The Bridge Curse: Ritual is a 2023 Taiwanese horror film based on an urban legend about the most haunted university in Taiwan. The movie is a sequel to The Bridge Curse (2020) and is also known as The Bridge Curse 2.
Directed by Lester Hsi (The Bridge Curse) from a screenplay written by Po-Hsiang Hao and Shih-yuan Lu based on an original idea by Keng-Ming Chang. Produced by Chi Hsiang Chuang and Po-Hsiang Hao.
The Lots Home Entertainment production stars Ning Chang, J.C. Lin, Summer Meng, Yu-Xuan Wang and Vera Yen.
Plot:
Yet another modern-day Taiwanese movie that’s based upon a real urban legend or haunted location, this movie takes us to the Yangminshan Chinese Culture University, where countless ghosts have been witnessed due to the architectural design of the campus’s main building resembling an inverse bagua. This devilish design has trapped ghosts in its location instead of warding them off.
A group of students developing an augmented reality horror game based on the campus’s ghost stories are pulled into a parallel realm when the main game designer’s sister attempts to rescue her brother’s trapped soul after he completes the elevator game…
Our review:
The original Bridge Curse movie had annoying characters and far too much “found footage” style footage which made the movie a frustrating mess to get through.
However, this sequel lifts the game, and I will admit, it is far far better film than the original. That’s not to say it’s fabulous or anything like that, because it’s far from being a modern-day Taiwanese classic, but there is a lot of fun to be had with this movie if you’re willing to ignore its weakness.
Those weaknesses come in the form of its rather obtuse storytelling, with a final third that will test your ability to recall the earlier elements of the film as well as the incident from the previous movie.
There is a lot more to this movie than just that simple explanation, and in typical Taiwanese movie fashion, it comes at the expense of an easy-to-follow story.
If you’re well-versed in Taiwanese urban legends, or even obsessed with modern Taiwanese horror, then you will most likely completely understand what is going on in this film. But just like the recently released The Rope Curse 3, knowledge of the previous film will be extremely beneficial, especially as it leaves itself open and sets up a third movie in the series.
Yet the movie does a lot of things right – far more things than you would expect. First, it thankfully ditches most of the found footage style used in the previous film, relegating that element to the first few minutes of the film. It also incorporates the augmented reality sections – the bits where they are testing their game – seamlessly into the movie.
At times, it does feel like this is a video game and you, the viewer, are watching the equivalent of a Let’s Play video on YouTube. But the movie never forgets it has an audience to entertain, filling the screen with terrific horror imagery and enough jump scares to satisfy the appetite of a typical teenage audience.
If it could just sort out how it wanted to tell its story and maybe wound back a few of the elements, we’d probably have a real winner here.
I loved the augmented reality testing scenes – such as when Ting goes from the bathroom to the dancer’s studio, and at the end when the whole crew is testing the four corners game at the library. They were great scenes, and that’s what I wanted more of. That said, it’s still an enjoyable film, and it’s far better than the original.
The Arty Dans, MOVIES & MANIA
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YouTube review:
Teaser trailer:
Trailer:
Filming locations:
Kainan University, Taiwan
Technical specs:
1 hour 41 minutes
Original title:
女鬼橋2：怨鬼樓 “Women’s Ghost Bridge 2: Ghost Bridge”
For other reviews visit the following legitimate websites:
Related:
THE BRIDGE CURSE (2020) Reviews of Taiwanese horror [updated]
#TheBridgeCurse #TheBridgeCurseRitual #女鬼橋2-怨鬼樓
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