Haunted Changi – Review

Haunted Changi follows a filmmaker who took a camera and shot within the confines of one of Singapore’s most haunted locations, the Old Changi Hospital. If you actually do a google search of this hospital, a lot of really neat, interested facts pop up.  The much talked about World War II Japanese torture chamber made a cameo as well. And man, if the tunnel footage is real, I need to apologize to an old friend. I seriously thought he was making things up. The first quarter opens with some brief historical background profiling of OCH and clips of street interviews with people over supernatural encounters in OCH.  Well, it was a rather unedifying equivalent of the Blair Witch Project, but the subject matter was at least interesting and there were a few moments of creepy involved.

The Old Changi Hospital actually has been the centre of focus for many paranormal investigators, both local and international. Many of the stories originate from the fact that it was originally the headquarters of the Japanese Military during World War 2. Many POWs were executed around the Changi area and rumours circulated there were many horrific torture chambers and bloody executions at the hospital itself. Some even commented that it’s a faux documentary film. If so, then why use phrases like “original footage” and “original crew”? Bottom line: have a good discussion on what you intend to present to the audience before starting to shoot these type of film. Low / no budget films does not mean low quality presentation to the audiences. Overall, I would say that the cast was selected very well the Singapore Horror film Haunted Changi. Their chemistry was wonderful and no one stood out.

While the film could have had some more scares for the average genre fan, it had a few jump scares, but survived on the suspense presented throughout the film. Although the pacing was just right, the content was lacking. It was a movie with fillers of epic proportions. Redundant shots here and there to make it more artsy. But really, doing it like 5 times in a row back to back really gives people a headache. Regardless, Old Changi Hospital remains without a doubt one of the most beautiful and spectacular buildings to be captured onto screen. That said, I should have really figured out that this is an actual movie, judging from the bad special effects and stuff. I can imagine it’s not easy to shoot in these kind of settings, where there’s a fine line between using a shot and redo-ing it. I have to give credit where it’s due.

You should probably wait for the DVD release because there are some easter eggs in the movie, if you’re fast enough and you know where to look.  You know how it works, true horror derives from your imagination of the unknown, blah blah. While we await whether Old Changi Hospital’s tales will strike a chord with foreign audiences, we can only say that for the real experience, the valiant and courageous ones should consider making a trip to the building where bloodcurdling memories reside. In conclusion, loads of talking at the start of the movie, shaky camera scenes that will cause you to have a headache as well poor makeup skills. Thumbs down.