Bloody House

笔仙诡影

China, 2016, colour, 2.35:1, 88 mins.

Directors: Gao Yuxin 高育新, Liu Feng 刘峰.

Rating: 4/10.

Routine entry in the ouija-board cycle, a period horror-cum-murder mystery set in an old house.

STORY

Lishui, western Zhejiang province, southern China, early Republican era. A young intellectual, Su Chengzhi (Wang Yanyang), has come down from Beiping [modern Beijing] to visit his reclusive mother (Li Yanbing) and introduce his wife, Ren Shuyan (Ma Danni). Just before arriving at his remote family home, Su Chengzhi is surprised by five college friends, who’ve come along for a holiday; Ren Shuyan suggests they all go on together, and Su Chengzhi, somewhat unwillingly, agrees. There is a ghostly atmosphere to the old courtyard-style house where Su Chengzhi’s young-looking mother lives alone. That night, one of the friends, Ji Xiaoxiao (Deng Linying), who carries around a potion to ward off evil spirits, says the village is haunted by vampires; she suggests the five of them play the ouija board-like game bixian 笔仙, with a chart she happens to have handy. The pencil points to two characters: a “J” and a “屍”, which could mean that either Ji Xiaoxiao or class monitor Jiang Shaofan (Jiang Xinqi) will die. During the night, Peng Xiaolei (Song Yijie) goes for a walk and sees fellow student Xiang Xuan (Zhang Lanyi) apparently making love with Jiang Shaofan, after Xiang Xuan had earlier claimed she had no designs on him. Peng Xiaolei, who fancies Jiang Shaofen, is angry at her. Next day, Ren Shuyan has a talk with her mother-in-law and explains that Su Chengzhi joined her father’s company after he graduated. Later, during a walk in the mountains, Ren Shuyan tells the friends that Su Chengzhi’s young-looking “mother” is actually his stepmother: his real mother died when he was 10 and his late father remarried five years later, to a woman who was only eight years older than Su Chengzhi. That night, Jiang Shaofen and the other male student, Liu Jun (Yun Xiang), catch the wild mute whom the girls claimed spied on them having a bath. Su Chengzhi’s stepmother angrily tells them to let him go, as he’s only a harmless forester. Next day Su Chengzhi announces they should all return to Beiping; but they are delayed by heavy rains, and then Ji Xiaoxiao and Xiang Xuan go missing.

REVIEW

Even with South Korean director An Byeong-gi 안병기 | 安兵基 having seemingly finished his own Chinese cycle of Bunshinsaba horrors (2012-14), the rip-offs keep coming: including An’s three films, almost a dozen recent titles contain the word bixian 笔仙 (literally, “pen fairy”, the Chinese version of the invented Korean word “bunshinsaba” for the ouija board-like game). Bloody House 笔仙诡影 is a routine entry, modestly budgeted and largely shot in a single location, that’s given a patina of style by the camerawork of Liu Feng 刘峰 (lots of blue light at night), who gets a co-director credit as well. But the name all over the film is that of Gao Yuxin 高育新, a TV drama producer (Happiness Full of House 幸福满屋, 2013) here making his debut as a big-screen writer-director.

The screenplay basically assembles a group of college friends in a remote country house and starts spooking them out and killing them off. Developing more into a murder mystery than a ghost movie, it has a noisy effects and music track that creates a reasonable sense of dread, but dialogue that’s very static and functional (between taking lots of baths, the girls largely talk about breast size and sex). Though highly unlikely, the plot kind of makes sense, but the film generates no sustained tension, the double-revelation at the end is structurally clumsy, and the budget early-Republican setting (basically putting the women into qipao and the men into changshan) is pretty laughable.

The young, largely female cast keeps things light, with big-eyed, big-breasted scream queen Zhang Lanyi 张蓝艺, 24, making the strongest impression on a genre level and top-billed newcomer Song Yijie 宋懿洁, 27, on an acting level. The male cast is bland and uncolourful, and most notable for including Mainland-born, Hong Kong-based gay film-maker Yun Xiang 云翔 [Scud] in a very dull role as one of the students.

The Chinese title means “Bixian, Sly Shadows”. On the film’s trailer, the original English title was Bunshinsaba Then a Shadow.

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing Tiger Entertainment (CN).

Script: Gao Yuxin, Zhang Jing. Photography: Liu Feng. Editing: Liu Zhao. Music: uncredited. Styling: Liu Yunuo. Costumes: Cui Yijing. Sound: Qu Peng, Liao Weichao. Executive direction: Zhang Tailong.

Cast: Song Yijie (Peng Xiaolei), Jiang Xinqi (Jiang Shaofan, class monitor), Zhang Lanyi (Xiang Xuan), Wang Yanyang (Su Chengzhi), Ma Danni (Ren Shuyan, Su Chengzhi’s wife), Li Yanbing (Su Chengzhi’s stepmother), Yun Xiang [Scud] (Liu Jun), Deng Linying (Ji Xiaoxiao), Zhu Xinfan (mute), Lou Zixuan (young Su Chengzhi), Gu Baofeng (carpenter).

Release: China, 13 May 2016.