NYAFF REVIEW: ‘Keeper of Darkness’ attempts to revive exorcism subgenre
Keeper of Darkness, which recently played the New York Asian Film Festival, is a subpar film in the subgenre of exorcism horror movies. Directed by and starring Nick Cheung, the movie fails to gain much momentum, and the story is tedious and feels tired after its 103-minute running time.
Cheung plays Fatt, a white-haired man who heads out at night to exorcise demons, a gift/curse he has had for years. His ghost-busting approach is different than other exorcists. Rather than relying on religious answers or spiritual requests, Fatt approaches each new case almost like a detective or psychiatrist, trying to understand why the ghost in question has stuck around after dying.
The scares in Keeper of Darkness are nonexistent. The movie plays more like a supernatural drama than a straight horror film. In fact, the so-called “exorcising” is quite tame (thankfully!), and these ghosts are less demonic and more like Patrick Swayze in Ghost. This makes the movie more approachable, but it still feels like an exercise in uneventful filmmaking.
Cheung as a director is interesting. He has a nice hold of CGI, characterization and dialogue. The script was written by Sin Ling Yeung, based on Cheung’s story. As an actor, he doesn’t succeed as well. The Fatt character is boring and monotonous, never getting too mad, never getting too happy, simply gliding through this supernatural-tinged life with a ho-hum mentality. Staring off into the distance is not the same as method acting. By the film’s end, the audience has few details on what makes this man tick, and he’s not fun company to be around.
Perhaps with a larger budget and different production design team, the supernatural creatures that Fatt encounters could have come across much scarier and more interesting. For example, an audience member only has to view a commercial for Syfy’s Face-Off to see what makeup creations are available nowadays. Sadly, this creativity is missing from Keeper of Darkness.
This horror film, which tries hard to impress, fails to scare up any interest on the part of the filmgoer.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
- Keeper of Darkness
- In Cantonese with English subtitles
- 2015
- Directed by Nick Cheung
- Written by Sin Ling Yeung; story by Cheung
- Starring Cheung, Amber Kuo, Louis Cheung and Sisley Choi
- Running time: 103 minutes
- Rating:
