If you love The Untold Story or Ebola Syndrome two of the best CAT III movies ever made both directed by Herman Yau and starring Anthony Wong you gonna have a blast with The Sleep Curse.The movie is cliché and rely heavily on flashback scene but over the top element of a proper CAT III still there like over the top gore and long disturbing sequence.I enjoy the movie for what it is but at the same time disappointed when it not go all the way like i expected
6 Reviews
What it lacked in scares, the movie had in a proper storyline...
paul_haakonsen19 July 2020
I happened to stumble upon the 2017 horror movie titled "The Sleep Curse" (aka "Shi mian") from director Herman Yau. I hadn't heard about the movie prior to getting a chance to sit down and watch it. But given the fact that this is a Hong Kong horror movie that had Anthony Chau-Sang Wong in the lead, I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch it.
I found the storyline in "The Sleep Curse" to be interesting, and I liked how writers Eric Lee and Erica Li managed to jump between the present and the past in the storyline with such efficiency, because it really suited the movie quite well. And it was done in a very satisfactory manner.
While "The Sleep Curse" was fairly light in the horror department, the storyline more than made up for that shortcoming, because this was more of a psychological story that gets under your skin and sinks in slowly but surely. So the lack of jump scares and cheap tricks to get a reaction was more than justified by the storyline and the execution of it.
It should be said that the effects in the movie were quite good, and that really helped the movie along quite nicely. It wasn't a movie that was flooded with special effects, as it was used when necessary and put to good use when it was there. Thumbs up to the special effects department on their achievement in "The Sleep Curse".
The movie did have a good cast with a great lead by Anthony Chau-Sang Wong, and also with the likes of Ka Tung Lam and Michelle Wai.
I am rating "The Sleep Curse" a six out of ten stars. I was wholehearted and adequately entertained by this movie.
I found the storyline in "The Sleep Curse" to be interesting, and I liked how writers Eric Lee and Erica Li managed to jump between the present and the past in the storyline with such efficiency, because it really suited the movie quite well. And it was done in a very satisfactory manner.
While "The Sleep Curse" was fairly light in the horror department, the storyline more than made up for that shortcoming, because this was more of a psychological story that gets under your skin and sinks in slowly but surely. So the lack of jump scares and cheap tricks to get a reaction was more than justified by the storyline and the execution of it.
It should be said that the effects in the movie were quite good, and that really helped the movie along quite nicely. It wasn't a movie that was flooded with special effects, as it was used when necessary and put to good use when it was there. Thumbs up to the special effects department on their achievement in "The Sleep Curse".
The movie did have a good cast with a great lead by Anthony Chau-Sang Wong, and also with the likes of Ka Tung Lam and Michelle Wai.
I am rating "The Sleep Curse" a six out of ten stars. I was wholehearted and adequately entertained by this movie.
Not really horror, just normal
mailtaskservice11 October 2021
he loses his mind or he's cursed
killercharm6 March 2022
This is a very good horror about a man who loses it from the knowledge of what went down in the military-sponsored brothels the Japanese army forced the local women into during WWII ala The Pawnbroker. They were raped to death; and though he saves one he is unable to save her twin and she leaves a curse on him. This is a thoroughly modern horror in that one can't really tell if he loses his mind or if he's cursed.
No horror. Bad script. Horrible execution.
Patient44424 September 2017
3 stars here! Watch the movie and figure it out yourself, that is if you can last all the way through. I watched it with 2 friends, all of us begging for the movie to hit its climax and finish.
And that was a mistake right there. Because when it does so, it goes full on gore, jumping from history lessons about the war to lets cut some organs, eat some flesh and be as disgusting as possible. The movie focuses on two time periods, both equally boring and gross when the time comes. I have no idea how this got into production but if it will go without people noticing it, I won't act surprised.
Sorry but they failed here. Bad! Really bad ghost story, mostly about vengeance, told in the worst possible way. I won't recommend it. Stay away.
Cheers!
And that was a mistake right there. Because when it does so, it goes full on gore, jumping from history lessons about the war to lets cut some organs, eat some flesh and be as disgusting as possible. The movie focuses on two time periods, both equally boring and gross when the time comes. I have no idea how this got into production but if it will go without people noticing it, I won't act surprised.
Sorry but they failed here. Bad! Really bad ghost story, mostly about vengeance, told in the worst possible way. I won't recommend it. Stay away.
Cheers!
Terrible
LustAndLace14 January 2018
Warning: Spoilers
It's pretty much an hour and 10 minutes of set-up and much boringness for 20 minutes of pretty tame gore at the end. All these pointless scenes and set-up for literally no pay off. Nothing gets resolved, no explanation of why Dr dude did what he did at the end. Honestly the most compelling part of the movie was with the main character's father in flash backs. I think if the movie was focused more on the Japanese invasion you'd have an interesting movie but honestly the stuff you see in flash backs has nothing to do with what happens in the present besides the whole 'curse' thing but even that doesn't get any spotlight in the present outside of a few jump scares of a dead girl à la the grudge, which did it much much MUCH better.
Present guy has literally ZERO effects of the curse that made his father crazy through the entire movie, nothing about him not being able to sleep or being super nutso but he ends up crazy anyways? I think mainly it's the editing to blame because it's very choppy story-wise. The past segments are very well thought out and you get much more information but the present parts really are a jumbled mess with no explanation. Buddy goes from totally normal to psychotic in the span of 30 seconds for no reason nor do we get an explanation why. I really feel like they should delete all the present parts and re-do it only focusing on the past with the war, the sisters and what they went through. That would've been a good movie.
Quite frankly the flash back part should've been the entire movie. The present part of the movie was just awful. An old man pawning after a woman at least half his age and she has zero interest in him, so he tortures her with sleep deprivation and eats her? Wtf? We see zero effects of the guy not sleeping like what happened to his father nor any explanation of why not sleeping makes you eat yourself. It just doesn't make sense at all and I love me some wonky horror movies but this one is just so unsatisfying.
There wasn't enough time spent learning about the sisters. No information given about the curse magic their father is teaching one of them, just nothing. So much time is spent focusing on characters that really have nothing to do with the main plot of the movie. I'm not sure if it got chopped up so bad in editing or what but there isn't a lot of continuity in this movie. It feels like two different movies spliced together with the same main character so it ends up just really not fitting in together.
Honestly the best part of the movie was seeing a dick, which was a pleasant surprise cause we don't get enough full frontal male nudity in movies it's always boobs or lady butt gross. If you're in the mood for foreign horror watch Martyrs, Tale of two sisters or Audition or something. This one is hot garbage and the gore wasn't even good enough to call it torture porn. Hard pass.
Present guy has literally ZERO effects of the curse that made his father crazy through the entire movie, nothing about him not being able to sleep or being super nutso but he ends up crazy anyways? I think mainly it's the editing to blame because it's very choppy story-wise. The past segments are very well thought out and you get much more information but the present parts really are a jumbled mess with no explanation. Buddy goes from totally normal to psychotic in the span of 30 seconds for no reason nor do we get an explanation why. I really feel like they should delete all the present parts and re-do it only focusing on the past with the war, the sisters and what they went through. That would've been a good movie.
Quite frankly the flash back part should've been the entire movie. The present part of the movie was just awful. An old man pawning after a woman at least half his age and she has zero interest in him, so he tortures her with sleep deprivation and eats her? Wtf? We see zero effects of the guy not sleeping like what happened to his father nor any explanation of why not sleeping makes you eat yourself. It just doesn't make sense at all and I love me some wonky horror movies but this one is just so unsatisfying.
There wasn't enough time spent learning about the sisters. No information given about the curse magic their father is teaching one of them, just nothing. So much time is spent focusing on characters that really have nothing to do with the main plot of the movie. I'm not sure if it got chopped up so bad in editing or what but there isn't a lot of continuity in this movie. It feels like two different movies spliced together with the same main character so it ends up just really not fitting in together.
Honestly the best part of the movie was seeing a dick, which was a pleasant surprise cause we don't get enough full frontal male nudity in movies it's always boobs or lady butt gross. If you're in the mood for foreign horror watch Martyrs, Tale of two sisters or Audition or something. This one is hot garbage and the gore wasn't even good enough to call it torture porn. Hard pass.
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