Rigor Mortis

A washed-up film star moves into a crumbling Hong Kong residential block only to discover it's populated by the restless spirits of deceased former residents in this horror offering from first-time director Juno Mak. Much put-upon leading man Chin Siu-hou previously starred in 1980s Hong Kong hit Mr Vampire, but the mood here is much more sober than the knockabout horror-comedies of yore, beginning with his unsuccessful attempt at hanging himself in an apartment whose dark history he's about to discover. Sadly, the script meanders badly for the next hour, dawdling as we meet the building's other denizens, dead and alive. Veteran Anthony Chan (who also featured in Mr Vampire) steals the show as an old-school vampire-hunter now running a basement restaurant, but the film keeps us waiting far too long before unleashing the flying ghouls in the final reel. In the circumstances, the imaginative special effects are rather wasted, and director Mak shows little skill in timing the would-be scary bits.