The Second Coming - Blu-ray

Content: Actually, Lucy (Joey Leong) should not even be in the world. That's because her mother Jen (Maggie Shiu) had tried to abort her. That Lucy was not wanted, her father (Kenny Wong) lets her feel by his extremely distant, dismissive nature again and again. Only with her brother Sunny (Don Li) she has a really warm relationship. And so the family has managed to build up an almost perfect facade for 14 years. Until Lucy, after finding a strange jar in the garden, is haunted by terrifying visions. When she falls into the street during one of these seizures, she is hospitalized, but is diagnosed with nothing more than a mild concussion. But her visions get worse and her behavior more erratic, so Jen is soon convinced that her daughter is possessed by a demon. A medium (Susan Shaw) is hired to help Lucy rid herself of the malevolent force. But whatever has taken possession of Lucy is not ready to leave the girl so easily...

The Second Coming is the new film from Herman Yau, who has enjoyed great success with films such as IP Man - Finale Fight. In the 90s Yau had specialized primarily in the horror genre, to which he now returns. For this he mixes set pieces from films like The Sixth Sense, The Exorcist, The Grudge, Poltergeist or his own work The Untold Story to an atmospheric mystery horror film with some hefty splatter interludes. Like a puzzle he puts together the story about revenge, vigilante justice and nasty demons, which is repeatedly interrupted by flashbacks and culminates in the end in a shocking revelation about Lucy's origins.

Who is not familiar with Asian cinema, but especially with its horror subject, especially the play of the actors could sometimes seem a little strange. Moreover, not all of the effects are really convincing. The story itself is thrilling, but also gets a bit convoluted towards the end. Especially with the emergence of the medium the film loses noticeably in intensity. Still, there are enough scenes that can satisfy genre fans and are entertaining enough to make The Second Coming still worth watching despite its flaws. Yau certainly hasn't succeeded in creating a new milestone in the horror genre. But if you like movies about demonic possession and about vigilante justice with supernatural consequences, you should safely take a look here. Worth seeing!

Image + Sound: The image of the Blu-ray is absolutely clean and has a very good overall sharpness, which also brings out smaller details well even in dark scenes. The color scheme feels a bit undercooked, but this adds to the gritty look of the film. The DTS-HD 5.1 mix provides pleasant movement on the surround channels, especially during the well-placed shock moments, but at the same time transports the dialogue out of the speakers with good intelligibility. Good!

Extras: Unfortunately, except for trailers, the disc has no bonus material on offer.

Conclusion: The Second Coming is atmospheric horror from China, which can score with a suspenseful story and some successful goosebumps moments. The fact that not all effects can convince and the story seems a little confused, especially in the last third, diminishes the entertainment value only marginally. Overall, this film is for friends of Asian horror cinema a worthwhile contribution, which presents itself on the Blu-ray in decent image and sound quality. Only bonus material is missing here. For the target audience all in all: Recommended!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp