sex and Zen 2 and assistant director of Infernal Affairs 3, make this below average script into something that is extremely adequate and borderline average to endure.

The movie goes like this: Years ago Lap Lan Secondary School burned down, but the body of the school's infamous dean of discipline was never found. Since then ghost stories about the school have been circulated, from mysterious silhouettes on the wall to students being called to an office that no longer exists. When four young and handsome boys join the girl's school under the new education policy, the girls are overjoyed, ignoring the school's "no dating" rule. But what starts as puppy love awakens a curse buried in The Haunted School 10 years ago… As mentioned before, the best thing in the flick is probably the slightly above average acting from Theresa Fu and Tsui Tin Yau, as both performs in a far more relax manner than the entire cast of teens. In reality, it isn't really saying much, as Steven Cheung was plain annoying, Don Li acted like a stone forced to love and perhaps with the exception of Toby Leung, who showed some sort of promise, getting through the acting of these lads, can be quite enduring. Needless to say, Theresa is somewhat pretty and is probably given her first ever slightly juicy role that requires her to at least do some acting. Surprisingly she performs adequately without exceeding expectations and likewise, Tsui Tin Yau shows some much needed promise that is so elusive from the entire cast.

To be honest, the premise of this movie is actually pretty stupid, but as mentioned before, full credit must be given to Andrew Lau for producing a flick that actually looked like a movie. There are strikingly well produced and well-shot sequences, but sometimes it makes you wonder, whether these sort of images is served better in a better material. There aren't any memorable scenes to mention about, but it must be commented that the lighting of the toilets does provide a pretty good backdrop. It is unfortunate that Lau and Chin both fail to captialise on that.

All in all, The Haunted School is not only hampered by crap acting, but also a stupid and lame twist ending that is so predictable that it is not funny or shocking at all. All it does is leaving the audience from feeling mediocre to feeling stupid. As the saying goes, if the twist is not witty or smart, it is better off not ending with one. Lau and Chin make a terrible mistake, but with that being said, they still managed to turn around a crap script into something wholly average. It isn't a big accomplishment, but at the very least it is better than this year's House of Invisibles by a huge margin. Still, it is without doubt an underachievement from producer Lau and director Chin, as both have done far better work. Perhaps, Chin is far more suited in movies along the caliber of Sex and Zen 2 than the teen horror genre…

I rate it 6/10

• www.thehkneo.com

At first I thought it was the Japanese Haunted School from 1995, but it wasn't, although there have been scenes related to a girl in a bathroom that made no real sense.

Anyway, imagine a ghost that is attacking and killing the pupils of a school that break the school rules! Being a strict girl-only school, no one broke the rules much (yeah, right!), but then 4 boys were brought in order to test the possibility that the school can be turned co-ed. That really made the ghost angry. Chuckles.

The actors cannot act, the play is unplayable, the horror is amusing, everything is wrong here, except maybe the cute Asian girls. The true problem is that you realize that this film is bad and exactly how bad it is a few seconds from the credits, when you hear some cheap horror-house ride sounds in the background and you are conveyed utter terror through light flashes and quickly flashing images. Chuckles, again.

Bottom line: Chuckles!

The Narranmoda Boarding School is strict for girls and has rigid rules of behavior, but the headmaster accepts four male students to improve the income of the school. However, the boys are segregated from the girls and the inspector Miss Fong (Amanda Lee) keeps them under the surveillance of the dedicated monitor student Ho Yat-Man (Theresa Fy). The urban legend tells that the school is haunted and when students break the school rules, they are called to the director office and vanishes or are found dead. When the new students fall in love for a group of friends of Yat-Man, the couples disappear or are killed; Miss Fong discloses the mystery telling that twenty years ago her aunt was the music teacher married with the headmaster of Narranmoda. When her aunt discovered that the inspector Yuen Si-Yum was having an affair with her husband, she burned Si-Yum locking her in the office on fire, entering in a deep coma later, and her husband committed suicide. Now the angry fiend is trapped in her office and killing students that break the school rules.

I love Asian horror movies, which is my favorite genre. I bought "Hau Mo Chu" on DVD expecting a great horror movie in the style of "Whispering Corridors" and other similar ghost stories. Unfortunately the plot is too silly and the screenplay is a complete mess and seems to be written by a ten year old child so naive it is. The premise is stupid, the characters are shallow, the special effects are poor, the acting is terrible and the conclusion is awful. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Escola de Espíritos" ("School of Spirits")

Note: On 14 March 2009 I saw this movie again and my vote is four.