ONce a year, for thirty days the gates of Hell open and the hungry and the angry spirits walk again in Singapore. Now Rosa comes from the Philippines to an arranged housekeeping job to replace the missing Ester, the previous housekeeper, who seems to have vanished, only to find weird and strange things happening at the household. I love ghost stories and I love horror movies, and this one is both. The movie is completely helped by the beautiful Alessandra de Rossi, whose looks are downtuned some to play the poor impoverished Rosa. Also good is Huifang Hong who is both beautiful, and the driving force behind the strange happenings, as she only wants what is best for her son (Benny Soh), who is a huge muscular man who is both childlike and retarded, something which leads to some really difficult times when he forgets himself. The rest of the characters are all pretty unimpressive, although nobody embarrasses themselves. All-in-all, a great watch of a movie that I never would have seen if it weren't for the internet, where I saw it. . This is a movie that I will have to watch again. I love ghost stories, and I didn't guess the twist until I had my nose rubbed in it. Now that I know what this movie's twist is, I can now watch this movie again with a fresh perspective.

The Chinese believe the gates of Hell are thrown open for 30 days during the 7th Month. Ghosts walk among us. I suppose that is better than having teabaggers and birthers walking among us in the 8th month like they do here in the US.Rosa (Alessandra de Rossi) comes to Singapore from the Philippines to work to help her sick brother. She is focused on doing a good job for the Teos (Shucheng Chen & Huifang Hong), and doesn't pay attention to the things you are supposed to do to not offend the Ghosts. Unfortunately, the movie goes on for almost 40 minutes before they bother to tell her that she screwed up.That's after she sees ghosts everywhere. We don't know at times whether it's real or imagined. The sounds are spooky and the suspense is great. It's a real ghost story in the old fashioned "scare your pants off" school. Things get really strange when we find out the real reason for Rosa's presence.Those at the Toronto and New York film festivals can see de Rossi in Independencia.

"The Maid" is a highly impressive and incredibly entertaining Asian ghost effort.**SPOILERS**Arriving in Singapore, Rosa Dimano, (Alessandra de Rossi) goes to work for Mr. Teo, (Shucheng Chen) and his family, Luan Teo, (Huifang Hong) and Ah Soon, (Benny Soh) a group of Teochew Opera works, as their new maid. Finding that she has arrived on the first day of Hungry Ghost Month, where citizens honor their dead family members, she goes about her duties while they go about their jobs until she accidentally disturbs a ceremonial ritual meant to protect the family from wandering spirits and soon begins seeing numerous visions and encounters with different ghosts around her. Realizing that the encounters have been caused by a ghost of a former employee seeking revenge on the family, she tries whatever she can to help it and stay away from the family.The Good News: There was a lot of really good things in here. One of the better pluses here is the high number of scares that emerge from the ghosts. By playing into the usual Asian style, with the painted faces and completely feature-less facial features, they come off as incredibly striking when viewed, and when they start popping up out of nowhere, such as inside closets and under the bed-sheets, there's a bunch times when their sudden appearance out of nowhere scores big time in the opening of the film. These are aided quite considerably by the atmosphere these scenes are shared with, as it's pretty much all the different set-ups used for the celebrations. With the different elements used, such as the items placed among the offerings, and with the superstitions and different rituals needing to be appeased, it offers up a rather fun and certainly heightened sense of atmosphere when actually put all together. Both of these are responsible for the film having one of the best paces around, as the mystery helps out but it's mostly all about the ghostly interaction. That makes the film so enjoyable and easy to get-in-to, as it starts off with lots of great shock encounters before getting to explaining it. The quantity of encounters in this half is really what sets it apart, as there's plenty of ones in here that work. Besides the earlier ones, the big ones seen during the festival are the most impressive as they're genuinely creepy and really serve the film well with adding in some impressive scare scenes. There's also some nice action here served from the admittedly-exciting foot-chase that goes on. Taking place through several exciting locations, including through down-town and a really unique circular staircase that leads to a shocking conclusion, leaving it one of the best moments in the film. That also brings up the last big plus in this one, the finale, which has a lot of great stuff in it. Beyond the great action of the house being set on fire with the mad dash to get out, this also manages a lot of fun during the rest of what works. Deciding to hold off on the revelation as being told and instead shown here adds since it's pretty much really enjoyable to watch it unfold rather than being told what happened. The action is great, the revelation is well-handled and it makes the whole thing interesting and exciting. Plus, it also manages to send the film out on a high-note with how everything comes to pass here, which this segment a real highlight, and combined with the other factors here, the film highly entertaining and enjoyable.The Bad News: This here had a couple of minor flaws. One of the biggest ones is the film's central idea of placing so much emphasis on the scares, as that can be really tiring and quite irritating at times. By simply showing the exact same types of scenes over and over with the only variation coming in the form of what's doing the action and where it occurs, there's very little that can be done with that before it starts getting repetitive, which is what starts to happen here at times. There's not much that really changes things by not moving around the type of scares it features. The only other flaw here is an entirely confusing scene where, due to later events, makes it weird as to why it's featured which makes it absolutely confusing as to why it's here. These are the only things wrong with it.The Final Verdict: An incredibly enjoyable and creepy ghost entry, with a few minor touches to hold it down from practically nothing, as the flaws aren't that damaging. Really give this one a shot if you're into the Asian ghost films or find this one interesting, while those who aren't big on this should heed caution.Rated UR/R: Graphic Violence and some Language

A new maid is hired to do random chores around a residence in the Philippines. She is not familiar with the local customs, and learns that she has begun working during the month reserved for dead spirits to be honored. Innocently disturbing one of the ghosts, she begins to learn of a terrifying secret.The cover of this movie compared it to "Sixth Sense" and "The Grudge", which I think does this film a terrible disservice. Yes, there are aspects of "The Sixth Sense" (seeing ghosts) and I can understand the "Grudge" similarities, to a point. But I don't think a viewer should think of this movie in terms of these other films because there is something unique here that really allows it to stand out from other Asian horror films.The lead character is interesting because she is both trying to solve a mystery and is herself a mystery: what does the ghost want from her? But also, why has she been summoned to be the maid for this new family (if you're like me, you'll quickly discover she never has to clean anything or watch any children). They're both interesting questions, and I think the viewer will like how they play out -- hints are dropped along the way, but I don't think you'll catch them all on the first watch.What might be a drawback for the film is the use of loud noises to startle the audience (doors creaking and such) and a few times where a ghost jumps into the frame completely unexpectedly. In some ways this was a cheap trick to get a scare out of the audience, but as someone who doesn't scare easily (I've seen more horror films already this year than you'll probably ever see in your life) I have to admit I was a bit jumpy and had to grip the blanket a little tighter.A strength of the film was the creator's obvious awareness that Americans (and other non-Filipinos) would be watching this. The religious observances are explained in a way that is understandable but doesn't treat the viewer like a child or an idiot. I have no idea if the holiday observed here is real, but even if it's not I was convinced. The culture is very well captured.Give this one a chance -- I found it to be so much more than I expected. After I was starting to think all Asian horror followed such similar patterns (which is not to say American horror doesn't), this was so refreshing. Solid plot, great characters... and a puzzle piece ending that will leave you feeling this one comes complete.