Troublesome Night 7

The seventh film in the series finally ditches Herman Yau. Not that it changes much, except that Yau finally had time to move on to better things. I'm not a big fan of the Troublesome Night series, the mix of tepid horror and bland comedy doesn't really work for me, but clearly, the series enjoyed some success (or was at least cheap enough to make, to recoup the investment).

This seventh part doesn't feature the usual anthology setup, instead, we get a more consistent plot. A TV crew from Hong Kong travels to a more rural seaside village to shoot a music video. The locals aren't too happy about the arrival of the city folk, certainly not when they start spreading rumors about the place being haunted.

Troublesome Night is never scary, the effects are minimal, and the narrative trumps the atmosphere. The performances are pretty weak (even though there are some very familiar faces - Louis Koo is still around) and the finale leans more toward drama than actual horror. These films are short and simple, but they lack the proper genre qualities to make them work.