REVIEW: Minxiong Haunted House (2022)
Taiwan is full of spooky locations! Another movie set at a real haunted location called the Minxiong Haunted House in Chiayi!
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No content with making good horror films, now Taiwan wants to share their real life haunted locations with the world! How good is this one?
PLOT
This movie is partially based on the rumoured real story of the Liu family who owned the infamous mansion this movie is named after.
Three generations of women live in the infamous haunted mansion in Minxiong.
When the youngest of the trio goes missing after a visit to the cemetery, a witch doctor is called to the house when she reappears there, only to discover she has entered a forbidden room on the third floor that has been sealed with a spell to hold in an evil spirit
But that spirit has been released, and it starts to take its revenge on the person who wronged her.
TALKING POINTS
Yet another in a series of Taiwanese horror movies based on real life locations, this movie is marked improvement over the terrible film Hospital from 2020.
Atmosphere is the aim of the game here, as it is oozing it in bucketloads. The real mansion, or what appears to be the real mansion based on photos I’ve seen, is used as a backdrop with over grown trees, dilapidated exterior and an eerie sky added to the background.
Even the interior of the house, which is clearly a reconstructed set, looks terrific thanks to the clever colour grading used and some excellent audio including music and effects.
Learning from 2020’s Hospital, this movie is nice and short clocking in at 80 minutes and it keeps up the pace along the way not wasting any time in setting up the scene, getting to the scares and revealing the truth.
Speaking of the truth, I enjoyed the way the movie played with what appeared to be happening – how it shifted the idea of who the spirit was and how it plays with parallel or alternate worlds. The movie also implements the real story of the Minxiong haunted mansion into the plot, so if you know anything about it the ending won’t be that much of a surprise.
The movie only feels let down by the acting – there is just something off about all the performances that don’t quite gel, leading to a movie that should be great, but feels fragmented.
A lot happens in this film in 80 minutes and thankfully the last 20 minutes explains everything very clearly, unlike Hospital.
Don’t forget to stay watching for the post-credit sequence too.
What are my overall thoughts?
Using my patent pending GHOST, which stands for Great Horror or Stupid Trash, this movie scores 3 ghosts. It uses the location and rumoured history of the real location to craft a very decent and enjoyable horror thriller film. Some great visual effects and music complete a package that’s only let down by average performances.
If you’ve seen this movie, what did you think?
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Genre Horror
Director Bang-Yao Liu
Starring Cheryl Yang, Anges Mai, Wilson Liu
Original Title 民雄鬼屋
Country of Origin Taiwan
Release Date 29 July 2022