No intentional spoilers. If I were to rate the series as a whole (Tales from the Dark 1 and 2 together and not separately), it would be about a 7. For me, this rates 8 because 2 of the three stories here are my favorites out of the entire series (Hide and Seek, and Black Umbrella). This one starts off with a story titled "Pillow," and, as far as I can tell, has less to do with a pillow than it does with the central conflict. I found it a little confusing and very drawn out. Well acted, though, and apparently a critic's favorite. Not mine. The second story, Hide and Seek, is the tamest of the three stories in terms of content, while being the scariest of the three, in my opinion. It takes place in what appears to be a recently abandoned school that a group of kids go to play hide and seek in. They are joined by unexpected members. It was creepy, fun, and surprisingly short for a story that seemed so full to me. The last story, "Black Umbrella," follows a short, old man with a black umbrella around the city as tries to help a bunch of ungrateful people. It seems that he makes a mark on the handle of his umbrella for each good deed. I found the ending to be a delightful surprise. As the old man says, "It's hard to be kind." I love anthology horror movies. This is among my favorites.

If you are a fan of Asian horror, which I am, you will most likely enjoy this movie.There are some interesting plots and fairly well acted. The reason I am not going all out with a full star rating is the ending...in all three short stories but the last in particular, leave you with more questions than answers which is a bit dissatisfying. I like to be left guessing...at times, but not about the entire ending.I do like Asian culture and find the horror style to be good. Creepy, haunting and the ghost story style good. If you watch a LOT of Asian movies, this plot may be too familiar.The first story has some mystery to it, the second is more of a ghost story and is a bit spooky and the third story is more slasher gore type horror, so there are three different styles and something for everyone. Some jump out of your seat type scares and some suspenseful moments. Worth the watch, but don't expect an award winning movie.

Pillow is one of the more hyped-up story out of the three (in the media), as it was acted out by Fala Chen and Gordon Lam, 2 of the more well-known actors in Hong Kong. The movie was also rated M18 because of the number of sexual and revealing scenes in the film. I would say this is more of a ghost -sensual film than a horror film. The plot was predictable and the flow of the movie was so slow that it took any scariness (if any)out of the film. If I was to rate the movies by the horror level, this film will get a 0.5 out of 5. But because of how simple yet relevant the story was (insomnia and relationship insecurity) and perhaps the contrast of the story from the rest, I would still say it's much better than the Black Umbrella (see third story)Hide and Seek had successfully scared the sh** out of me (surprisingly). It is an irony that the scariest or most successful film did not use any known celebrities. Using tried- and -tested horror filming techniques, I got to admit it still got me covering my eyes and screaming like a scared-y cat. After watching this film, my sister told me that she wouldn't want to play hide and seek ever again. Both of us found it ridiculous why would there be anyone who want to celebrate her birthday in a deserted school which was closed down due to too many SARS deaths in the school? Despite the no sense plot, or the plain foolish-ness of the kids, this was the scariest movie out of the three.Black Umbrella is basically a joke. I don't understand why it was used as the last story. The story was about a hobbit-sized man Lam going around with a black umbrella, attempting to do good deeds. He bumped into an unreasonable prostitute who tried to extort money from him and the conflict brought out the demon in him. Teddy Robin acted as Lam and directed the film himself...For full review: http://tiffanyyong.com/2013/08/15/tales-from-the-dark- 2-movie-review/

More appropriately titled 'Tales of Diminishing Returns', this second instalment of the horror duology based on acclaimed Chinese writer Lilian Lee's stories sees Gordon Chan, Lawrence Lau and Teddy Robin botching the track record established by Lee Chi-Ngai and Fruit Chan in its predecessor. Not one of the three stories here matches up in terms of scares or just plain entertainment with that in the first entry, even when measured against the worst of that lot, i.e. Simon Yam's 'Stolen Goods'.Just as how Yam's short kicked off that instalment, this one begins with the most underwhelming of them all, Chan's 'Pillow'. Scripted by Chan himself, the title refers to a medical pillow whom lead protagonist Ching Yi (Fala Chen) buys in a bid to overcome her insomnia. The cause of that is revealed right at the start - her boyfriend (Lam Ka Tung) has disappeared following a heated argument between the pair one night after he discovers that she has been tapping into his phone and reading his messages.But with sleep comes a string of recurrent dreams where her boyfriend is forcing himself onto her, the answer to her nightly disturbances simply too obvious and banal. One suspects all too early in the story that the mystery lies not within the pillow itself, but in Ching-Yi; once that is pretty much established, it isn't hard to guess why she is having them nightmares. Such a straightforward tale could certainly have benefited from a less clinical telling, but Chan approaches it in a disappointingly candid manner without much use of sound or visual effects. The result is both dull and uninvolving, not helped too by Fala's unconvincing performance.Lawrence Lau's 'Hide N Seek' therefore comes like a gust of fresh air, setting up from the start the disappearance of a little girl named Ceci one week ago whom the two male protagonists we see lamenting about it are somehow guilty for. Framing the proceedings as flashback, Lau and his screenwriter Mathew Tang (who is also the producer and brainchild of this franchise) take their audience back to that fateful night when eight former elementary schoolmates visit the abandoned premises of their school about to be torn down.The school is haunted all right, and the shocking appearance (yes, you'll agree when you see it for yourself in the movie) of a creepy watchman who warns them not to stay past dark pretty much confirms that. Of course, they don't listen, but instead of just sitting in a circle telling ghost stories, they decide to play a twist of the old 'hide-and- seek' around the school with roles of ghostbuster, human and ghost assigned to each one of the players. You can guess that the otherworldly inhabitants of the school will join in the 'fun', which Lau milks for some genuinely thrilling moments.Even though it does rely on tried-and-tested techniques in the horror rulebook, Lau executes them fairly well to still get your pulse racing. There is little by way of plot or character here, but Lau's aim here is to give his audience a taut and tense experience most reminiscent of the old-school Hong Kong horror movies; and in that regard, he proves surprisingly successful. It's a pity then that Tang doesn't quite know how to bring the narrative to a satisfying close, relying on an unconvincing twist that leaves too much hanging.What goodwill Lau redeems is lost by the time Robin's 'Black Umbrella' rolls along. Fans of 80s and 90s Hong Kong cinema will surely recognise the diminutive icon, who both acts and stars in this closing segment scripted by Lilian Lee herself. Unfolding as two parallel narrative threads that eventually coalesce on the 14th day of the Seventh Month, the first has Robin playing a wizened do-gooder Lam carrying a black umbrella on which handle he scratches a mark on after every kind deed, while the second sees Aliza Mo as a Mainland prostitute looking for her mark.Unfortunately for the latter, Lam isn't as simple as he looks - despite looking like easy prey she can fleece by claiming that he had raped her. While it is, we must admit, an ending that we never quite expected, it is nonetheless deeply unsatisfying, so left-of-field that it raises more questions than answers, as abrupt as it is inexplicable. Rather than leaving on a high note, it pretty much hollows out its audience and (with no disrespect to the venerable Robin) leaves you with a simple thought - 'WTF'.In fact, more critical audiences will say the same of each and every one of the shorts in this triptych. To put it simply, there is little or no payoff at the end of Chan, Lau and Robin's stories, and only Lau's manages to eke out some degree of horror. A valiant effort it has been on the part of Bill Kong and Tang, but this high-profile attempt at injecting life into a now-dormant genre in Hong Kong cinema pretty much fizzles out. Now we know why the horror genre has been absent for so many years, and with such lacklustre entries, we suspect that it will continue to remain lifeless. www.moviexclusive.com