Afterimages (2014)

This attempt at making a motion picture is rubbish, fails on all points. For one thing , I couldn't always understand what the "actors" were saying because their accents in English are atrocious (and no subtitles on my DVD). Stay away from this garbage unless you want to torture yourself with meaningless drawn-out scenes and ridiculous scripting, The 1 out of 10 is my maximum. This is an INFURIATING film. I waited for something significant, but it never did, and there was zero resolution at the end. RUN AWAY from this flick !

If you are looking for something a little different, this is a well done Malaysian movie. Main characters offer something to the spirits and surprisingly get something back...that is the general plot summed up but it is far deeper than that and exceptionally well done. They offer a camera and get a creepy movie in return.Not "scary" if you are looking for something that is full of heart pounding edge of your seat moments, but there are a few here and it is generally "creepy" and conceptually and psychologically it is quite a good thriller.Generally a good pace and you are kept going through the whole movie with many good twist and turns right up until the end.The acting is pretty good and the plot is good and it is something that I have not seen before and I watch a LOT of horror. I put this on the top of the genre and really enjoyed it and highly recommend it to people looking for something enjoyable to watch.

This was a cool horror flick that takes place during the Hungry Ghost Festival were you place money or an item (usually a picture on paper or fake hell money) as an offering to the deceased, in a bowl, then burnt to be used in the afterlife. Some film students discover one bowl produces films from the ashes the next morning, every time they burn a camera or a facsimile of one. Each time it is in a different format and each time the film is more horrific than the last.I thought this was a unique way of slapping together an anthology film and having it all link together for a film within a film. Kudos to the writers. The effects are awesome in this as well. I was surprised that the acting wasn't cheesy. If you get a chance watch this one. All the stories were entertaining.

First of all, many thanks to Mythopolis for the premiere invite and the success of the event. I guess this is the first movie where I have so many friends acting in it. It was not easy for me, albeit interesting to be reviewing a film where I know so many of the actors.Ghost Pool Leg (鬼拉脚) This is a very common practice in Singapore – not to swim at night, and especially so during the lunar seventh month. This is the most perfect story of the five. Richard Wylie (Robert Warnock) a character who challenged the lunar seventh month myth by swimming at night, is the perfect example for most parents to show their children and warn them against the swimming at night. The swimming scene done by the midnight swimmers were taken beautifully, so beautiful that it was easily to scare the audience as we would forget to brace ourselves for the scare. Veteran actor Laurence Pang took the role of the security guard, left me an impression with his last scene Xiao Bao Bao (小宝宝) Xiao Bao Bao is a "logical" story where the witness of a suicide might get nightmares and trauma. Aside from the unnecessary scene where Amy break off with her boyfriend, the whole story was pretty smooth and well-taken. I like the part where the camera (Go-Pro?) was placed on the rotating fan to build the suspense. There were two things which me and my friend highlighted after watching the film: Why did the "ghost" scare Amy with the bloodied face if she wanted Amy to do her favour (this reminded me of the Ghost Whisperer), while I don't understand why she continued staying at home after being scared by the spirits. Won't it be our first instinct to get out of the house?Skin Deep I was once scared by a CCTV clip which went viral on Facebook, thus when the story started with the CCTV video, I was actually scared. But things go a bit awry later on. Skin Deep focused on a mysterious woman Yasmin (Adeline Pang) who hide a secret, despite the great acting from her (as well as the lift passengers Harrison (Mike Kasem), Helen (Susan Tordoff) and Henry (Daniel Jenkins)), the way the story of the bomoh needles was brought into the picture was a tad too forced. Telling secrets so dark that most will bring to their deathbeds to strangers is just so weird, not to say how it took an asthmatic girl with an overly aggressive friend to get the story going. I was disappointed how it had no direct link to the CCTV (and wondered where the mobile video Romesh (Sylvester Pillay) secretly took went).Kudos to the scene where Yasmin had to cut her own face to dig out the golden needle (but I was wondering where the blood went ). I really like Adeline Pang's acting, but I wonder if the two stories will be any different if she had exchanged her role with Melissa Yeo to become Amy Tan in Xiao Bao Bao, as Adeline will most probably be able to bring out that role well and Melissa (somehow) fit the role of "beautiful + mysterious" lady more.Rekindling Rekindling is, by far, the story with the best cast. Veteran actor Vincent Tee played the role of guilty and sad Hok Leng to a T. The strong contrast of sullen Hok Leng (Vincent Tee) and cheerful yet sarcastic Lee Seng (Gim Goh) made the popular murder story enjoyable. With his slight Singaporean accent, Lee Seng (Gim Goh) is most probably many people's favourite character in Afterimages (Yes, including me!). Together with the China wife "Anna Mei" (Julie Ng), both of them provided the audience with some comic relief from all the sudden scaring and ghostly images. I was hoping the ghost will be acted by the same person, but I guess it will be more funny than scary if it's "Anna Mei" acting Burnt Offerings The five students Derrick (Jeremy Meyer), Tess Ling (Caren Utino), Deuce (Kevin Lagrange), Cameron (Olivia Stiefel) and Rylee (Michael Kwah) aka aspiring film makers were the characters used to frame and link the various stories together. I overheard some audience commenting how the film could easily do away with the characters and it would be nicer without the redundant final story. I had to admit that I was a little disappointed with the characters' emotional transition. There were choppy parts here and there, with one of the girls behaving weirdly (possessed?) in the middle of the film, and suddenly finding some stuff in the house they were staying in and suddenly informing the rest normally. The fearless and almost brainless dabble with supernatural beings made me wonder if they were really aspiring film makers. I believe every film maker should have the common decency to show respect to the unknown.The 5 characters were not really developed properly to give the audience an impact. There was a part where one of the five suddenly went missing, and I was like, erm, how did he look like again? Similarly, for the two girls Tess Ling and Cameron, they look somewhat similar with different hairstyles. The filler scenes in between stories become repetitive after a while. I guess what spoiled the final story was the poorly done "fire" and "breaking of the doors".Shooting style Despite the nit-picking, I like how the director used various shooting angles and styles for each story, portraying each story (as well as the Singapore cityscape) in a different light....Read on: http://tiffanyyong.com/2014/09/10/afterimages-horror-movie-review/