Hong Kong Superstar Anthony Wong stars in this gut wrenching Category 3 thriller. But for the first forty-five minutes the viewer is left clueless as to just how ugly this movie is gonna get. In fact one could easily be forgiven for assuming this is a comedy.

The movie opens with Wong playing a cop that is not above beating a confession out of a prisoner (who may even be innocent, but who cares right?). When a pretty young thing bursts into the police station with news that her entire family has been killed. At the scene of the crime dutiful cop Wong feels up the female corpses (to look for rigor mortis and determine the time of death. Yeah). He has the sensitivity to ask the surviving witness if everyone in the family had big tits like her! Wong even poses for a yuck it up picture with the corpse of her Father!

The investigation is on with Wong and his new Bespectacled female partner. The pair of bumbling clowns as cops is a nice change of pace from the Cops on the edge cliché. Though the grafting of black comedy into this scenario never really works, it does go down easier thanks to the likable leads.

Once the two main suspects are nailed down the movie spins on its head into full force brutal category three dementia. Be prepared.

Through flashbacks we see the surviving daughter who reported the crime suffer a lifetime of humiliation at the hands of her family. Everything from emotional bereavement to incestuous rape is meted upon her until the incredible explosion of violence in the last reel.

Then the movie delivers one of those famous Category 3 sucker punch depressing endings that have been know to fuck up your whole week. It is not as upsetting as RED TO KILL but it comes close.

The film is erratic with comedy and very violent melodrama trying hard to coincide but never meshing. Anthony Wong is always a welcome presence but here he seems to have stepped in from a Hong Kong variant on a Jerry Lewis movie. The comedy will put off the horror fans and the brutal violence will put off the comedy fans leaving only an intrepid few viewers to appreciate DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS’ degenerate charms. (AC)