​​​​​​​Five stories in a deserted haunted block of flats. We’re talking Dark Water-rundown, but still there’s CCTV for a paranormal look-see? Best scare is dead kids hanging upside down from the ceiling. Handy tip — don’t dump their really old shoes in revenge for their noisy scampering. If this Korean flick contained ghosts only, it’d be okay with the usual jump frights. But its jumbled horror rojak includes killer black mold, silhouette showering in the bathroom and a weirdo who’d rattle even Annabelle. Sick freak goes home to an ugly life-size doll. There’s religious-cult underpinnings and in true Korean fashion, the tales are interlinked. Writer, pharmacist, student and realtor bump into each other not knowing their common doomed fate. Just like in a K-love story. A struggling web-cartoonist wanna probe the mystery further to write better stories. The iffy caretaker warns him not to tread where even Stephen King would chicken out. No one gets out of the scary closet here. Nope, sorry. I know what you’re thinking. Even rojak doesn’t include that progressive a spirit. (3/5 stars)

Matilda Lutz, the breakout star of 2017’s rape thriller Revenge is back fighting for survival, this time not in the arid Moroccan desert but in the thick forest of Calabria, Italy. There, she and a ragtag group of travellers are stalked by a mask-wearing death cult. This Italian shocker is no classic; it’s hardly original, with influences running the gamut from Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Evil Dead to Hostel. Derivative? Abso-friggin’-lutely. Turns out that’s the whole point of this high-concept gory meta exercise. Rather generic but Lutz gives one helluva performance, including the familiar sight of her brandishing a firearm. ​​​​​​​ (2.5/5 stars) On Netflix — DOUGLAS TSENG