ANGEL WHISPERS
Starring: Kabby Hui Nga-ting, Carrie Ng Ka-lai
Directors: Carrie Ng, Shirley Yung Sau-lan
Category: III (Cantonese)

Nothing looks plausible in this co-directing debut of actress Carrie Ng Ka-lai and film executive Shirley Yung Sau-lan, who also scripted and produced the project together.

is a dreadful slasher flick penned by five scriptwriters who clearly haven't thought through the who, the why and the how. They also seem to have made no attempt to stage genuinely scary set-pieces to compensate for their characters' generic motive.

Also reviewed: Russell Crowe's The Water Diviner

Set in an old tenement building which — bar one inexplicably busy brothel — has been completely vacated, the action takes place on the night that the benign subletter Lai (Ng) treats the young prostitutes to a winter solstice dinner.

When one of them goes missing, the locked-room mystery follows the moody Ching Ching (Kabby Hui Nga-ting) and her peers as they scan the building for victims. Meanwhile, the resident technician Lung (Sammy Hung Tin-chiu) is presumed to be the prostitute killer recently reported in the news.

Between its grisly murders and a final revelation that is long-winded and borderline illogical, offers minimal thrills and a jarring lack of common sense.

Also reviewed: Child 44, Soviet-set thriller

Even if you accept that horror film characters are wont to split up and go their own perilous ways, it's still hard to appreciate the wit of one who tracks down a mobile phone jammer, stops the device and calls the police — instead of running out of the building right away.