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Edmund Lee

3/5 stars
A zombie thriller devoid of hope and humour, Possession Street is the latest in an increasingly noticeable roster of new Hong Kong movies – including 2023’s Back Home and Yum Investigation – to centre on a once-familiar place of communal activities that has descended into horror and anarchy.
The film marks the promising feature debut of director Jack Lai Chun-lung, whose next effort is set to be the much anticipated big-budget fantasy Back to the Past, for which he shares directing duties with Warriors of Future’s Ng Yuen-fai.
In an intriguing black-and-white opening that is partly styled like a newsreel, Possession Street shows us a sensationalist episode from World War II in which several civilians who were accidentally trapped inside a bomb shelter during an air raid turn to murder and cannibalism without hesitation.


A run-down shopping centre that has seen far better days now sits on top of the site of this gruesome tragedy. On this fateful day earmarked in some ancestral scripture, vengeful spirits are unleashed from beneath the ground in the shape of orange mist that turns people into flesh-eating zombies.
As the story goes, that is as complicated as Possession Street gets. Instead, the key takeaway is the nostalgia for a vanished recent past, as is made clear in some warm introductory scenes about the mall’s occupants early in the film – even if it soon moves on to the revolting sight of characters turning into monsters.
Given its sentimental streak, it should not surprise anyone that the film’s hero is a representative from Hong Kong cinema’s golden age: Sam (Philip Keung Ho-man), a former stuntman who has been running a modest video store in this mall since an injury forced him to switch professions.
Along with his strong-willed, would-be-filmmaker daughter Yan (Candy Wong Ka-ching of Cantopop girl group Collar) and his friend Mak (Yeung Wai-lun), a Taoist priest still learning his trade, Sam must find a way out of the premises – inexplicably locked down and without phone signal – before everyone turns undead.

A grim and claustrophobic experience that springs few surprises (unlike 1998’s Bio Zombie), Possession Street is nonetheless a decent addition to Hong Kong’s zombie horror tradition.
In particular, the special effects by American make-up and prosthetic artist Mark Garbarino prove convincingly grotesque, even if they also get repetitive fast.
A laboured attempt to explain the supernatural phenomenon in the last act makes the film unnecessarily baggy, and some may find the dearth of zombies or genuine scares disappointing. But as a taut thriller engulfed in an overriding sense of hopelessness, Possession Street leaves a haunting impression.
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Possession Street movie review: grim Hong Kong zombie horror set in an old shopping mall

Philip Keung in a still from Possession Street. Photo: Mei Ah Entertainment.

Philip Keung (left) and Candy Wong in a still from Possession Street (category IIB; Cantonese), a zombie horror film set in an old Hong Kong mall directed by Jack Lai. Yeung Wai-lun co-stars. Photo: Mei Ah Entertainment

Yeung Wai-lun in a still from Possession Street. Photo: Mei Ah Entertainment

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Starring Philip Keung, Yeung Wai-lun and Candy Wong of girl group Collar, Possession Street is a grim and claustrophobic experience


Starring Philip Keung, Yeung Wai-lun and Candy Wong of girl group Collar, Possession Street is a grim and claustrophobic experience.


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Review | Possession Street movie review: grim Hong Kong zombie horror set in an old shopping mall

Starring Philip Keung, Yeung Wai-lun and Candy Wong of girl group Collar, Possession Street is a grim and claustrophobic experience