Ab-Normal Beauty Movie Review:


The Pang Brothers are back with another unsettling and extremely creepy thriller that doesn't quite make sense, but we don't mind at all.

Jin (Race Wong) is a young photography student who sees the artistry in everything around her, then suddenly becomes obsessed with death when she stumbles across a car accident. Her best friend Jas (Rosanne Wong) finds this more than a little disturbing, and also becomes jealous when Jin starts dating another student, the wannabe filmmaker Anson (Leung). Then Jin starts to lose the plot, seeing ghostly images of death everywhere, reliving past nightmares and receiving videotapes from a brutal serial killer.

Basically, it's Carrie meets The Ring, with the teen interaction, freak-out videos/photos and lots of blood-soaking. The characters are total headcases, obsessed and almost possessed by some sort of dark spirit. They're very well-played by the cast with an internal intensity and a willingness to really go for broke on the emotional front. Although Wong and Wong look so much alike, and seem to swap places now and then, that we're never quite sure who's whom.

Meanwhile, Pang shoots this with a lush beauty that's completely mesmerising. The film looks absolutely gorgeous, finding the elegance in even the most grotty setting--capturing the light, angles and colours a photographer would look for. And the darkroom scenes are flooded in eerie red-light, which combines with clever camera work, freaky visual effects and a moody score to keep us thoroughly unsettled, especially when it cranks up into full-on horror in the end.

So it's rather frustrating that low lighting undermines a couple of key scenes, as does the general confusion of identity within the plot. It doesn't ruin the film, since the atmosphere is so strongly established, and Pang balances the scary bits with strongly cathartic scenes, moments of humour and raw camaraderie. He really knows how to turn grisly and terrifying when he needs to, and even though it's a bit murky, the climax is astounding.



Rich Cline

Site Contents Copyright© The Z Review, unless used with permission.This site has no intention to infringe on the rights of the film owners of Ab-Normal Beauty and intellectual copyright holders of the movies mentioned herein & hold copyright over the movie, characters, merchandise & storyline.