Haunted houses, ghostly apparitions, poltergeists, and demonic encounters - they’ve been written about, debated, and dissected for centuries. Everyone seems to know someone who’s had an experience, and I include myself in that. Yet, despite thousands of testimonies and eyewitness accounts, we still lack irrefutable proof that ghosts actually exist.

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Sure, it wasn’t easy to collect evidence a hundred years ago, but with today’s technology, you'd think we’d have something more concrete by now. And it’s not for lack of trying. A surge in interest - fuelled by reality television and a continued fascination with the paranormal - has led to a flood of so-called ‘investigative’ shows. The formula is usually the same: a group visits a supposedly haunted site, sets up cameras and ghost-hunting gadgets, and stumbles around in the dark trying to capture something supernatural.

In the UK we had Most Haunted that ran for an astonishing 329 episodes.  In the US, they have a whole host; Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, The Dead Files. The whole ‘ghost hunt’ theme has bled into movies too. Films like Poltergeist (1982) and The Entity (1982) included elements but it isn’t until The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Paranormal Activity (2007) that we saw this hybridised with the found-footage format. Since then, we’ve had a few more too. Grave Encounters (2011), Hell House LLC (2014), Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018) and Deadstream (2022). It turns out we just can’t get enough. Well, we’ve got another one now – the wonderfully titled Strange Frequencies: Taiwan Killer Hospital.

 

 

Xinglin Hospital in Taiwan is a place with a fearsome reputation. Closed for thirty years due to allegations of medical malpractice and wrongful deaths, it has since become a renowned hotspot for ghost sighting and other paranormal phenomenon. After a couple of American vloggers are found dead inside the hospital after their livestream tour of the hospital mysteriously cuts out, rumours persist that that they were killed by ghosts – despite the deaths officially being ruled as suicide. A few months later, a small group of Filipino celebs appear on chat show Celebrity All Access, where they talk about their upcoming reality show called ‘Strange Frequencies’, where they will explore haunted locations and live-stream their investigations. Leading the team is a guy called Quen (Enrique Gil), an actor trying to reposition himself as a producer. The rest of the crew consist of social media influencers (sighs), other actors, vloggers and a spiritualist. Think I’m In a Haunted Hospital Get Me Out of Here. When they fly out and arrive at the hospital, the excitement is palpable amongst these vacuous douchebags. Their aim is to ‘break’ the internet (whatever that means) and to get 3 million views on their livestream. If they hit this, they’ll all be in for a big windfall (yay!). However, they have some things stacked against them here. Firstly, they have no permit to enter the hospital. They are only in there because they have paid off a security guard. Secondly, the group have been locked in the hospital (by aforementioned security guard) – you know, just to make things more tense. And thirdly, and most importantly – there is some creepy ass-shit residing in this dilapidated hospital…

 

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum gets name-dropped early on, and with good reason. Strange Frequencies is essentially a loose remake of Jung Bum-shik’s South Korean hit. Touted as the Philippines’ first “meta found-footage horror,” the ambition is there - but like many remakes, it doesn't quite hit the same highs as the original.

 

That said, it's not for a lack of energy. The main cast are all real-life Filipino celebrities, playing exaggerated versions of themselves. In the early stages, there's a kinetic excitement that feels genuine, but it quickly wears thin. To be honest, after the first forty minutes or so, you’ll be quietly pleading for bad things to start happening to these people because these characters are not much fun to be around. They’re too jacked up, too performative and much of it feels like a collection of slightly annoying TikTok videos quilted together. As with many found-footage films (and low-budget ‘80s slashers), the first act spins its wheels a bit. The characters aren't particularly well-drawn, there’s too much swearing, too much goofing around, too much posing. The fact that half the dialogue is spoken in English and the other half in Filipino takes some getting used to as well.

 

It is a relatively faithful adaptation at least and to be fair, once we get into the hospital itself, the film does manage to generate a bit of atmosphere. That’s mainly due to the filming location, which is genuinely creepy. There’s a constant feeling of disorientation, and the sheer scale of the place means there's rarely anywhere safe to run. The plot is minimal and that's fine. The film wisely opts not to bog itself down in exposition, offering just enough backstory to give the horror some context without derailing momentum. These characters just need to get out of there, there’s little point sleuthing and trying to figure out how why things are happening.

What keeps Strange Frequencies from becoming completely forgettable is a handful of effective scares. The first major supernatural reveal is genuinely chilling, and a later jump-scare - despite being telegraphed - is executed with expert timing. Director Kerwin Go clearly understands how to stage a scare; it’s just unfortunate that the surrounding material doesn’t quite match his skill behind the camera. In the end, Strange Frequencies isn’t groundbreaking, and it doesn’t improve on the material it borrows from but it does just enough to hold your attention.