The Chinese believe that when someone dies, one's soul returns home on a certain night to say the final goodbye. This movie is about a returning grandma's soul to an apartment block, where she blames her son and his wife for her death and seeks revenge. Not surprisingly, the Chinese title is rightfully translated as “Night of the Returning Soul”.
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Throw in the commotion is Leon (Stephen Chow), an escaped mental patient who lives nearby, who fancies himself as a ghost buster and decides to help the security guards by teaching them ghost busting techniques. However, a half crazy, love torn local resident Kwan (Karen Mok) is also recruited and together they bond into a fearless team and take on the evil spirit which haunts the apartment with hilarious results.
Director Jeffrey Lau and Stephen Chow worked on a few films before (“All for the Winner”, “A Chinese Odyssey: Part One & Two”) but this is their most frantic and it moves at a breakneck speed with gags after gags throughout its short running time of around eighty six minutes. For a comedy, it's relatively violent and equally bloody at times but it's presented in a harmless and comical way. Furthermore, during some spooky moments, the eerie sound of the theremin can be heard enriching the atmosphere, as well as adding a bit of silliness to it.
Remarkably, this is not a typical Stephen Chow outing where he does things alone; it's an ensemble work in which he shares equal screen time with Karen Mok and actors who play the security guards. Every actor gets a turn to shine here and plays the part reasonably well. Karen is in her usual quirky mood and seems to be having fun wearing different outfits and being goofy in general.
Conversely, the apartment's security guards are a bunch of weird characters who don't take their jobs seriously. In fact, some viewers might even get offended or irritated by their behavior and the way they carry on about rape, theft and hookers. The cross-dressing character in most of Stephen Chow's movies also shows up here but he has a meatier role this time.
As usual, Stephen Chow delivers elegantly as the fearless ghost buster leader in this nonsensical comedy. His character is a parody of hitman Leon from Luc Besson's “Leon: the Professional”. Both characters wear almost identical outfit, the long black coat, dark gasses and right down to the pot plant. At one stage, he sports a huge set of fake teeth which almost make him unrecognizable. Chow energetic and relentless just the same, delivering his lines at such a top speed that even the subtitles are struggling to keep up. Those viewers who understand Cantonese will definitely benefit and enjoy the movie more.
Overall, “Out of the Dark” is enjoyable and full of wacked out jokes everywhere. The editing is sloppy at times and the acting is over the top and childish even. Nevertheless, this movie is not supposed to be taken seriously, the cast knows it and best of all, everyone seems to be having fun and runs with it. That's probably the best way to fully enjoy this movie, just go with the flow. However, the taxing humor and slapstick can lead to a near exhausting experience.
