Seventh Moon

Sony

R4 DVD

A hungry ghost is a spirit that "eats" the emotions of living humans or whose actions are driven by emotions leftover from its previous life.

In Seventh Moon hungry ghosts are depicted as able to cross over into the world of the living during the Chinese Hungry Ghost festival. A small village finds itself haunted by an especially virulent group of ghosts which demand the sacrifice of one of their number each year. In any attempt to “protect their own” they encourage Ping to set up a tour company whereby he can bring outsiders to the village and hence fill their quota without diminishing their own numbers.

Some nine years after his first hit, The Blair Witch Project, writer/director Eduardo Sanchez has tapped into Chinese mythology to offer us Seventh Moon. It centres on two newlyweds Melissa and Yul who travel to the Chinese countryside to meet Yul’s Grandmother and the problems they encounter when Ping, their guide, decides to take them to his own village to solve his village’s annual “hungry ghost problem”.

The film uses much of the same techniques as with The Blair Witch Project which will endear it to some and not to others. The handheld camera is not quite as overused as in The Blair Witch Project and the look of the film is far more professional. It should also be noted that since the budget is higher and the special effects are also much better.

This is an enjoyable horror film which combines an eastern sensibility with a Western approach to horror. It is a bit short on plot, but the characters are believable enough and it does work as a ghost tale with a bit extra. The hungry ghosts are impressive especially in that you don’t see them clearly (at least not until later in the film) so your imagination fills in the gaps.

The Seventh Moon is an interesting enough take on the Asian horror genre to make it worth watching but don’t expect too much.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No. 4 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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