The Faith of Anna Waters

The Faith of Anna Waters

Singapore/Hong Hong/US, 2016, colour/b&w, 2.35:1, 95 mins.

Director: Tang Yongjian 唐永健 [Kelvin Tong].

Rating: 4/10.

Good-looking ghost movie is torpedoed by a messy script and wooden US leads.

STORY

Singapore, May 2014. After receiving a message that her older sister Anna Waters (Rayann Condy) has died, US journalist Jamie Waters (Elizabeth Rice), of the Pacific Monitor, arrives from Chicago and is told she committed suicide by suffocation. As a child she had been diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease, which her young daughter, Katie Harris (Adina Herz), also has. Jamie Waters disbelieves the story until the police show her a webcam recording made by her sister herself. At the colonial-style family mansion where her niece is still living, Jamie Waters meets her sister’s ex-husband, novelist Sam Harris (Matthew Settle), whom she blames for her sister’s unhappiness. That night, on the terrace, Katie Harris senses her mother’s presence. Separately, Jamie Waters sees the letters ELI VANTHA in the mirror and spots a strange symbol (a patriarchal cross over an infinity symbol) carved on the chair on which her sister died. Meanwhile, a Catholic priest, Matthew Goh (Peng Yaoshun) has been trying to convince another priest, De Silva (Colin Borgonon), who once conducted an exorcism that went wrong in Bali, that the hacking of several church websites with the message “The Tower Rises”, augurs a modern version of the Tower of Babel, with the universal “language” of computer binary code about to be brought down. Jamie Waters is contacted by an airline employee, Ravi Sharma (R. Chandran), whose wife died after cutting her pregnant womb out of her own body; on their cot was the same symbol. Meanwhile, at home, Katie Harris is still convinced her late mother is trying to contact her and will return seven days after she died, as promised. In the house she finds the cutlery arranged to form the letters EVA LATHIN. Jamie Waters finally lets Sam Harris help her in solving the mystery and starts getting spooked herself. She tracks down the house of a woman, May Wong (Qi Fei), who may be the key to the whole affair – and there finds both the Catholic priests, who have come to the same conclusion.

REVIEW

The scripts have always been the weakest element in the films of Tang Yongjian 唐永健 [Kelvin Tong], and so it is in horror movie The Faith of Anna Waters. It’s the Singapore director’s first feature in five years, since his most ambitious production, It’s a Great Great World 大世界 (2011), a likeable heartwarmer that looked at the island republic’s history of the past 70 years. Described by some media at the time as “a Hollywood movie”, Anna Waters is nothing of the sort; though it was shot in English with US leads, and apart from a couple of scenes might just as well have been shot in Chicago rather than Singapore, it’s a majority-financed Asian production. Tang has always turned in professional, good-looking fare, and this is no exception; too bad, then, that the screenplay is a mess and the cast is second rate.

Along with his previous film, the hard-driven crime drama Kidnapper 绑匪 (2010), Great World seemed to confim a period when Tang was really trying to break the mould of the local industry. But this latest production is in many ways a retreat to more conventional fare, as well as a return to the supernatural genre that he’s always favoured (The Maid 女佣, 2005; ghost comedy Men in White 鬼啊！鬼啊！, 2007; Rule #1 第一诫, 2008). Though the US leads give the film a slight American flavour, the treatment of the ghostly elements is thoroughly Southeast Asian, i.e. the spirit world co-existing alongside the human one.

Aided by cool, clean photography by Asia-based Australian d.p. Wade Muller (Triad 扎职, 2012; Tales from the Dark 李碧华鬼魅系列, 2013; The Last Executioner เพชฌฆาต, 2014) Tang spends time building atmosphere before, as in The Maid, ramping up the FX and physical shocks in the final section, with an OK (if not very original) exorcism finale. But the effect is negated by the blah, uninvolving script, in which the backstory is garbled, the idea of the single world “language” of computer binary code being overthrown like some Tower of Babel is left undeveloped, and relationships are devoid of warmth and conviction.

The US leads are wooden and deeply unsympathetic, with Elizabeth Rice (US TV’s Mad Men) cold and barky, child actress Adina Herz way out of her depth as the haunted niece, and Matthew Settle (US TV’s Band of Brothers) given purely functional dialogue in an already rudimentary script. Singapore favourite Peng Yaoshun 彭耀顺 [Adrian Pang] pops up here and there in a nothing role as a Catholic priest convinced the end is nigh. And the whole thing isn’t helped by a feeble non-score by Tang regular Huang Fushan 黄福山 [Joe Ng], plus Chen Sihao 陈思豪 [Ting Si Hao].

The film was released in Hong Kong with the Chinese title 魔念 and in the US as The Offering.

CREDITS

Presented by Boku Films (SG), Sun Entertainment Culture (HK), Ruddy Morgan Organization (US), PEP Pictures (SG).

Script: Tang Yongjian [Kelvin Tong]. Photography: Wade Muller. Editing: Olly Stothert. Music: Huang Fushan [Joe Ng], Chen Sihao [Ting Si Hao]. Production design: Lin Yuwen [Daniel Lim]. Art direction: Wyna Yow. Costume design: Li Wei’en. Sound: William Sim, Huang Fushan [Joe Ng], Ye Zhaoji. Visual effects: Alfred Sim, Jay Hong (Vividthree). Action: Kerry Wong, Surawit Sae Kang.

Cast: Elizabeth Rice (Jamie Waters), Matthew Settle (Sam Harris), Adina Herz (Katie Harris), Peng Yaoshun [Adrian Pang] (Matthew Goh, Catholic priest), Colin Borgonon (De Silva, Catholic priest), Darius Tan (Indonesian doctor), Dylan Jenkins (boy with Huntington’s Disease), Sharon Frese (Hawkins, doctor), Wang Shumei [Jaymee Ong] (Marjorie Tan), Rayann Condy (Anna Waters), Prem John (investigating officer), Daniel Jenkins (forensic pathologist), Ella K (young Anna), Augusta (young Jamie), Gus Donald (Danny Crowther), R. Chandran (Ravi Sharma), Chen Qionghua (Charlotte Sharma), Victoria Mintey (Cynthia Crowther), Naomi Toh (Land Authority employee), Crispian Chan (Josh Lim, artist), Qi Fei (May Wong), Paul Lucas (Nigel Crowther), Shane Mardjuki, Elizabeth Lazan Tan, Marcus Mok (dinner guests), Xu Youmei [Janice Koh] (Subterfuge CEO),

Release: Singapore, 12 May 2016; Hong Kong, 26 May 2016; US, 6 May 2016.