The Haunted Cinema

恐怖电影院

China, 2014, colour, 2.35:1, 82 mins.

Director: Yuan Jie 袁杰.

Rating: 4/10.

The Mainland’s first haunted-cinema horror is okay without being at all special.

STORY

Somewhere in China, the present day. (Film director Lin Xinya has a recurring nightmare in which she, as a 15-year-old [Li Ziwei], and her younger brother Lin Yi [Niu Yihao] are alone in a cinema; he says he can see other people in the audience, as well as an old sweet-seller [Li Yan], and also claims the film has started; both run for the exit but can’t get out.) Lin Xinya (Liu Yanxi) holds a screening of her horror film Frightened Back to Back 惊魂背靠背 at which the reaction from crew members is good. However, she is on edge, as she still blames herself for the death of a friend, Xia Meng (Zhang Qiyan), during production. Xia Meng was also the girlfriend of Lin Yi (Luo Xiang), though he doesn’t blame her. Lin Xinya and Lin Yi are about to inherit RMB50 million each from their late father, and producer Qin (Wei Xingyu), who is Lin Xinya’s fiance, asks Lin Yi whether they’ll invest the money in a big action film Lin Xinya wants to make. In memory of Xia Meng, Qin plans to hold a late-night screening of her latest film at a multiplex owned by the uncle of lead actress Tian Juan (Yu Miao) – the same one that is in Lin Xinya’s recurring nightmare. The other actress in the film, Zhou Qing (Tang Chengjing), wants the leading role in Lin Xinya’s next film, the romantic drama Love in the Rain 雨恋, but Lin Xinya tells her it’s more likely to go to Tian Ruan. Both actresses hate each other. All eight gather the next night at the cinema but as soon as the screening starts crew member Yutong (Jiang Yuxi) sees a ghost. Her colleague Weiqiang (Ren Peng) takes her home but they get stuck in the lift. Then Tian Juan gets frightened, Zhou Qing gets a stomach ache, and the group gets separated throughout the cinema until Lin Xinya is left alone in the screening. Next day she is diagnosed by a psychologist (Liu Shuchun) as over-stressed, partly because she thinks her fiance and Zhou Qing are having an affaire. Then, on the night of the premiere of Frightened Back to Back, the dead Xia Meng calls Lin Xinya and says she’ll kill all of them.

REVIEW

It was only a matter of time before the Mainland’s energetic horror industry moved from ghostly mansions to movie palaces, and The Haunted Cinema 恐怖电影院 was first out of the gate, beating the much better Admission by Guts 惊魂电影院 (literally, “The Scary Cinema”) by some seven months. The second feature of Yan’an-born director Yuan Jie 袁杰, then just turned 30, it has the same tech crew, financiers and creative producer (Niu Chaoyang 牛朝阳) as his horror Under the Bed II 床下有人2 (2014), released two months earlier, but uses a different lead writer (Lu Shaoke 卢少科, who wrote Niu’s period horror Who in the Mirror 半夜不要照镜子, 2012) and slightly more experienced cast. It shows: without being anything special, Cinema is a small step up in quality, professionally shepherded by Yuan, a former assistant/executive director. Box office was slightly lower than Bed II’s but at just over RMB12 million still healthy for the budget genre.

Centred on a young film director (played by Chongqing-born Liu Yanxi 刘妍希, then 28) who’s just made her first horror movie but is stressed because her younger brother’s fiancee died during its making, Lu’ script spends the first 25 minutes building a fairly elaborate backstory before it has the key crew running hither and thither in a “haunted” multiplex during a late-night preview. It then gears up for a climax set during the film’s premiere, followed by the usual “explanation” (this being a Mainland horror, in which ghosts are proscribed). Dialogue and performances are so-so at best, with no standouts and the actors let down by old-style dubbing. But on the technical side, the set-ups, editing (Liu Zhao 刘钊) and widescreen photography (Gong Xiaolong 巩晓龙) are all fine.

Under the Bed II’s lead actress, scream queen Yin Guo’er 殷果儿, pops up as herself, and there’s a poster in the cinema for horror Who under the Bed 床下有人 (2011), directed and produced by Niu. The film was shot in Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province, southwest of Beijing. Three years later the same producers came up with The Haunted Cinema II 恐怖电影院2 (2017), starring Yin but directed by another horror acolyte, Lu Shilei 陆诗雷.

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 Eastern Melody Culture (CN), Beijing Filmoon Culture Media (CN).

Script: Lu Shaoke, Man Tun’er. Photography: Gong Xiaolong. Editing: Liu Zhao. Music: Qu Peng. Art direction: Lv Huaguo, Yu Shihua. Costumes: Li Yan. Styling: Liu Xiaoxia. Sound: Wang Yinxiao, Wen Chaoran. Executive direction: Pan Baoming.

Cast: Liu Yanxi (Lin Xinya), Luo Xiang (Lin Yi, Lin Xinya’s younger brother), Li Ziwei (young Lin Xinya), Niu Yihao (young Lin Yi), Wei Xingyu (Qin, producer), Yu Miao (Tian Juan, lead actress), Tang Chengjing (Zhou Qing, actress), Zhang Qiyan (Xia Meng; Xia Ying), Ren Peng (Weiqiang, crew member), Jiang Yuxi (Yutong, crew member), Dai Chao (Lai, crew member), Liu Shuchun (Li, psychologist), Li Yan (sweet-seller), Zhou Tongbin (projectionist), Yin Guo’er (Yin Guo’er), Yan Linxing, Ren Zheqiong, Zhang Bo (female ghosts), Ge Dong (male ghost).

Release: China, 30 Oct 2014.