Angel Hunter
Director: Sun Chung
Year: 1992
Rating: 5.5
One film subject
that always gives me the creeps is satanic worship. This is just something
that makes my skin crawl if done well. This film makes a stab at it, but
unfortunately doesn’t really go for it and instead falls back on some tasteless
humor and conventional action. It’s a pity because the potential was there
and for a little while the promise of a creepy film seemed hopeful. There
is also a perfect cast that could have definitely given a good script the
justice it deserved, but they are largely wasted here.
A schoolgirl is in the morgue after committing
suicide and the school counselor, Lau Ching-Wan, comes to view the body. He
notices that around her neck is a charm that is a “Heresy” sign and he decides
to look further into what led up to her death.
Vivian Chow was a friend of the girl and feels terribly depressed by her
death and by the meaninglessness in her own life. She cries out something
to the effect that 1997 is coming and that there is no reason to hope any
more. Carrie Ng comes looking for her and tells her that her friend was a
member of their church and that they would love to have Vivian attend a service
for her friend. This of course turns out
to be a satanic cult led by the very pale and malevolent looking Anthony
Wong. They play a tape of her friend saying that she was happy to die for
her religion, but instead of being repulsed by all of this, Vivian is sucked
into the cult and the worship of Wong.
Lau Ching-wan learns of this and along with
Ng Man-Tat tries to free her of Wong’s influence and destroy this evil cult.
Vivian’s character is actually the best thing about this. On the surface
she is sweet and lovely, but she has no desire to break away from the cult
and instead finds comfort in the communal feeling and the orgies that take
place during Black Mass. The film
breaks down though about halfway through, as it appears that they just didn’t
know where to go with it. So it simply becomes an action film as Lau goes
after them with a gun. Too bad because there were some moments that made
my skin tingle such as Carrie and her young daughter hiding their worshipping
of Satan from her husband.
