Review: Hong Kong schlockmeister Wong Jing takes the dark tone and look of David Fincher's Se7en, adds a cultish plot worthy of Robert Fuest's ludicrous Devil's Rain (1975) starring Ernest Borgnine as a Satanist cult leader, and absently tosses in a couple Donnie Yen-powered kung fu kicks. Yes kids, it's Satan Returns and despite this fiendish title, the only thing that's frightening about this film is the fact that it was ever made.

Donnie Yen sheds most of his martial artistry to play Mo Ti-nam, a Hong Kong police detective tortured by his wife's murder who finds himself partnered with the lovely Chan Shou-ching (Chingmy Yau). Together, they are assigned a homicide case involving the murder of a young woman whose heart was neatly removed. It seems a knife-wielding madman who channels the voice of Beelzebub is searching for Satan's missing daughter. As the police mobilize, strange things begin to happen. A corpse talks, an undercover female agent disappears and the killer exhibits unearthly powers of persuasion. The case gets personal when Chan discovers some unsettling facts about her past and finds herself shadowed by the killer who believes her to be the anti-Christ. Haunted by the killer's claim, Chan must face the fact that her nightmares and recent odd behavior means that she is either losing her mind or really is Satan's daughter.

The film's cinematography and art direction tries hard to follow the gritty David Fincher and Ridley Scott models, but gets mired in horrible lighting and murky interiors lacking in any distinction whatsoever. There's very little consistency or quality and the filmmakers end up with stagy, cheap-looking visuals. Of course this is common in '80s and '90s Hong Kong action films, but when a movie relies on mood it really doesn't work.

As a horror film, Satan Returns is a joke. Devilish references meant to establish just how evil the villain is are handed out like those generic orange and black-wrapped candies on Halloween. '666s' show up everywhere including the killer's address, the victims' birthdays, and in giant print on the walls of the killer's home. Then there are the upside-down crosses including one in neon light, also in the killer's swanky bachelor pad. The killer even goes by the name of Judas, Christ's betrayer. It's all so Hong Kong, which is to say gratuitously over-the-top. The excesses stop short of being entertaining due to the film's failed attempt to be a gritty horror film. But one genius moment appears when a hitchhiking priest rebukes passing travelers by shouting, "God won't forgive you if you don't give me a ride." Sadly, this sort of fun is in short supply.

There is very little martial arts action, apart from several moves delivered by Donnie Yen. But they're well done. One terrific little scene has Donnie in a narrow alley delivering a series of alternating kicks in opposite directions. Donnie has an interesting look in this film. He wears glasses, which is unusual to see, but it works. The role of a cop driven to extremes in a dark story is one that Donnie works well in as an actor, but he's absent for too much of the film's running time and leaves little impression. That leaves Chingmy in a non-action role and Dayo Wong as Donnie sex-starved partner to pick up the slack. As devil's pawn, Francis Ng has nothing on Ernest Borgnine. Anthony Wong would have been a better choice.

Satan Returns is a forgettable and simplistic horror film that drags on with too few payoffs either in chills or action frills. For fu fans, Donnie Yen's presence isn't enough to justify laboring through it.