I felt so many weird emotions watching this, just running the gamut from one extreme to the other. It's like this is what film should be used for, to provide a new experience and to just make people feel something, anything, whether it's shock or disgust or even moments of self reflection where you wonder why you can't allow yourself to laugh when there's genuinely funny moments in this movie. I can honestly say I've never seen a film like this before. And even considering the subject matter, it never feels exploitative. I found myself thinking if I would have liked this as a young ghoul, but I don't think so. Not only would I have not gotten it, but I would have felt weird treating it like another gore or shocker tape to show off to my friends. It's about sociopathic moral bankruptcy, not about gross out thrills. But that sociopathy is orders of magnitude grosser than any ultra graphic faux snuff film I may have popped in the VCR at sleepovers to dare my buds to watch. There's very few people I know that I would recommend this to, but to the handful I would I believe they'd feel the same way I do.

⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2 out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

A HK comedy film with horror elements, maybe my expectations were skewed by seeing that many sequels had been made for this and so it must be "that good". There are some genuinely laugh out loud moments in this, such as the scene where they meet in a fancy "western tea" house and have no idea what to do, drinking a gulp of coffee and then a gulp of cream and putting sugar on their custards like you would your coffee. But for the most part I found the humor to be kind of tiring and on the nose. The horror elements aren't done very well either. The makeup and fx really look low effort. I don't know, maybe this concept of a Chinese vampire comedy was just so novel at the time that it gained a reputation. I mean I still like the film, but I definitely don't see the hype it generated, especially when compared to superior HK genre films like A Chinese Ghost Story.

⭐⭐1/2 out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

What a slick little thriller/horror film. You can do a lot with a little if you're creative. I wasn't expecting much but I was pretty surprised after watching, also surprised that somehow this flew under my radar all these years. Rainbow Harvest is great as a goth gone wild, heavy Winona Ryder vibes but not as annoying. There's some genuine tension and scary moments here and although the fx are underwhelming, the acting is solid enough to carry the frights. Cool seeing Lily Munster as well.

⭐⭐⭐1/2 out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The first two thirds tend to drag a bit and even though it looks pretty good, if you're going to draw out long panning shots and make the audience wait, it better be beautiful, and it's not really that. The last third the movie becomes interesting and is basically The Last Temptation of Christ. The CGI is not very good, and I'm not saying that because of my practical fx bias, but it just seems cartoonish and unconvincing. I believe it is above average, but it's probably my second least favorite A24 film, right after The VVitch.

⭐ ⭐ 1/2 out of ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐