Asia has quickly taken over the top spot in the horror genre. I have seen many great works from Japan and South Korea and eager to expand my horizons, I set my sights on a Chinese film with the enticing title, "Hospital". So many possibilities came to mind of what could be in store, and while many of my hopes did come to pass on screen, what the final product ended up being was far less in substance.
We are introduced to the star of the film- the hospital itself- via press clippings from its infamous history. A creepy montage of red ink and some spooky atmosphere before a crew of ghost hunters shows up to give a more formal introduction to the now disused building before being scared off after spending 30 seconds inside. We are then shown the human leads, a Taoist priest and his son who offer ghost tours to paying customers who want to see their deceased loved ones. They are taken up on this offer by two women, a widower wanting to see her husband, and the sister of a dead nurse who used to work in the hospital before leaping out of a window.
The building, I can almost guarantee, is the genuine article. A magnificently creepy, rotting, abandoned medical facility complete with all the dressings of old wheelchairs, signage, and beds that one would associate with the setting. I was getting "Session 9" vibes to a point, but sadly it never progressed beyond that. Reason being the story is a little fuzzy. The Taoist father-son duo have conflict, Dad is dying of cancer and the son has never wanted to be in his line of work, and the customers don't like each other due to assigning blame to each other's camp of mourning. The widower blames the staff for her husband's death and the sister blames the patients for her sibling's suicide. I wish this had been played up more, but we're eventually introduced to the big baddy, a demon queen.
The demon queen is a malevolent spirit of a mother who lost her young son in the hospital and then in the midst of grief set herself ablaze in the morgue with her son's body. She now appears as an almost seven foot tall apparition of the girl from "The Ring" pushing a doll that resembles her son in a wheelchair. The visuals of this are unsettling, but hardly novel. I've seen so many like this demon queen, creeping about in black smoke, and a creepy child-like doll straight out of "The Boy".
A game of survival begins to play out as the 4 try to survive, the women refusing to leave because they are so insistent on seeing the spirits of their loved ones, and the father and son having to work to clean up the spiritual mess they've made all by spilling a vial of negative energy water. Thin premise, but I've seen worse. The movie flashes back to the events referenced, which seemed like a much better film premise, and then back again to treat us to some poor-CGI effects inserting in the very real hospital. The uncanny valley was bigger than all of China.
Still, the acting was decent by the whole cast. The grieving mother was quite believable in her human state, I wish she'd not been switched out for a "Fatal Frame" boss. And the husband of widow struck me as a great guy without much screen time, something not easy to pull off. By the end we've seen plenty of gruesome sights and had some jump scares, but never feel emotionally invested. It's all capped off by the stock twist ending that made little sense. And failure to build up to it may have added its unexpectedness, but only made it more of a failure.
This could've been a really good film, as all the ingredients are there, but we're left with something like the hospital itself. A building meant to do good but instead stands empty, suitable only for giving you a little bit of the willies. Exactly like this film. 4/10.
We are introduced to the star of the film- the hospital itself- via press clippings from its infamous history. A creepy montage of red ink and some spooky atmosphere before a crew of ghost hunters shows up to give a more formal introduction to the now disused building before being scared off after spending 30 seconds inside. We are then shown the human leads, a Taoist priest and his son who offer ghost tours to paying customers who want to see their deceased loved ones. They are taken up on this offer by two women, a widower wanting to see her husband, and the sister of a dead nurse who used to work in the hospital before leaping out of a window.
The building, I can almost guarantee, is the genuine article. A magnificently creepy, rotting, abandoned medical facility complete with all the dressings of old wheelchairs, signage, and beds that one would associate with the setting. I was getting "Session 9" vibes to a point, but sadly it never progressed beyond that. Reason being the story is a little fuzzy. The Taoist father-son duo have conflict, Dad is dying of cancer and the son has never wanted to be in his line of work, and the customers don't like each other due to assigning blame to each other's camp of mourning. The widower blames the staff for her husband's death and the sister blames the patients for her sibling's suicide. I wish this had been played up more, but we're eventually introduced to the big baddy, a demon queen.
The demon queen is a malevolent spirit of a mother who lost her young son in the hospital and then in the midst of grief set herself ablaze in the morgue with her son's body. She now appears as an almost seven foot tall apparition of the girl from "The Ring" pushing a doll that resembles her son in a wheelchair. The visuals of this are unsettling, but hardly novel. I've seen so many like this demon queen, creeping about in black smoke, and a creepy child-like doll straight out of "The Boy".
A game of survival begins to play out as the 4 try to survive, the women refusing to leave because they are so insistent on seeing the spirits of their loved ones, and the father and son having to work to clean up the spiritual mess they've made all by spilling a vial of negative energy water. Thin premise, but I've seen worse. The movie flashes back to the events referenced, which seemed like a much better film premise, and then back again to treat us to some poor-CGI effects inserting in the very real hospital. The uncanny valley was bigger than all of China.
Still, the acting was decent by the whole cast. The grieving mother was quite believable in her human state, I wish she'd not been switched out for a "Fatal Frame" boss. And the husband of widow struck me as a great guy without much screen time, something not easy to pull off. By the end we've seen plenty of gruesome sights and had some jump scares, but never feel emotionally invested. It's all capped off by the stock twist ending that made little sense. And failure to build up to it may have added its unexpectedness, but only made it more of a failure.
This could've been a really good film, as all the ingredients are there, but we're left with something like the hospital itself. A building meant to do good but instead stands empty, suitable only for giving you a little bit of the willies. Exactly like this film. 4/10.
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