Hung bou yit sin ji Dai tao gwai ying

Well, the best way to describe this is by calling it the Chinese BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. Now, this doesn't do it justice and can be quite insulting because it's not nearly as bad as that BLAIR WITCH stinker. But it really p***ed me off because I was SO looking forward to seeing how it was all going to end. Just think BASKET CASE meets THE SIXTH SENSE starring Francis Ng. Yeah, I know, he's in just about everything now-a-days. It's a story of monster babies, ghosts, and good looking Chinese chicks centered around a radio station that asks it's callers to talk about the bizarre and the unexplainable. In it's favor, it's cleverly directed with nice camera sways, quick edits, and slow motion sequences. The tension builds from what at first seemed like a hoax to a full blown supernatural murder mystery. But in the end, it really drops the ball. Even though the import DVD that I bought had two different alternate endings, neither one seemed to wrap up the story and both left you hanging, which was a real let down, wondering why you even bothered to watch it in the first place. So with that in mind, I must give it a "thumbs down" for the most part even though I enjoyed the film up until the end which decayed into a "handheld camera bobbling around trying to focus on a mysterious figure in the distance and finally falls to the ground as it's owner is slain". Sound familiar?

I'd consider myself a pretty jaded horror fan. I almost never get frightened or creeped out by a horror movie these days. Despite being hailed as one of the scariest films of all time, Ring didn't frighten me much but I was impressed enough by it to start hunting down more Asian horror movies.

I had read one or two good but vague things about Horror Hotline so when I saw a copy I pounced on it and watched it at 2 in the morning.

It made my hair stand on end.

Literally.

The directors responsible for the bilge that passes for horror coming out of Hollywood these days should be made to watch Horror Hotline and hang their heads in shame. Any horror fan who likes dark, mature, serious, eerie horror needs a copy of this film.

Whilst not the scariest movie ever there are moments when even the most die-hard horror fan will be moved out of their seat.

The movie moved at a steady pace and stuck to the well crafted story, as seems to be staple with these movies. And while 'Horror Hotline... Big Head Monster' might sound like more of a humorous, or that the translator might have had a late night before naming this one DO NOT let that dissuade you.

The ending gave way to a very deja-vu Blair Witch feeling but not so much as to overpower the movie or even make it much more than a minute observation - If you can tear your mind away from the action.

Truly a great movie in its genre up, even if far from the greatest - Up there with so many of the great Asian horror masterpieces.

Version: Cantonese, with English subtitles (by SBS)

Wow. Talk about a dull movie. I figured a Hong-Kong horror movie with a silly name like 'Horror Hotline... Big Head Monster' being shown on the SBS cult-movie time slot could not possibly be bad. All the other cult-horror movies shown SBS are generally pretty good. Maybe I expected too much, but 'Horror Hotline' is just a boring movie.

The Horror Hotline is a radio show that discusses the supernatural. Several callers talk about a big-headed infant they've seen, and the Horror Hotline reporters decide to investigate this, when, naturally, everything starts getting spooky.

I don't know why, but I just could not get into 'Horror Hotline'. It seems like it could be a great eerie horror film, but I just found it rather boring, and it left no lasting effect afterwards.

'Horror Hotline' could be something that I'll try to watch some other time. I may even enjoy it if I'm given enough time between viewings. As it stands, I thought it was rather dull. I'd still recommend it to other horror fans though, maybe you'll get more out of this than I did - 4/10

hong kong films are many things -but subtlety is not their strong point. even the most brutal movies from there seem to cram in a bit of silly humour-see the untold story for an example. here is something else though..... influenced more by the japanese ring series than any hong kong film this film starts with an american film crew making a documentary on a popular hong kong radio series in which listeners tell ghost stories. this time a man phones in giving details of a childhood encounter with a baby with a deformed head,kept in a cage near his school. from here the film and radio crew attempt to look into this urban legend and terrifying things start to happen....... this film has a genuinely unnerving atmosphere,some moments that will make you jump and a choice of 2 endings that are very much in the blair witch style. some people might be put off by the fact that a lot of loose ends are not tied up but that just adds to the mystery of it all. don't be put off by the silly name-this is a hong kong horror that really delivers.