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/