Hung bou yit sin ji Dai tao gwai ying (2001)

Director:

Pou-Soi Cheang

Writers:

Sunny Chan, Pou-Soi Cheang

Stars:

Francis Ng, Josie Ho, Sam Lee

1 win.

Cast

Credited cast:
Francis Ng	...	Ben
Josie Ho	...	Mavis Ho
Sam Lee	...	Sam
Niki Chow	...	Helen
Michelle Zhang	...	Connie
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mo-Chan Chik
Yuet-Ming Chiu
Alan Mak	...	Officer Mak
Ernst Mausser
Siu-Chung Poon
Ruth
Kam-Yuen Szeto
Roy Szeto	...	Helen's Psychiatrist
Man-Wai Wong
Wilson Yip

Storyline

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Genres:

Horror

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Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Release Date:

13 September 2001 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

Horror Hotline... Big Head Monster

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

References The Blair Witch Project (1999)

User Reviews

Ridiculous title... yes, but it's far from a ridiculous movie.

A late night radio show program asks people to ring in with any weird stories or unexplainable experiences they have encountered. During one of those calls a person named Chris, tells of a bizarre encounter he had three decades ago of a hideous baby with a massive head. So naturally the radio producer and American TV crew investigates the sinister story and finds themselves in one big mystery that doesn't want to be solved.

'Horror Hotline… big head monster' mixes bits of 'It's alive' and 'The Blair Witch Project' together. Now don't let this title fool you, as this is no comedy, but a creative and taut psychological/horror film that plays on the things you don't see, but from what you hear and sense.

The idea is rather absurd, but on the other-hand quite haunting. The film is pretty much story driven, with a fairly thorough back-story of ponderous exposition- but it never let's violence or gore take control… actually there's hardly any. Throughout the film the legend of the baby is always on our mind- but we never see it fully, even though it's always implied, heard (baby crying & snarling) or even discussed by the characters, which makes it more unnerving and tense. While still keeping your complete interest.

With a filming and narrative style very similar to that of the film 'The Blair Witch Project' and it's morbid atmosphere leaves one lasting impression. It holds some exceptional images of terror and eerie sound effects that leaves you with some chills and as well as some fair shocks. Though, definitely not cheap ones. It has a superb soundtrack that gets under your skin, while the moody and sombre performances from Francis Ng, as the radio producer and Josie Ho as an American TV reporter are fairly hypnotic.

After getting into the mystery of the big headed baby legend you just feel a little disappointed with the open-ended conclusion. With it leaving you with more questions than before, but still the abrupt ending is quite spine-tingling and the pacing of the film was reasonably solid.

Overall this wasn't great by any means but quite a surprise. I didn't have high expectations for it after seeing the title and watching such disappointments in the Asian horror field before this 'Rasen' and 'St John's Wort'. It's not for all tastes and it might bore some people, if you're looking for splatter or violence.

Definitely worth a look if your into Asian or psychological horror.