Jane (Maggie Siu) faces life as a single mother since her husband Kit, an abusive drug addict, died after pulling off a robbery. When confronted by police, Kit - a disgraced ex-cop - attacked an officer with a knife, leaving policeman Wai (Wayne Lai) no choice but to shoot him. Kit died later in the hospital.

So, Jane tries to make a new life for herself and her 11-year-old daughter, Ling (Cynthia Ho). In a stroke of luck, Jane finds a loft - an apartment as big as a house - that's being rented out cheap. She and Ling move into the creepy place. Jane takes a job as a security guard, which requires her to work night shifts.

Jane meets with Wai, who is racked with guilt over Kit's death - he, Kit, and Jane have been close friends since childhood. Ling considers him her uncle. But Jane knows that Wai had no choice but to shoot Kit. Wai offers to help her and Ling however he can.

Ling discovers that the previous tenants left behind their computer. It works, so she moves it into her room. On their first night in their new home, Jane and Ling are awakened by strange sounds - bangs and bumps and footsteps. Jane lets Ling sleep in her bed. But the strange happenings have just begun. Soon, she and Ling find unexplained puddles of water on the floors.

One night, while doing her homework, Ling's computer monitor malfunctions. It turns itself off, then back on, displaying a ghostly image of a woman hunched over a bathtub. We can't see what she's doing, but it sounds like she's bathing a child. The monitor flickers off and on again, and the image is gone.

Ling is later awakened by a grinding sound. She sees a ghostly little boy sitting at her computer, sharpening pencils! He's wearing pajamas and is soaking wet. There's a puddle under his feet. Soon, Ling is stalked by another apparition - a woman dressed as a Cantonese opera singer. If this isn't bad enough, an insane homeless man is constantly lurking about.

Terrified, Ling tries to convince her mother to leave and move in with Grandma - Kit's mother. Jane refuses, even when she begins to see the apparitions herself. The hauntings, combined with Ling's constant fear of being alone in the house, begin to take a toll on Jane's mind. In a hard-to-watch scene, Jane snaps, beats Ling, packs a bag, and tells her to get out. Later that night, Jane watches Ling sleep, and the sight of the bruises on her daughter's arms makes Jane break down and cry.

Jane soon discovers a terrible secret about the previous tenants that the landlord has been keeping from her. The previous tenants were a Cantonese opera singer, her husband, and their little boy. When the woman learned that her husband had a mistress, she took revenge by drowning her son in the bathtub, then killing herself. Could it be that mother and son are still haunting the house? And what do they want from Jane and Ling? Is Jane's fate intertwined with the ghost woman's because they both had bad husbands?

The film climaxes with an act of revenge from beyond the grave, a shocking confession from Jane to Wai, and a dark surprise twist ending that I wouldn't dream of giving away...

The Last Word: The House is a chilling new horror film from Hong Kong - a creepy, disturbing ghost story that holds its own with Japanese ghost stories like Dark Water...

Report Card: A