Hsu-Chuan, who works at a game company, accidentally brings home a broken clay doll from a haunted house while developing a new horror VR game. Unexpectedly, his pregnant wife, Mu-Hua, a cultural relic restorer, develops an obsession with the doll and relentlessly tries to repair it. As strange things begin to happen in the house, Mu-Hua's condition deteriorates, and Hsu-Chuan, at his wits' end, seeks help from a spiritual medium, Ah-Sheng. Meanwhile, the horrifying secret hidden behind the clay doll begins to surface.
Practical Effects
The deteriorating clay doll is genuinely upsetting craftsmanship
Production
VR game studio doubles as meta-commentary on horror consumption
Director
Shieh Meng-ju
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The clay doll evokes Taiwanese 'jiajiang' guardian figures, subverting protective folk traditions into vessels of maternal vengeance.
Director Shieh Meng-ju previously edited horror films; her background shows in the deliberate withholding of the doll's full reveal until the third act.
TW
