| Overview: | A group of six yuppies goes to Lantau for a fun holiday, and the result is anything but. The Chinese title—"The Evil Curse of the Burning Charcoal"—is more descriptive than the international title. The picture opens with a young lady's suicide by inhaling the carbon monoxide fumes of her charcoal burner and making big headlines in the tabloid press. The holiday-goers gossip about the news, little realizing that they are in danger of suffering the same fate. Tai (Jordan Chan Siu-chun), his girlfriend Ka-po (Man Yee-man), colleagues PJ (Terence Yin) and Pently (Lee An), and two other chums journey to a vacation villa in Lantau. They begin to suspect all is not right when their pagers start transmitting sinister messages. The presence of charcoal-burning heaters in each room provides little comfort. Then, one after another dies a horrible death.
Dial D for Demons is filled with streaks of inspiration. The villa is sandwiched in by two other mansions. After the first friend dies, these two buildings suddenly disappear and leave the "death house" standing alone. (It just shows you what can be done on a shoestring budget with ingenious location hunting.)
There is also a healthy dose of black humor in the Scream vein, though not nearly as consistent or sustained. "Pagers don't kill!" comments one vacationer after receiving a scary message. The other friends agree and then frenziedly proceed to stomp on and smash those little electronic boxes. The sight is hilariously absurd and elicited guffaws from the audience. A tender love scene between office romancers Pently and PJ becomes almost stomach-churningly mawkish when they state, "Even if I die at this moment, I have no regrets." Fortunately, it takes a pleasurably grizzly turn as the two begin to strangle each other.
Dial D for Demons looks like it might have been on the shelf for some time, what with its summer setting and the presence of teenage model Lee An (who left the silver screen a while ago to continue her education). It is clearly a summer movie geared for younger crowd who will either appreciate or ignore the inanities in Chung Kai-cheung's scenario.
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