Horoscope 2: The Woman From Hell (2000)

Thai-Chinese Sorceress Miss Senna (Sophie Ngan) is causing trouble with her potato curses in Hong Kong. Though not blessed with the strongest of skills, her sorcery is powered by her hate. And she finds plenty to stoke her furnace in the coupling of Jess (Pinky Cheung) and Simon (Simon Yam).

The opening sequence bears testament to Miss Senna's badness. Locked half-naked into a trance, she strikes a barrage of hexes against Jimmy, a young man heading to Simon and Jess' place for a barbecue. He's clobbered hard; finally staggering into the garden and shoving his cursed arms into the BBQ coals to kill worms oozing through his skin. Suicide soon eases his pain. Jess is standing near Jimmy as his lights go out - close enough for her to unwittingly absorb some of his black curse ions floating in the breeze.

Soon after Jimmy's funeral, Simon has to trip off to Thailand for a conference. As you may have learned from Hong Kong movies, Thailand is the sorcery capital of Asia. Sure enough, Simon comes back a different man. He's cursed, and Jess is seeing his supernatural assailant first in her nightmares, and then in the flesh. The mysterious sorceress gets close to her prey and moves into the house next door to continue her mounting torment of Jess and her man. Jess, going mad from all the terror, seeks help from good sorcerer Mentor Ling (Tony Ho) before the film tailwhips into a strong finale of unabashed sorcery n' mind games lunacy, thankfully spared of the constraint of logic.

The entire film serves up a heady mix of black magic harking back to a well-used HK staple; the terror-in-Southeast Asia concept. And with a lithe evil sorceress running the show and inflicting hexes, insect assaults and all-round badness on her helpless victims, the trash quotient is pretty high. But director Cheng spins in far more than just straight horror moves ‚ there's a strong plot lurking in Horoscope 2: The Woman From Hell and viewers have much to take in by film's end. Cheng also continues to weave in domestic/relationship issues, much as he did in his earlier Erotic Nightmare, to add a tougher edge than throwing out mere cheapo exploitation.

Seven main characters make up the cast, one of which carcs it in the opening sequence, leaving a tight unit of players to watch. It keeps the film all the more direct as it spirals into madness. Sophie Ngan is pleasing in her simple part but it's Pinky Cheung who's the star of this horrorshow with a strong leading role. The letdown cast member is Tony Ho who thankfully spares us of another wierdo portrayal but is the sole person dubbed. Cheng's direction works as a no-frills affair, appearing to stretch his budget well. Some judicious tightening could have sped things up in the mid-point but that didn't dissuade me from seeing it all twice in the theatres.

DVD information: The Universe DVD provides a clean, bright transfer with only occasional speckles here and there. Mono Cantonese and Putongua soundtracks are provided and subtitles in Chinese simplified and traditional, English and Bahasa (Malaysia). The best extra feature is the trailer, which features Tony Ho's real voice, sounding far nicer than the dubbed version on the film proper. The star files offer the same Pinky bio from the Raped by an Angel 3 disc and a Simon Yam bio cutting off at Trust Me U Die. Additional trailers are given for My Name is Nobody, Raped by an Angel 5 and Never Compromise.

Horoscope 2: The Woman from Hell billboard at the Empire Theatre

Credits:

Directed by Steve Cheng
Starring Pinky Cheung, Sophie Ngan, Simon Yam and Tony Ho