SINGAPOREAN director Chai Yee Wei’s sophomore horror feature, Blood Ties, puts him on the filmmaking map. His latest work, Twisted Love, unfortunately, doesn’t win him more recognition.
The movie is divided into three stories. What starts as a promising horror comedy turns into misplaced plots with little connection between them. Chai’s erratic editing doesn’t help matters either, confusing the audience even more.
That’s not all. The movie’s laugh-out-loud moments don’t play out spontaneously and seem forced. It would have been better if Chai had just focused on one story and built it from there.
Twisted Love starts with Guan (played by Mark Lee), a flashy drug dealer who, after an argument, kills his pregnant girlfriend Lily (Candy Lim) in a car accident. Vowing revenge, her spirit returns to haunt him.
Next, the audience is introduced to two cabin crew (Cavin Soh and Randall Tan) who buys drugs from Guan in an attempt to bed their colleagues (Linda Liao and Tracy Lee) by drugging them.
The movie then focuses on a family with a dark past. In trying to escape from her abusive husband, Fa (Mimi Zhu) kills him instead. His spirit possesses their daughter (Joey Leong) to seek revenge.
The only decent acting comes in the third story. Zhu is pretty convincing as the estranged wife with a dark past. Up-and-coming actress Leong is also fantastic as the possessed daughter — her expression of terror is not overboard.
There’s little scare factor in the movie, except for the typical jump-in-your-seat scenes.
Then again, some derive enjoyment not from the plot but from the effects and make-up departments, and Twisted Love’s is pretty convincing.
OPENS TODAY
TWISTED LOVE (Mandarin/Cantonese)
Directed by Chai Yee Wei
Starring Mark Lee, Mimi Zhu, Joey Leong, Josh Lai, Linda Liao, Alvin Wong, Brendan Yuen, Candy Lim
Duration 92 minutes
Rating 18
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