Seventh Moon – Blu-ray Review

According to an ancient Chinese myth on the full moon of the seventh lunar month the gates of hell open and the dead are freed to roam among the living. While honeymooning in China, a young couple takes part in a sacred event that honors these spirits. As night falls, their tour guide abandons them in a desolate field. Now what they thought was a joke is becoming far too ...more


Another entry in the Ghost House Underground label, ‘Seventh Moon’ employs a clever premise based on an ancient Chinese myth with star Amy Smart headlining and Eduardo Sanchez directing (of ‘The Blair Witch Project fame). A fun flick but the grainy hand-held vid source makes this a questionable Blu-ray recommendation.

This second group of Ghost House Underground pics presented by Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert that also includes ‘The Thaw’, ‘The Children’ and ‘Offspring’ got trimmed down to four selections after last Fall’s eight and seem to average better than the similar horror group offerings from the After Dark Horrorfest pics.

Only Eduardo’s second film after his breakout success with ‘The Blair Witch Project’, this pic uses the same shaky-camera style but doesn’t employ the lost footage gimmick a la ‘Cloverfield’ and ‘Quarantine’ that’s quickly getting old.

I’m sure budget was the main motivation for going completely hand-held but a more traditional static approach might have been even creepier.

Based on an old Chinese myth that states ‘On the full moon of the seventh lunar month the gates of hell open and the dead are freed to roam among the living’. Bummer for newlyweds Melissa (Amy Smart) and her Chinese-American husband Yul (Tim Chiou) who picked the absolute worst time to take their honeymoon to China.

Hitting up a small village festival celebrating this seventh moon, similar to Mexico’s Day of the Dead, the newlyweds take in some local culture through steady shots of alcohol. Returning to their guide (Dennis Chan), they head off on a road trip only to be abandoned in a deserted town by their once trustworthy guide.

Drunken, tired and clueless, they head off into the town to look for their guide but instead find some quick-moving hairless white creatures hell-bent on doing them harm. So sets off a night of terror in a strange locale where they have nobody to rely on but themselves.

As you can tell by my rather short synopsis, there’s not much to it. Quick moving and reasonably set up, we’re basically dealing with two characters on the run for their lives.

Amy Smart and Tim Chiou have decent rapport and make for a believable couple which is key to the film’s success and there’s a handful of tense set-pieces taking advantage of unique, foreign locations.

Actually shot around Hong Kong which gives it some authenticity, the film really only falters towards the end where it’s clear that the filmmakers don’t quite know how to end it. Not a new genre classic by any means but Sanchez fashions a nice rental for the witching season.

Now for the bad news: a 1080p AVC 1.78 encode that’s as close to ugly as you can probably get on Blu-ray. Not the transfers fault necessarily, the grainy hand-held footage sometimes intentionally shot out of focus was never meant to wow in the home theater.

This isn’t so much a slight against the film or Blu-ray as it is a heads up that the differences between the Blu-ray and the DVD are probably negligible. What would be an improvement is the lossless DTS-HD MA track which does a great job throwing you into contemporary China with mythical creatures wanting to taste your flesh.

Special Features include an audio commentary from Sanchez and Amy Smart, a 12-minute Making of ‘Ghosts of Hong Kong’, a 5-minute featurette ‘The Pale Figures’, an 8-minute featurette ‘Mysteries of the Seventh Lunar Month’, trailers and ‘Ghost House Micro Videos’.

A fun premise that takes advantage of a cool locale, the film itself is an easy Halloween recommendation but the high-def presentation is non-existent. If you’re renting, you might as well go with the Blu-ray but if you want to buy, you wouldn’t be wrong to save a few bucks and pick up the DVD.

Seventh Moon [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon. Visit the DVD database for more information.