It’s best to bring along a book for the long, scary patches that bring to life the film's title. A few decades back it wasn’t safe to take in a horror film lest one be permanently scarred by the vision of a pale, young Asian lass, her face partially obscured by strands of filthy, oleaginous hair. It’s the trope that keeps on giving. Set during the censorious “White Terror” period, one would think a story in which the Taiwanese government tortured students based on the number of banned books read were monstrous enough without the aid of hair-lowering schoolgirls and a spindly CG reject from the MCU. As a monster movie, this had the makings of a keen political thriller, a fact writer-director John Hsu stresses with regular flights of unwarranted fantasy. Without the benefit of zombification, how does one go about giving chase just moments after all of their teeth and one eye have been removed from their sockets? Hsu and his fellow scenarists write off the gore with one line of dialog: “We have both animality and demonic nature and also divinity at the same time.” And those offended by Licorice Pizza would do best to ignore the May-December romance between teacher and student. Hsu certainly did. Wait… My research indicates it’s based on a video game. Never mind. (Now streaming at the Digital Gym Virtual Theatre) (2019) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.