Under the Bed II

床下有人2

China, 2014, colour, 2.35:1, 72 mins.

Director: Yuan Jie 袁杰.

Rating: 3/10.

Standard budget Mainland scarefest hardly makes any sense but at least keeps moving.

STORY

Somewhere in Shanxi province, northern China, the present day. Setting out to revisit the Institute of Technology they once studied at, six medical-school friends find a basket ball in the boot of their car that reminds them of the murder of a girl student six months earlier. The institute, in the middle of nowhere, is now unused and falling into disrepair. Using the dormitory’s dilapidated toilets, He Xinyue (Yin Guo’er) finds another basket ball and thinks she sees a ghost. A search by the group reveals two small dolls tied back to back, again as in the killing the previous year. One of the two men, Yang Gang (Song Wei) tells the story of that murder, which included a voice repeating the words “good friends, back to back”. The group meets the building’s veteran caretaker, Qin Xiaojun (Li Zhuoyuan), who remembers that two of them, Lei Yonghan (Li He’nan) and Ma Xiaoli (Chen Yuan), were a couple when at the institute, though Ma Xiaoli vigorously denies it and Lei Yonghan is now dating He Xinyue, Ma Xiaoli’s BFF. Qin Xiaojun says the building is haunted but the group insists on staying as planned for two days. That evening He Xinyue tells about a valuable medicinal herb, the iron-grass herb 铁春草, that she was involved in developing when at the institute, and all agree to split up the next day to find it. During the night, Zeng Ping (Sun Xinya) secretly meets Yang Gang, who fancies her and wants to get rich by finding the herb. Following weird events during the night, Huang Yanyan (Chen Jiamin), Zeng Ping’s bunkmate, disappears, leaving her mobile phone behind. Yang Gang accuses the caretaker of being responsible, though he denies it. The group mounts a search in the grounds and on the neighbouring hillside, during which Zeng Ping goes missing.

REVIEW

Niu Chaoyang 牛朝阳, writer-director of Who under the Bed 床下有人 (2011), takes just a creative producer 监制 role in this belated second outing of the horror series, turning over the main reins to first-time director Yuan Jie 袁杰, then just turned 30. Yan’an-born Yuan had no connection with the earlier film but previously worked as an executive/assistant director, including for Niu. Billing itself as “China’s first medical-school ghost film”, Under the Bed II 床下有人2 is a standard genre entry with a new storyline, centred on a group of millennials getting terrified in a deserted old building in the middle of nowhere. Amazingly, it repeated the first film’s very reasonable business – for a no-name budget Mainland horror – of almost RMB15 million.

In some respects – and a feature of the whole series – the best bit is the pre-title sequence, in which a girl student (played by Tong Yang 彤阳) is terrorised in a deserted dormitory by a ghostly presence. Six months later, a group of medical-school friends decides to spend a couple of nights at the (now-disused) Institute of Technology they once studied at; there they encounter weird hauntings, a suspicious old caretaker, and menacing objects like a basket ball and dolls tied back-to-back. The generic script by Zhang Xingjie 张兴杰 barely makes sense, includes a nonsensical side-plot about a valuable medicinal herb, and unfairly pulls a new character out of the hat near the end, and as usual people run around a lot doing silly things. But it’s mounted okay and keeps surprising the viewer with multiple shocks. Editing by Liu Zhao 刘钊 is smart and keeps things moving across the short 70-odd-minute running time. The four female and two male leads are all bland; veteran Li Zhuoyuan 李卓远 is fine as the grumbly old caretaker.

The final film in the series, Under the Bed 3 床下有人3, came out two years later, with a different director.

CREDITS

Presented by Shanxi Qiusuo Film & Culture (CN), Beijing Eastern Melody Culture (CN), Zhejiang Eastern April Day Film & Culture (CN), Beijing Filmoon Culture Media (CN). Produced by Beijing Filmoon Culture Media (CN).

Script: Zhang Xingjie. Photography: Gong Xiaolong. Editing: Liu Zhao. Music: uncredited. Art direction: Lv Huaguo, Yu Shihua. Costumes: Li Yan. Styling: Liu Xiaoxia. Sound: Qu Peng, Wang Yinxiao. Executive direction: Pan Baoming.

Cast: Yin Guo’er (He Xinyue), Li He’nan (Lei Yonghan), Chen Yuan (Ma Xiaoli), Song Wei (Yang Gang), Li Zhuoyuan (Qin Xiaojun, caretaker), Sun Xinya (Zeng Ping), Chen Jiamin (Huang Yanyan), Wang Zhongchao (Tang Yusong), Tong Yang (Xiaofeng), Hou Mengmeng (Xiaoyu), Zhang Qiyan (female ghost), Ge Dong (male ghost).

Release: China, 22 Aug 2014.