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The Death Curse

Year of release: 2003

Genre: ghost/suspense

Director: Cheang Pou Soi

Stars: Charlene Choi, Gillian Chung, Steven Cheung, Kenny Kwan, Raymond Wong, Alex Fong

Rated IIB for disturbing imagery

Version reviewed: Universe DVD


Next on Fox, it's "When Pop Stars Attack". Okay, not really, but The Death Curse just smacks of a cheesy marketing ploy. For those of you that aren't up on Hong Kong pop culture, Twins (Gillian Chung and Charlene Choi) and Boyz (Steven Cheung and Kenny Kwan) are two of the hottest bands going right now, and I guess it was only a matter of time before they were put into a movie together. Thankfully, the results here are better than most of the recent western crossover attempts like Britney Spears' dreadful drunken Amtrak trainwreck accident excuse for a movie called Crossroads, which proved that sometimes a nice pair of tits is just a nice set of tits and they should just keep their air-head yaps shut.

Anyway, The Death Curse is nothing all that great either, because for about the millionth time in a Hong Kong picture, we're dealing with ghosts and a haunted house. Of course, since we have squeaky-clean pop stars in the starring roles, there's a disturbing lack of the three B's which make movies like this good: boobs, booze and blood. For a movie rated IIB (the equivalent to a US "R"), this flick is tame. There's a few bits of claret here and there, but I've seen a lot of episodes of Law & Order or NYPD Blue that were more graphic.

I wasn't expecting a gore-fest like The Untold Story, but there's just such an an underlying cuteness factor here that it undermines most of the attempts to create actual scares. Things aren't as bad as such self-referential "hip" movies like Scream and its' ilk, but probably the only people that will be truly scared by The Death Curse are the type that still suck their thumb and sleep with a nightlight on. I suppose when you're making a horror movie for the teeny-bopper crowd, things are going to get diliuted, but even Jennifer Lopez had a decently creepy picture with The Cell.

There are a few cheap thrills here and there, and the eye candy is decent, but the transparent plot (which has a group of children coming to a spooky mansion to collect their inheiritance) and lackluster acting (especially from Charlene Choi, who seems to subscribe to the "louder is better" school) aren't going to win The Death Curse any awards anytime soon. I'm sure die-hard Twins or Boyz fans will dig this movie a lot, but, honestly, I've seen way too many of these HK ghost-fests lately, and The Death Curse doesn't bring anything new to the table. It's an entertaining enough film, but by no means is it something you're likely to remember years (or even weeks) down the road.

RATING: 6


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