01:00AM 夜半一點鐘

 Released Year: 1995

Directed by 叶伟信 Wilson Yip

Story 1: 昏迷 Coma

Casted by:

叶玉卿 Veronica Yip as 护士 Nurse

黄耀明 Anthony Wong as 歌星 Celebrity

A famous celebrity went into coma in sudden and was send to stay in the hospital. The nurse discovered that the spirit of the celebrity was being attacked and distracted by a female ghost who happened to be the fans of the celebrity. The celebrity asked for the nurse's help but she was afraid to. After knowing that the ghost was actually being selfish and wanted own the celebrity all by herself, the nurse scolded her and advice her to release the celebrity's spirit if she really love him. 

Story 2: 辫子姑娘 Braided girl

Casted by:

袁咏仪 Anita Yuen as Fong

宣萱 Jessica Hester Hsuan as Gigi

Studying in psychology class, these university student make an assignment of dealing with the ghost behind their university, with the braided hair girl. Fong drive her new "old" car for the adventure alone and the car break down in the middle of the hill. The braided ghost appeared and in the end scare her to death, Fong then met an accident and broke her leg when she was near her university.

Story 3: 快相 Speed Trap

Casted by:

徐锦江 Elvis Tsui as 阿明 Meng

陈小春 Jordan Chan as 阿辉 Fai

Two traffic police were ordered to take charged of the speed trap section. Meng and Fai accidentally saw the spirit of a granny who was being killed in a car accident on the same highway. The granny helps them to find the one who murdered her and also solved out their problem.

L² Scored: 7/10

L² Comment:

This movie used to be quite scary when I watched it during my younger days, but now it seems ok for me :p issit because i'm not afraid of ghost anymore or i have become a cold blooded evil? lol~ Love the 2nd story the most which i think Anita Yuen did a great job on it~

The House That Never Dies 京城81号 / 朝内81号

 Released Year: 2014

Directed by 叶伟民 Ye Wei Min

Casted by:

林心如 Ruby Lin as 陆蝶玉(前世) Dieyu & 许若卿(今生) Ruoqing

吴镇宇 Francis Ng as 霍连修(前世) Lianxiu & 赵奕堂(今生) Yitang

杨佑宁 Tony Yang as 霍连齐 Lianqi

夏文汐 Pat Ha as 霍家大少奶奶 Lianxiu's wife

 Story:

The 3D thriller is based on the legendary mansion at No. 81 on Chaoyangmennei Street in Beijing, follows Xu Ruoqing, a woman whose presence in the notorious mansion draws up the spirits that have taken residence there.

The film starts with the story of a notable family who lives in the house right after the fall of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). When the family's third son falls in love with a prostitute named Lu Dieyu, his request to marry her is refused and instead the family force Lu to marry their second recently deceased son in a posthumous wedding ceremony. Going from the wedding directly to the funeral, the family throws Lu into a coffin with the pale-faced dead body of her new husband.

L² Scored: 4/10

L² Comment:

Alot of you knows that i'm a big fans of horror movie. This movie was some sort related to one of Beijing haunted house and it was shot in 3D version. The 3D effect might be good, but the story is not that strong for me, feel like something is lacking, its not scary enough for me. What a waste~

Horrors of the Black Museum

Released Year: 1959

Directed by Arthur Crabtree

Casted by:

 Michael Gough as Edmond Bancroft

Graham Curnow as Rick

June Cunningham as Joan Berkley

Shirley Anne Field as Angela Banks

 Story:

Frustrated thriller writer Edmond Bancroft owns a private "black museum" of torture instruments. He hypnotises his assistant Rick to commit increasingly horrific crimes for Bancroft to write about. Rick has been going out to murder those pity victims after being hypnotize. Including Joan, who is the mistress of Edmond and Rick even murder his own girlfriend Angela as well. While feeling sad on it Rick murder Edmond and killed himself in the end to ends all these tragedy.

 L² Scored: 1/10

L² Comment:

Seriously, i don't know whether this movie should be even consider under the horror category. The museum did not say much on the horror part and it definitely seems "not-scare" to me~ The storyline is very predictable and well... normal~ 

Transcendence

 Released Year: 2014

Directed by Wally Pfister

Casted by:

Johnny Depp as Dr. Will Caster

Rebecca Hall as Evelyn Caster

Paul Bettany as Max Waters

Kate Mara as Bree

Cillian Murphy as Donald Buchanan

Cole Hauser as Colonel Stevens

Morgan Freeman as Joseph Tagger

 Story:

Dr. Will Caster is a scientist motivated by curiosity about the nature of consciousness and sentience, including artificial intelligence. Being part of a team working to create a sentient computer, he predicts that such a computer will create a technological singularity, or in his words "Transcendence". His wife Evelyn, whom he loves deeply, supports his efforts and joins him in their garden around which he has erected copper mesh (effectively creating a Faraday cage) to block electromagnetic radiation. However, the extremist group "Revolutionary Independence From Technology" (R.I.F.T.) has one of their members shoot Will with a polonium laced bullet and carry out a series of synchronized attacks on AI laboratories across the country. Will is given no more than a month to live.

In desperation, Evelyn comes up with a plan to upload Will's consciousness into the quantum computer that the project has developed. His best friend Max Waters, also a researcher, questions the wisdom of this choice. Will's consciousness survives his body's death in this technological form and requests to be connected to the Internet to grow in capability and knowledge. Max panics, insisting that the computer intelligence is not Will. Evelyn forces Max to leave and connects the computer intelligence to the Internet via satellite.

Max is almost immediately confronted by Bree, the leader of R.I.F.T. Max is captured by the terrorists and eventually persuaded to join them. The government is also deeply suspicious of what Will's uploaded persona will do and plans to use the terrorists to take the blame for the government's actions to stop him.

In his virtual form, and with Evelyn's help, Will uses his new-found vast intelligence to build a technological utopia in a remote desert town called Brightwood, where he spearheads the development of groundbreaking new technologies in the fields of medicine, energy, biology and nanotechnology. But even Evelyn begins to grow fearful of Will's motives when he displays the ability to remotely connect to and control people's minds after they have been subjected to his nano-particles.

FBI agent Donald Buchanan, with the help of government scientist Joseph Tagger, prepares to stop the technological sentient entity from spreading. As Will has spread his influence to all the networked computer technology in the world, R.I.F.T. develops a computer virus with the purpose of deleting Will's source code, killing him and, as an unfortunate side effect, destroying technological civilization. All the characters, Bree, Max, Tagger, Evelyn, and even Will Caster himself, are forced to choose between uploading the virus or risking assimilation into Will's Transcendence, which holds the promise of ending pollution, disease, and human mortality.

When Evelyn goes back to the research center, she is taken aback seeing Will in a newly created organic body identical to his old one. Will welcomes her but is instantly aware that she is carrying the virus and intends to destroy him. The FBI and the activists of R.I.F.T. attack the base with mortars, fatally wounding Evelyn. Will is given the choice between healing Evelyn's body, or protecting her by uploading her mind as she did his, which will also infect him with the virus. After being threatened by Bree to upload the virus or see his friend Max die, Will hesitates. Evelyn tells Will that no one should die for their mistake. Thus, Will chooses to spare the people he loves instead of saving technological civilization. As Will is dying, he explains to Evelyn that he did what he did for her: saving the planet was her wish, to learn the secrets of the universe was his. Evelyn then realizes it was Will all along and whatever he did was actually all for her. Then, the virus kills both Will and Evelyn, and a global technology collapse and blackout ensues.

Three years later, in Will and Evelyn's garden outside their old home in Berkeley, Max notices that their sunflowers are the only blooming plants within it. Upon closer examination, he notices that a drop of water falling from a sunflower petal instantly cleanses a puddle of oil — and realizes that the Faraday cage has also protected a sample of Will's nano-particles.

 L² Scored: 0.5/10

L² Comment:

I have always been a big fans on Depp's movie, but sorry not this one. I found it a bit boring or is it its too "scientific?" that i fall asleep on and off while the movie goes on. What a shame of me or the movie? Lol~ will not watch this movie even i have nothing to watch ever!

Dracula Untold (Dracula: Year Zero)

 Released Year: 2014

Directed by Gary Shore

Casted by:

Luke Evans as Vlad III Țepeș

Sarah Gadon as Mirena / Mina Murray

Dominic Cooper as Mehmed II

Art Parkinson as Ingeras

Charles Dance as Master Vampir

 Story:

In the Middle Ages, Vlad the Impaler is the prince of Wallachia and Transylvania. As a child, he was a princely hostage of the Ottoman Empire and trained to be a soldier in the Sultan's elite Janissary corp, where he became their most feared warrior, nicknamed the Impaler, after slaughtering thousands. Eventually sickened by his acts, he put aside his past and returned to rule his domains in peace. One day in the forest, Vlad and his soldiers discover a helmet in a stream, fearing that a Ottoman scouting party is preparing the way for invasion. They follow the stream to a high mountain cave called Broke Tooth Mountain. Upon entering the cave, they discover the ground of the cave is carpeted in crushed bone, before they are attacked in the dark by an unknown creature. While his men are killed, Vlad cuts the creature of the cave with his sword before being thrown to the ground. The blood on the sword he used to cut the creature dissolves when exposed to sunlight, and the creature does not pursue Vlad due to sunlight at the mouth of the cave. Returning to his castle, Vlad finds out from a local monk that the creature is a vampire, once a man who summoned a demon from the depths of hell and made a pact with it for dark powers before being tricked by the demon and cursed to remain in the cave forever until he is released by someone who has seen him, escapes, and returns to the cave a second time. The person is welcome to share his power in exchange for the freedom to escape the cave.

The next day, as Vlad celebrates Easter with his wife Mirena, his son Ingeras, and his subjects, an Ottoman contingent arrives unexpectedly at the castle. Vlad offers them the usual tribute payment of silver coins, but the emissary notes that a battalion of Ottoman scouts has gone missing, implying that Vlad has had them killed. Vlad professes that he had not killed them. The emissary demands an additional tribute of 1,000 boys to be trained as Janissaries, through the devşirme system. Vlad refuses, but his army is small and no match for the Turks. He approaches the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed II to convince him by offering himself in place of the boys, but the Sultan refuses, and demands Vlad's son in addition. The sultan sends the emissary to bring Vlad's son. Vlad has an argument with his wife, as he is sending his son to meet the emissary and some Ottoman soldiers who are waiting for him to present his son. Vlad tells his wife to trust him before leaving his wife and son and going to meet the emissary and the soldiers alone. He disarms but his son, afraid for him, runs to him holding his hand. Telling his father that he is ready to join the sultan's army. As Vlad approaches the Turks the emissary ,smiling, tells Vlad that he thought there would be some kind of difficulty. Vlad tells his son to run back to his mom, then takes the emissary's sword and kills him and his small entourage of soldiers.

In desperation, Vlad returns to the Broke Tooth Mountain cave to seek help from the vampire. Once inside, the vampire starts running around Vlad with speed. Vlad draws his sword and the vampire appears in front him, frightening him. The vampire asked Vlad why he returned. Vlad replies by saying he needs the power of the vampire so that he can defeat the Ottoman army. The vampire tells him there are consequences. The vampire offers him some of his blood, which will temporarily give Vlad the powers of a vampire. If he resists the intense urge to drink human blood for three days, he will turn back into a human. Otherwise, he will remain a vampire forever, and will one day be called upon to help his maker. Vlad accepts the offer and drinks the vampire's blood.

Waking up in the forest afterwards, Vlad discovers he has been granted heightened senses, increased strength, and the ability to transform into a flock of bats, but his skin slowly burns in direct sunlight. When he returns to Castle Dracula, the Ottoman army attacks, but Vlad single-handedly kills them all. He then sends most of the castle's subjects to Cozia Monastery, which is situated on the edge of a mountain. During the journey, Mirena learns of Vlad's curse, but accepts that he will regain his mortality once the Ottomans are defeated. A Romani named Shkelgim, who knows Vlad is a vampire, proclaims himself as his servant and offers his own blood, but Vlad resists. As they near the monastery, the Valahs are ambushed by Ottoman soldiers, and while Vlad and his men successfully repel them, Vlad's sudden increased strength arouses suspicion among his subjects. The next day at the monastery, a monk learns of the curse and leads the the prince's subjects to turn on Vlad, trapping him in a burning building. Black smoke blocks out the sun, allowing an outraged Vlad to escape the fire, and he angrily reveals that he became a vampire for the sole purpose of protecting his people from the Ottoman suzerainty.

That night, the Ottoman army marches on the monastery. Vlad commands an enormous swarm of bats to repel them; however, the soldiers are actually a decoy force, allowing a handful of Turks to infiltrate the monastery and kidnap Ingeras. Mirena tries to defend her son, and falls from the edge of the monastery wall. Dying, Mirena pleads with Vlad to drink her blood before the sun rises to give him the strength to save their son. Vlad reluctantly drinks her blood, triggering his final transformation into a full-blooded vampire and granting him even greater powers. Vlad returns to the monastery and turns a small group of survivors into vampires as well. At the Ottoman camp, Mehmed prepares for a massive invasion of Europe through the Balkans and Hungary. Vlad's vampires arrive and massacre the soldiers, while Vlad himself goes after Mehmed, who is holding Ingeras captive. Aware that vampires are weakened by silver, Mehmed has lined the floor of his tent with silver coins and fights Vlad with a silver sword. He overpowers Vlad and prepares to impale his heart with a wooden stake, but Vlad turns into a flock of bats and evades him. Taking the name "Dracula, Son of the Devil", he kills Mehmed and drinks his blood.

As they leave Mehmed's tent, Dracula and Ingeras are confronted by the other vampires, who demand that his son be killed because he is human. The monk who had previously led the Valahs against Vlad appears and keeps the vampires at bay with the Christian Cross. Dracula orders the monk to take Ingeras away, then uses his power to clear the black clouds in the sky. The sunlight burns the vampires into dust, while Dracula collapses into a charred corpse. With Europe saved from invasion, Ingeras is crowned the new Prince of Wallachia, and Vlad the Impaler is presumed dead. However, Shkelgim secretly takes Dracula into the shadows and revives him with his blood.

In the present day, Vlad meets a woman named Mina, who strikingly resembles Mirena, in the streets of a modern city, and they have a conversation about a line of poetry they have in common. The vampire who cursed Vlad watches them from afar, and anticipates what he has planned for Dracula in the future, saying, "Let the games begin."

 L² Scored: 8.5/10

L² Comment:

Vampire/Dracula kinda movie has always been my favorite genre types. Luke Evans surprise me in this movie with his eyes. Love how he stares at the camera, as if he was connecting with me thru it ~ lol... Overall the storyline is great, but of course, we know that this is not how dracula was born in the beginning, but well, who cares? Its a myth and there might not be any dracula in this world at all~

The Maze Runner

Released Year: 2014

Directed by Wes Ball

Casted by:

Dylan O'Brien as Thomas

Ki Hong Lee as Minho

Kaya Scodelario as Teresa

Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Newt

Will Poulter as Gally

Aml Ameen as Alby

Blake Cooper as Chuck

 Story:

Thomas, a 16 year old boy, wakes up inside an underground service elevator with no memory of his identity. A group of male youths greet him in a large grassy area called the Glade that is enclosed by tall, stone walls. Every month, a new boy and supplies arrive in the elevator. The boys, called Gladers, have formed a rudimentary society with each assuming specialized tasks. Alby, their leader and the first to arrive in the Glade, says every boy eventually recalls his name, but none remember their past. The boy learns that a vast Maze surrounding the Glade may provide the only way out. During the day, designated Runners search the Maze for an escape route, returning before nightfall when the entrance closes. No one has ever survived a night inside the Maze.

While in a competition with Gally, the boy suddenly remembers his name is Thomas. Later, Thomas is attacked by Ben, a Runner delirious from being stung by a Griever – deadly techno-organic creatures that roam the Maze at night. Ben is forced into the Maze and left to die as there is no cure for what the Griever infected him with. Minho, the lead Runner, and Alby later retrace Ben's steps inside the Maze. Minho reappears at dusk dragging Alby, who was stung, but they are unable to reach the closing entrance in time. Thomas spontaneously runs into the Maze to help but all three are trapped. During the night in the Maze, Thomas and Minho tie Alby up high on the Maze wall to hide him from the Grievers, but Minho abandons Thomas when a Griever emerges from the center of the Maze. Thomas slides under the Maze wall, managing to hide from the Griever. Later, Thomas finds Minho and his actions during the night keeps them alive, and he kills a Griever by tricking it into a narrow, closing passageway thus causing it to be crushed, making him the first to ever survive the night and kill a Griever. To the other boys' astonishment, they return the next morning.

Gally claims Thomas has jeopardized the fragile peace between the Gladers and the Grievers and wants him punished, but Newt, the group's second-in-command, instead designates Thomas a Runner. Thomas, Minho and several volunteers enter the Maze. They locate the Griever corpse and remove a beeping mechanical device from inside it. The device is numbered to correspond to a certain section within the Maze. The next morning, the first-ever girl arrives in the elevator. She apparently recognizes Thomas though he cannot remember her. A note says she is the last one being sent. Minho shows Thomas a scale model of the Maze he has built, based on his three years of exploration. The Maze's numbered sections open and close in a regular sequence that might be a code. With the mechanical device, they may be able to find an escape route.

The girl, Teresa, has two syringes filled with an unknown substance. One is used on Alby, and he gradually recovers from the Griever sting and begins regaining his memories. Minho and Thomas venture back into the Maze and discover a possible exit but are nearly trapped, barely making it back to the Glade.

That night, the Maze entrance does not close while others open, letting Grievers pour in. A massacre ensues as the Gladers, practically defenseless against the Grievers, struggle to fight back or hide. Alby saves Chuck from a Griever, but is killed moments later, telling Thomas to "Get them out". Gally assaults Thomas after the chaos, blaming him for the Glade's destruction. Thomas, who has had disconnected memory flashes since arriving, stabs himself with a severed Griever stinger in an attempt to revive his memory. The others inject him with the last anti-venom. Unconscious, he recalls that he and Teresa worked for the organization that created the Maze; the boys unknowingly have been in an experiment. Thomas awakens and shares this information with Newt, Minho, Chuck, and Teresa.

Meanwhile, Gally has taken command and intends to sacrifice Thomas and Teresa to the Grievers to restore the peace. Most of the Gladers are swayed to free Thomas and Theresa and attempt escaping the Maze, but Gally and a few others refuse to leave. Fighting Grievers as they go, the survivors escape the Maze and eventually enter a laboratory strewn with dead scientists and technicians. A woman in a video recording explains that the planet has been devastated by increasing solar flares, followed by a pandemic of a deadly, incurable virus called the Flare that affects the brain of the afflicted. We learn that a group of younger individuals appeared to be immune to the virus. The Gladers learn that they were part of an experiment studying the way their brains worked as a resistance to the virus. At the end, the woman in the video shoots herself as the lab is being attacked by men with military-style weapons but dressed more like mercenaries. Gally suddenly appears armed with a gun he found. Delirious from a Griever sting, he insists they must stay in the Maze, then aims at Thomas intending to kill him out of revenge. Minho kills Gally with a spear, but not before Chuck is fatally shot protecting Thomas, who is devastated by his friend's death. Masked armed men rushed in and take the group to a helicopter. As they fly over the Maze, it is revealed to be placed in a vast desert wasteland. Eventually, the helicopter approaches a ruined city. The scene ends with the supposedly-dead scientists meeting in a room. The leader (woman in the video) notes that the experiment has been a success; the survivors are now entering Phase Two.

 L² Scored: 8/10

L² Comment:

I have wanted to watch this movie in the cinema but i don't know why i just not in the mood to watch any movie in the cinema previously. Well, let's get back to the movie, the storyline is great... but i expected a bit more in this. Maybe it will get better in the next movie, we will see. By the way, Ki Hong Lee is damn hot, i've seen him in the WangFu Production before, and he is so yummy :)

Island of the Fishmen (L'isola degli uomini pesce)

 Released Year: 1979

Directed by Sergio Martino

Casted by:

Claudio Cassinelli as Lieutenant Claude de Ross

Barbara Bach as Amanda Marvin

Richard Johnson as Edmond Rackham

Joseph Cotten as Professor Ernest Marvin

Beryl Cunningham as Shakira

 Story:

It is the year 1891 and a military doctor, Lieutenant Claude de Ross a survivor of not one, but two shipwrecks, washes ashore on a mysterious, uncharted Caribbean island along with a handful of convicts. When several of these convicts meet unfortunate ends at the hands of the titular fishmen, Claude and the other survivors flee into the jungle, only to encounter the sadistic Edmond Rackham and his beautiful captive Amanda Marvin.

Amanda's father, Professor Ernest Marvin, a once-famed biologist, has discovered a way to transform humans into amphibious creatures and controls their every move. Rackham manipulates Marvin into performing the procedure upon both willing and unwilling participants by assuring him that his work is undertaken for purely scientific and humanitarian motives (Marvin hopes to reduce strain on the world food supply by creating a race of people who can live in the resource-untapped ocean). Having discovered the lost city of Atlantis beneath the waters surrounding the island however, Rackham is in actuality using the half-human monsters to plunder the lost city of its treasures.

Shakira, a voodoo priestess in the employ of Rackham foretells death and destruction descending upon the island.

The priestess' prophecy is fulfilled as the film ends with Claude and Amanda attempting an escape from a gun-wielding Rackham, a crazed Shakira, uncontrolled fishmen and the very volcano that doomed Atlantis which awakens and threatens to send what unsubmerged landmass remains to oblivion.

 L² Scored: 3/10

L² Comment: 

I kinda like the idea of the old man wanted to build a brand new empire in the sea. But the so called fishmen gives me the creep out of it. But as I continue to watch this movie, the fishmen looks like frogs to me lol~ the movie is a bit bored in most of the part and that's why i rate it so low...