Rigor Mortis, Rent Control Demon Style

....creepy kids in long dark hallways....dripping water....the number four.... Yep! We look at an Asian horror film today.  From Hong Kong, 2013's "Rigor Mortis" (aka "Geung Si") Designed to make you uncomfortable and send you to bed with the willies, our feature today is an icky ghost story set in a dilapidated apartment building.  Vampires, evil ghost twins, curses, and martial arts...however deep this horror flick is, it contains something that will please any fan of the Asian horror sub-genre.

Chin (Siu-Ho Chin), a former heart-throb actor, moves into apartment 2442 in a run down tenement building.  It should be pointed out that in the Chinese culture, the number 2442 is what either 666 or 1313 are in American culture.  Whether in deep grief over the loss of his family....or perhaps possessed by evil spirits dwelling in his flat, he hangs himself.  Yao (Anthony Chan), who operates a dive restaurant on the first floor, then busts into the apartment and saves Chin.  How did Yau know what Chin was doing? Yau is no ordinary cook....see...when the vampires were all killed off, the vampire hunters became cooks.  But have all the vampires been killed off?

Apartment 2442 has a macabre history and one might say is a portal to evil places.  Feng  (Kara Hui) formerly lived there...until...well, you'll see.  Now Feng is reduced to a frightened crazy woman roaming the halls with her creepy albino son.  Oh yes, Auntie Mui (Hee Ching Paw) is a neighbor.  When her husband  dies (...or is murdered), she will do anything to bring him back...and return he does, as something else.  Mui's efforts to bring her hubbie back also conjure up the evil ghost twins. Wait! Let's stop here. This is a complicated plot where a lot is thrown at you, usually in gory fashion. Suffice it to say, you'll stay with it and enjoy a neat and heavy ghost tale. The ending will be epic as Feng and Chin, with Yau's help will take on a horrific evil.

Directed by Juno Mak, virtually every image in this film is haunting.  No joy...no comic relief...no safe harbors between scares, just an ominous drum-beat of horror...you will love it!  In this ominous film, will forces of good overcome the evil that soaks this building?  Will social services in Hong Kong round up the creepy kids and send them to school?  Available on Netflix, enjoy "Rigor Mortis."