Tor dei gui mou yan

I happened to get a chance to sit down and watch the 2015 movie "Keeper of Darkness" (aka "Tor dei gui mou yan") from writer and director Nick Cheung here in 2020. I had not even heard about the movie prior to getting this chance.

Given my fascination with the Hong Kong cinema, needless to say that I seized the moment and sat down to watch this movie.

Well, first of all I must say that the movie's synopsis sounded interesting, and it sold the movie well, and definitely put me up with some expectations for the movie. Which director Nick Cheung unfortunately failed to deliver upon. The movie's storyline just ended up being very bland and often just monotonous.

As for the effects in "Keeper of Darkness", well overall the special effects and CGI team worked their magic quite well. Expect for two horribly rendered ghost effects; the short, overly muscular ghost, it was just atrocious to look at. And the fact that the main ghost was blown out of proportions, it just looked so poorly made, especially because some of the head wasn't show. It looked like they just added a warped image effect in post production. It was laughable to say the least.

It should be said that they had managed to gather a good ensemble of actors and actresses for the movie. Some familiar faces if you are well-traversed within the Hong Kong cinema.

The movie is labelled as a horror and thriller, well I will say that it is more of a thriller than it is a horror movie, because the horror elements are very, very weak throughout the course of the movie.

"Keeper of Darkness" was mediocre at best, and as such I am rating it five out of ten stars. I must admit that when the movie came to an end, I was left with an overwhelming sensation of 'was that really it?'