No. 82 Haunted House
82号古宅
China, 2020, colour, 2.35:1, 85 mins.
Director: Yuan Jie 袁杰.
Associate director: Liu Ding 刘定.
Rating: 2/10.
Republican-era horror-cum-whodunit is scare-free, flatly played and chaotically written.
STORY
Somewhere in southern China, early Republican period, summer. After studying medicine abroad, Mu Xinyun (Huang Xindi) pays a visit to her family’s ancestral home along with her boyfriend Song Qingming (Hu Tianyi), a worker in the Revolutionary Party. They’re greeted by her father (Wang Qi) but the home is strangely subdued given that her eldest brother, Mu Zhuoyuan (Pan Yang), is about to get married. She’s then learns that Mu Zhuoyuan died suddenly two days ago – in a marriage chamber that is said to be haunted – and was buried yesterday. His younger brother, Mu Zhuoqing (Wang Kang), is currently away on funeral duties with the family of his brother’s fiancee. Mu Xinyun, who doesn’t believe in ghosts, wants to hold a post mortem on Mu Zhuoyuan’s body but everyone, including Song Qingming, opposes disinterring the body. However, Song Qingming agrees with her that something is fishy about the death, and in the behaviour of Mu Zhuoqing and the family’s longtime butler, Wang (Pan Baoming). Mu Zhuoqing is falling apart with guilt over what happened to servant girl Xiaodie (Bai Jin), who, according to family practice, was buried with Mu Zhuoyuan. Another servant girl, Xiaonuo (Yan Wei’er), who fancies Mu Zhuoqing, sees Xiaodie’s ghost in his room. (Xiaodie had been in a secret relationship with Mu Zhuoqing and had wanted to marry him, but Mu Zhuoyuan was afraid to tell his father, who already considered him a useless playboy. The father had turned over a special wing of the building to Mu Zhuoyuan to use as a wedding chamber, even tough it was said to be haunted, and had also announced he was turning over all of the family’s business affairs to Mu Zhuoyuan. When Mu Zhuoqing had announced at the same meeting that he wanted to marry Xiaodie, his father was enraged. Mu Zhuoyuan, also a member of the Revolutionary Party, supported his younger brother’s decision, and butler Wang was annoyed that the father wouldn’t give Mu Zhuoqing any business controls. That night, after Third Concubine [Shen Tingting] had declared her love for Mu Zhuoyuan despite his forthcoming marriage, he had died in his sleep.) Third Concubine reveals to Song Qingming her suspicions over Mu Zhuoyuan’s death and how she saw Xiaodie’s body put into his coffin. As Song Qingming and Mu Xinyun continue to investigate her brother’s death, more deaths and hauntings follow.
REVIEW
The latest no-name budget horror by a director, Yan’an-born Yuan Jie 袁杰, who’s spent most of his short career in the genre, No. 82 Haunted House 82号古宅 is a comedown even by the dodgy standards of Mainland frightfests. With a title clearly trading on mega-hit horror The House That Never Dies 京城81号 (2014) – whose Chinese title also featured a street number – this is a scare-free yarn set in an old-style country mansion during the Republican era that’s more of a whodunit than a “ghost” story. Hopelessly structured and largely peopled by flat performances, it still clocked up almost RMB8 million at the box office, a surprising amount in today’s market where such horrors generally strain to earn a couple of million.
Yuan, 37, began only slightly better with Under the Bed II 床下有人2 (2014), the second in a brief horror franchise that surprisingly managed to match the original’s box office of almost RMB15 million, then a tasty amount for such low-budget exercises. He followed that with scarefests set in a cinema (The Haunted Cinema 恐怖电影院, 2014) and a swimming pool (Who in the Pool 恐怖游泳馆, 2015) before briefly switching to comedies. No. 82 is his third horror since returning to the genre.
Despite the film’s already poor structure, Yuan and his four co-writers (one of whom is also associate director) just keep the story growing in complexity, especially during the final 20 minutes when it seems to be all over. Set vaguely in the Republican era, with several leading characters members of the Revolutionary Party (an early version of the KMT), it occasionally stops for speeches about “overthrowing feudal behaviour”, “building a new social order” or “making China into a rich and powerful democratic country” – the kind of stuff not normally found in period budget horrors. As the young woman who revisits her ancestral home to find her eldest brother mysteriously died on the eve of his wedding, Taiwan actress Huang Xindi 黄心娣, 38, from TV, is bland in her big-screen debut; Mainland actor Hu Tianyi 扈天翼, 25, is wooden as her boyfriend. Among the rest of the cast, only Wang Qi 汪奇 registers with any force as the paterfamilias.
Top billing actually goes to Mainland actress Ge Tian 葛天, 29 – the horny film-maker in okay village horror Nowhere to Run 封门诡影 (2015) – who pops up in one short scene at the end. Plenty of (uncredited) unearthly music hardly builds any tension or mystery, given the chaotic script. Interiors were shot at Hengdian World Studios, south of Shanghai.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing 9 Films (CN). Produced by Beijing 9 Films (CN).
Script: Liu Ping, Zhou Yong, Yu Haiyong, Liu Ding, Yuan Jie. Original story: Yuan Jie. Photography: Han Yuzhen. Editing: Yu Xiaoxi. Music: uncredited. Art direction: Jing Tao. Styling: Fan Minglai. Sound: Liao Weichao. Executive direction: Chen Jun.
Cast: Ge Tian (Yuan Xiansheng), Hu Tianyi (Song Qingming), Huang Xindi (Mu Xinyun), Pan Baoming (Wang, butler), Wang Kang (Mu Zhuoqing, younger brother), Bai Jin (Xiaodie, servant girl), Wang Qi (Mu, father), Yan Wei’er (Xiaonuo, servant girl), Pan Yang (Mu Zhuoyuan, elder brother), Shen Tingting (Third Concubine), Jiang Qing (Xiaohong, servant girl), Chen Jun (Lang), Li Yirong (Cai).
Release: China, 16 Oct 2020.