Hyn huet ching nin (aka New Blood) (2002)
Director: Pou-Soi Cheang
Starring: Bernard Chow, Niki Chow, Winnie Leung
A few years back I got caught up in the fad that was J-Horror (Japanese Horror). I enjoyed the Ring series, the Ju-On series, and stand-alones like Dark Water. I also enjoyed a bit of K-Horror (Korean Horror), in the extremely good The Eye. After a while the genre got a bit boring and repetitive, but before I got to that point I bought New Blood on DVD.
Years have gone by with New Blood sitting on my shelf, until tonight. That's what this marathon is all about after all - watching movies I've been meaning to see but haven't gotten around to popping into the ol' DVD player. And you know what? All along I assumed this movie was J-Horror, but it's not - it's from Hong Kong, which I guess makes it C-Horror.
Don't be fooled though, this isn't like any Chinese horror I've ever seen. It doesn't have the comedy of Bio-Zombie or the blood and guts of Dr Lamb. In fact, it's clearly a rip off of J-Horror, as it steals many of the elements of that sub-genre - a vengeful ghost, a spooky apartment building and lots of quick-flash scares. Thankfully the ghost doesn't have long black hair (which has been done to death) - in fact, she's completely bald!
There was enough in New Blood to keep me interested, not least of all the extremely hot Niki Chow, but if you've seen any of the main J-Horror movies, there's nothing new here. There's a twist at the end, but even that's not very startling.
If you want to see a good example of this sub-genre, choose Ju-On or Dark Water (not the US remake, avoid that like the plague). New Blood is definitely only for the completist.
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