Rule #1

"Rule #1: There are no ghosts"

The above tagline suggested genre fun, perhaps on the cheesier side of the horror spectrum. While the product in question does deliver a touch more humor than your average Asian horror feature, it's not kitsch. In fact, it's finally more grim than goofy, even palpably, and unexpectedly, melancholy at times.

As a genre exercise, Rule #1 acquits itself pretty admirably, zigging where you'd expect it to zag and spicing up the recipe enough to keep its audience involved. Director Kelvin Tong is still working from a fairly standard formula, to be sure, but he tweaks the details imaginatively; instead of another ghost story centering on some long-haired, porcelain-faced spook or a graphically gory zombie flick, he mashes up the conventions and expectations of these well-tread subgenres, while further muddying this potent mix with liberal doses of post-noir style and urban ennui.

None of this would matter much if Tong's cast didn't also uniformly rise above the usual level of horror movie miming. Leads Shawn Yue and Ekin Cheng are terrific as a young cop and his jaded supervisor investigating supernatural crime (like fight club, ghosts don't officially exist, per that tagline), but the supporting and bit players rise to the occasion, as well. The writing isn't Shakespeare, natch, but it's also a decided cut above the genre norm--sharp and witty in parts and rarely cringe-inducing.

None of this is to say necessarily that Rule #1 is, or will at some point be considered, a staple in the Asian horror canon, but it is memorable, which isn't faint praise in a genre where fun-yet-forgettable is more often the order of the day. It also suggests, more significantly, that Tong may sooner rather than later produce something closer to vital; his haunting, creepy final shot is worthy of Tsai Ming-liang. It's a sign-off note that further affirms rule number one of Asian horror movie-watching: don't judge a bootleg DVD by its cover, or its tagline.