The Great Wall of Horror: Out of the Dark (1995)

The next stop along The Great Wall of Horror is Hong Kong again, with inspiration from Netflix, for the 1995 Stephen Chow horror comedy, Out of the Dark.

Apologies that The Great Wall of Horror is a bit late but Halloween season officially started (it begins Sept. 1st, fight me) so it’s been pretty busy in my world. While my mind says I should head to Japan or India for this installation, my heart is sending me back to Hong Kong. My inspiration comes from some surprise additions to Netflix this month. It would seem that Netflix is on a Hong Kong kick right now so we are heading back to the island off the coast of China to take a look at the 1995 supernatural horror comedy, Out of the Dark.

Image courtesy of Celestial Pictures

I had mentioned I chose this movie due to Netflix and that is because, for some reason, the month of September has brought a wave of Stephen Chow to the streaming service and that is an amazing thing. Movies like Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer have always been some of my comedy favorites. Many of the movies that Stephen Chow has starred in he has directed, but the horror comedy featured today was written and directed by Jeffrey Lau and stars Chow as Leon, Karen Mok as Kwan, Leung Ka-Yan as Wu, Wong Yat-Fei as Dan Tieh, and Wong Chi-Yin as Keung.

The story of Out of the Dark is as follows. In a high rise apartment building in Hong Kong, an old woman (the mother of tenant Mr. Li) has passed away on the staircase and haunts the building, her son and daughter-in-law, blaming her family for her death. Strange things are happening in the building and it’s getting dangerous. The security guards see the activity but are fairly useless and incompetent in their ability to do, well, pretty much anything. Living in the building is strange girl Kwan, who gets swept up in it all, especially when local escaped asylum resident and self proclaimed exorcist/ ghost hunter, Leon, shows up by chance to assist. What follows is death, the supernatural and hijinx.

Image courtesy of Celestial Pictures

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I love Out of the Dark but admittedly it can get a bit confusing at times. I find that’s an issue I have watching some Asian horror because cultures tend to have their own inside jokes and legends. Because I’m not a native Cantonese speaker, nor have I been to Hong Kong, I do miss out on some of the more subtle nuances of their horror industry, but it doesn’t take away from how much I enjoy the films.

While this isn’t the best Stephen Chow movie I have seen (Kung Fu Hustle wins that award), this is definitely an enjoyable installment into his long line of movies and another great example of prime Hong Kong horror comedy. Another reason I love it are the security guards. They are pure fools but they are played by familiar faces. Any fans of Stephen Chow will recognize the same actors in every movie and they are funny every single time. Many times they outshine the so-called lead actors.

I’m completely biased in my love for Hong Kong horror comedies and I promise I will explore into farther reaches of Asian cinema. Just blame Netflix for this one. If you haven’t, check out the last two articles from The Great Wall of Horror about Spooky Spooky and Train to Busan. What movies do you want to see on the wall? Let us know in the comments!

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