Troublesome Night 5

Hong Kong was never really able to profit from the most recent Asian horror wave, but that's not for their lack of horror cinema. Just look at the success of the Troublesome Night franchise, a series that outpaced even the most proficient Western horror series. Herman Yau directed a slew of the early ones, I'm not really a big fan.

Like all the other films in the series, you get three unrelated horror shorts that our bound together by a somewhat random wrap-around segment. This time we get a cab driver who wants to escape his gambling debts and ends up in an old house with his young son. At night his boy won't stop crying, of course the house is haunted.

While these are clear horror stories on paper, the execution just isn't what you'd expect from a proper horror film. These films are never scary, the acting is highly exaggerated, and there's often some out of place comedy to lighten the mood. Yau is capable of doing solid horror films, but when he lowers himself to the Hong Kong baseline, it's just as bland as any other film in the genre.