Detention

This year's first horror smash belongs to Taiwan! The story is set in 1962, where Martial Law was declared in Taiwan and people were denied their freedom, and the punishment for reading banned books was death. The whole movie takes place in a school where a boy and a girl are locked up in the middle of the night and haunted by demons (the central demon seems to have dropped out of Silent Hill and the only thing that sucks is that he wasn't given more space). The film builds more on a dreamy and chilling atmosphere, I didn't spot any scares, but thanks to decent visuals, a perfect soundtrack and an unpleasant scene with a moving light (even James Wan would have applauded here) it paces decently, and I was surprised at how mature and decent a horror film Taiwan has thrown at us, as evidenced by the very positive reactions abroad. (17/02/2020)