Rule #1 (2008)0

Rule #1 is a 2008 Singaporean super­nat­ural hor­ror thriller directed by Kelvin Tong, direc­tor of The Maid and Eating Air. Starring Ekin Cheng, Shawn Yue and Fiona Xie, it is a well-executed, excit­ing and scary movie that really had me cov­er­ing my ears and grip­ping my seat tightly with my elbows– ulti­mately wish­ing for more. To avoid spoil­ers, a short syn­op­sis. Ekin Cheng plays Inspector Wong, head of the Miscellaneous Affairs Department which han­dles super­nat­ural cases. He trains the new­comer to the Department, Sergeant Lee, played by Shawn Yue, by con­stantly remind­ing him with his mantra– the tit­u­lar Rule #1: there are no ghosts– only to have it be con­tra­dicted later on in the movie. The story is a ghost story, but what makes it unique is that is fresh and orig­i­nal. Given a Singaporean twist by it’s Singaporean direc­tor, the film changed some of the rules of hor­ror films by even adding a plot twist at the end, which brought the whole film around, com­plet­ing the circle.The actors were superb. Both Ekin Cheng and Shawn Yue played their roles with great emo­tion and abil­ity. One could really feel the actors being absorbed into their char­ac­ters. The movie really plays well with the con­ven­tions of hor­ror movies, using jar­ring sounds and dark­ness to bring to life (iron­i­cally) the ghosts depicted in the movie. The sounds, ambi­ence and music def­i­nitely added to the eeri­ness of the movie, as there would be a sud­den high pitched sound or a loud bang when a ghost appeared, or the music would sud­denly dip in vol­ume and tempo when some­thing bad was about to hap­pen. It used its sounds very effec­tively, since they scared a large por­tion of the audi­ence in the pre­view the­atre and I when the movie was screen­ing. The movie also plays very well with light­ing, such as show­ing dimly lit cor­ri­dors and taste­fully illu­mi­nated sense where super­nat­ural occur­rences were hap­pen­ing. The aes­thetic effect of the light­ing was really felt through­out the audi­ence and really made me feel scared, but so impressed at how bril­liantly the lights com­pli­mented the music and the sounds. I would strongly rec­om­mend this movie to all my friends and to hor­ror movie fans, even if you are not a hor­ror movie fan (Like me. I sim­ply watched it because it’s a local film) you should still watch it, and be sur­prised and awed (like I was). I give this movie 4 and a half stars out of five. Reviewed by Simon Lew