THE HOUSEMAID

Eureka Entertainment, £12.99 (Dual Format)

For far too long, horror films the world over have traded on the same old visual tropes, but in recent years one has come to dominate them all: the lank-haired, dripping wet figure of a pale-faced female. As an indication of how prevalent this image is, I was recently sent a batch of four films to review and two of them featured it heavily. Although its origins lie in centuries-old folklore, it’s most familiar to us from J-horror films of the last 20 years, such as the Ringu and Ju-on series. Unfortunately, 20 years of over-exposure has robbed the image of the power it once had (and it’s worth remembering that in the early days it was extremely potent). So any film which deploys it now had better have something else to offer besides if it isn’t to fail before it begins. In this particular case, from Vietnamese director Derek Nguyen, said female is Camille, the long-dead wife of a French plantation owner (Jean-Michel Richaud) in Vietnam during the first Indochina war. Driven to despair by her husband’s prolonged absence due to his military career, Camille had strangled their infant son and drowned herself in the lake. Years later, her undead spirit gets the hump when serving girl Linh (Nhung Kate) becomes romantically involved with the grief-stricken and lonely husband. Mayhem ensues. I’m sorry to say there really isn’t much that’s terribly original on show here, particularly in visual terms: inexplicable pools of water, doors that shut by themselves, ghostly voices, and so on. Having said that, it is absolutely gorgeous to look at and wherever else you might have seen all this stuff before, you’re most unlikely to have seen it taking place in Vietnam during the 1950s. For those last two reasons I would cautiously recommend giving it a look; just don’t expect any surprises. DK