Yu lan shen gong

I never even heard about "Ghost Rituals" (aka "Yu lan shen gong") before now in 2019 when I was presented with the chance to sit down and watch it. Needless to say that I jumped at the chance, given my fascination and interest with the Asian cinema.

First of all, let me just say that the atmosphere in this 2014 movie was quite good, and director Nick Cheung was good at constructing the scenes and building the movie. And there definitely was a lot of untapped potential to "Ghost Rituals". Just a shame that they didn't fully utilize what they had readily available here.

For me, the movie ended up being mediocre, because the storyline lost me along the way. It just took a turn for a more ludicrous and less than interesting turn for me somewhere along the way. Now, I did manage to sit through the movie to the end, but it went from being interesting to becoming mediocre.

It should be said that there are some really impressive scenes in the movie, and I was more than genuinely impressed with the possession scenes. They were quite exquisite and brutal, unlike anything I've seen in Asian horror before. That was definitely a good thing.

As for the acting, well they had some nice talents on the cast list, and people were doing good jobs with their given characters and roles, just a shame that they were held back by the script and storyline. Annie Liu and Carrie Ng were quite good in the movie.

"Ghost Rituals" is a watchable movie, for sure. But it is hardly an outstanding movie, or a movie that will impress you or blow you away. And it is definitely not a movie that you will watch more than once.

My rating of "Ghost Rituals" ultimately lands on a very flaccid and mediocre five out of ten stars.