horror movies

[STSH]

After watching hundreds of HK films, I'm still waiting for one which is genuinely scary, as opposed to simply very gory and violent but without suspense, or just a little creepy (a la the endless Troublesome Night series).<br><br>

[PAUL MARTINEZ]

I have to agree. I have not been able to find a truly scary one as of yet. I did enjoy Bloody Friday for some reason.But it really wasn't scary. If you find one please post the title here I'd like to see it.<br><br>

[STSH]

I have to agree. I have not been able to find a truly scary one as of yet. I did enjoy Bloody Friday for some reason.But it really wasn't scary. If you find one please post the title here I'd like to see it.<br><br>

Anyone found any yet ?

[Brian Thibodeau]

I was once in a video store talking to the lady at the counter about Hong Kong horror movies. She saw a bunch in my stack and was curious whether I liked them or not. I mentioned that I didn't find them scary at all for the most part, but they were so different from what I was used to that I couldn't help but want to see more. I asked her if they were scarier to Chinese people than they were to westerners and she mentioned that they were to her and a great many people amongst her family and friends! She said it was often simply the situations that some Chinese viewers would find scary (uniquely Chinese depictions of hell, vengeful ghosts, etc.) due to the cultural background rather than the western style movies that were better at building suspense and making people jump. Anecdotal evidence, obviously, but it became clear to me that I needed to learn more about Chinese superstitions in order to fully appreciate movies in which eternal mahjonng games with Helena Law Lan in a green-lit hell were meant to be horrific in some way. Still on that curve, of course, and I still haven't quite got the gist of things, but I always grab old HK horror flicks whenever I come across them.

If "sirrunrunshaw" was still lurking about these forums looking for "really" scary movies (rather than others simply reviving old threads! ), I'd almost be tempted to point him to Japan or Korea, since Hong Kong horror movies are still in their infancy when it comes to melding these traditional Chinese horrors with westernized film techniques to craft films that traffic in confucian dread AND pack a few cheap scares to keep your heart pumping. I suppose THE EYE, INNER SENSES and KOMA come as close as I've yet seen, and maybe lower budget stuff like NEW BLOOD, which really caught me by surprise. The Chinese quotient of THREE: EXTREMES was pretty wild, too.

And then there's always THE PARK....