Dial D for Demons (2000)

Directed by Billy Tang Hin Shing

Produced by Billy Tang Hin Shing & Chung Kai Cheong

Starring Jordan Chan Siu Chun, Joey Man Yee Man, Terence Yin Chi Wai, Lee Ann D'Alexandry D' Orengiani, Alice Chan Wai, Winnie Leung Man Yee

Hideo Nakata's "Ringu" and M. Night Shyamalan's "The Sixth Sense" have a LOT to answer for, if Billy Tang's reworking of both is anything to go by. Although I am no fan of Shyamalan's painfully obvious variation on "Occurrence At Owl Bridge Creek" (Adrian Lyne did it better!), a Hong Kong remake of "The Ring" is not actually such a bad thing, even if it doesn't stray too far from its source. Since Tang's move away from the variety of Category III shockers he has become (in)famous for in the West many have noted that, with Tang in the director's chair, even if the script is lacking "at least the film will look good". Indeed, it is a universal truth that Tang often works small miracles with (virtually) nothing.

Stop me if you've heard any of this before…Bully (Chan) is an office manager who is afflicted with an unusual gift, he sees dead people (I'm not kidding!). His embittered girlfriend Gabriel (Man) is irked that she is second on his list after work and said dead people. Coworkers Penly (D'Orengiani) and PJ (Yin), are conducting an illicit affair while PJ's wife is abroad in the US. Just outside of these soap opera peripherals, a number of bizarre suicides have occurred, the victims suffocated by inhalation of charcoal fumes. When a bright advertisement appearing in a local newspaper mysteriously shows up in the office, the crew, along with office girls Sammi (Chan) and May (Leung), decide it's just the break they need. But there are more foreboding things ahead than John Wong's score.

Once they arrive at the offshore (although the island is not directly named, I'm assuming it's Macau) swanky resort villas, Bully's sixth sense begins to play havoc with the relaxed mood of the group's island vacation. Everywhere he turns, he encounters ominous ghostly black figures mingling with the living. His concern that there is something malevolent with these spirits blows out into a blinding argument with Gabriel, tainting the declining mood of the group. The mood is tainted further when he turns up dead in his room, apparently having committed suicide by suffocation…from charcoal fumes.

Pagers and mobile phones soon become frightening channels between the group and an unseen force (replacing "The Ring's" videocassette motif). Every attempt to escape the villa by road leads our terrified holidaymakers back to their point of origin. When the unsettling pager messages are unraveled to be the recipient's time of death, terror swiftly takes hold as the group of friends realises that none of them will see the dawn.

Although Tang's film has taken a critical drubbing by many for its blatant plagiarism from Nakata's film, it does nevertheless make for an engaging 87 minutes. The cast is a reasonably attractive collection of newer Hong Kong screen stars, and is sympathetic enough to gain the audience's empathy. Popular character actor Jordan Chan (who many will identify from Andrew Lau's "Young & Dangerous" series) is unfortunately given free reign to play Bully wildly over the top, coming over far too cartoonish and buffoonish to elicit much identification from the viewer. His speedy exit from the story was a blessing. This leaves the cute-as-button Joey Man to lead the rest of the cast against their unseen attacker, which she manages with doe-eyed aplomb.

Atmosphere is thick with the sort of menace that only the Chinese and Japanese seem to be able to conjure these days, in turn generating a skin-crawling sense of dread all too absent from Western horrors of late. There are a number genuinely creepy episodes along the way (Leung assailed by an unseen "something" that manages to insinuate its way under her clothes being particularly unsettling), some jump-out-of-your-seat scares, and a handful of sparingly used CGI effects to manifest the demons of the title. The final resolution is quite effective, as it hints at a legacy of terror that is cyclic by nature. For sure, this is a low budget and derivative affair, but after seeing what Hollywood can do to a masterpiece like Robert Wise's "The Haunting", this came like a rush of coldly chilled spirit air.

Universe work their usual magic and present "Demons" in what amounts to a virtually impeccable transfer for a non-anamorphically enhanced disc. The image is nearly always pin-sharp, with strong colours and fairly surprisingly good shadow detail (a commendable effort for a feature whose primary action takes place at night). Low level noise (the grain in the blacks) is also minimal enough to be virtually undetectable (a bit of a first for a Hong Kong disc). This was an element that really caught me off guard as it has become an artifact that I have grown quite accustomed to watching as many Chinese discs as I do! The Dolby 2.0 surround track can be a little distracting (even dialogue scenes play with separation effects as characters wander off-screen, their voice track following them around the mix!), but generally the over-the-top audio compliments the tone of the film quite nicely. Booming demonic voices should raise the hackles effectively as they fill your viewing auditorium! But then, I am a great fan of Hong Kong ghost stories…

Yeah, I guess you can say that I was more than a little impressed with the overall transfer given to what is obviously a low budget ensemble piece. But then, even when Hong Kong cinema is shamelessly lifting some one else's material, they manage to pull it off with a finely tuned sense of menace. Although far and away not Tang's best work, nor hopeful of holding a candle to Nakata's original, "Dial D For Demons" generated enough atmosphere to put the willies up me…on more than a couple of occasions!

Review by M.C.Thomason