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James Marsh

Urban legends, tragic accidents and historical wrongdoings have proved a rich font of inspiration for horror filmmakers, nowhere more so than in Taiwan.
The island’s tumultuous history and rapid economic progress have seen old traditions and old-world beliefs engulfed by modernity.
The past decade alone has seen a number of supernatural tales adapted for the big screen, nurturing a booming subgenre in supernatural horror.
With this week’s release of the Taiwanese film Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo in Hong Kong, we look back on 10 of the most notable examples of this ongoing trend from Taiwan and the allegedly true stories that inspired them.
1. The Tag-Along (2015)


The film that launched the current wave of urban legend adaptations is inspired by an apparently true story that occurred in 1998.
A group of hikers in Taichung were followed by a “little girl in red”, only for one of their number to die shortly afterwards. A videotape of the girl following the group went viral and sparked a wave of public interest, culminating in Cheng Wei-hao’s film.
River Huang stars as a young man whose grandmother disappears under similarly mysterious circumstances, prompting him and his girlfriend (Hsu Wei-ning) to launch an investigation that unearths several sinister events.
The 2017 sequel, starring pop idol Rainie Yang Cheng-lin and again directed by Cheng, expanded the mythology of the little girl’s origins and went on to become an even bigger hit at the local box office.
2. The Rope Curse (2018)


Some believe that when a person hangs themselves, the rope becomes possessed by their spirit, growing more powerful and malevolent over time. The curse can only be lifted by performing certain traditional rituals, such as “sending off meat dumplings”.
Director Liao Shih-han explores these supernatural beliefs and superstitions across a trilogy of Rope Curse films.
While bowing to certain genre conventions, such as following fresh-faced young protagonists who become embroiled with these restless spirits, the primary focus of the series remains the rites and practices that must be performed to break the curse.
3. The Tag-Along: Devil Fish (2018)


The third instalment in the hit Tag-Along franchise serves as a prequel to the earlier films, while tackling a completely different Taiwanese legend.
The “fish with a person’s face” is a well-known folktale about a trio of fishermen who accidentally catch a demon fish and are punished for trying to eat it.
Boasting a bigger budget and grander production values than its predecessors, the film’s producers toyed with the notion of an anthology-style franchise that explored a variety of urban legends, but no further entries in the Tag-Along series have materialised.
4. Detention (2019)


Taiwan’s dark past has spawned innumerable myths and legends, and no period has done so more than the White Terror of the 1960s, when civilians and political dissidents were brutalised by the ruling Kuomintang government.
Schools were a particular hotbed of persecution and repression, and almost every campus harbours ghost stories based on real historical violence.
John Hsu Han-chiang’s supernatural horror film, itself inspired by a popular video game, stars Gingle Wang Ching and Tseng Jing-hua as members of a secret book club who find themselves trapped in a nightmarish version of their school, terrorised by all manner of threats, both real and imagined.
5. The Bridge Curse (2020)


At Taichung’s Tunghai University, legend has it that an extra 14th step appears on a campus bridge at midnight, where the ghost of a jilted female student waits to snatch whoever walks on it.
Scaling the bridge has become an initiation ritual, but in 2018, a renowned influencer filmed himself attempting the feat, only to be scared away by a sinister figure.
It is this incident that inspired this tepid supernatural mystery by Lester Hsi (who has also gone by Lester Shih), starring Summer Meng Geng-ru as a reporter investigating the disappearance of a group of students.
A barrage of last-minute twists proves too little, too late for this rather lacklustre genre exercise.
6. Incantation (2022)


In 2005, Kaohsiung City was rocked by the story of a family of six who became consumed by the belief that they had all been possessed by a multitude of Taoist demons.
Eventually, they became fixated on the eldest daughter, submitting her to a barrage of mental and physical abuse from which she eventually died.
Kevin Ko’s found-footage horror film draws inspiration from this story, but also takes the novel approach of imploring the audience throughout to take part in the exorcism and repeat specific prayers and incantations whenever prompted.
Local audiences duly answered the call, and Incantation became a significant box office hit.
7. Marry My Dead Body (2022)


One of the most inventive reinterpretations of an urban legend is in this supernatural romcom from original Tag-Along director Cheng.
The practice of ghost marriages can be traced back to the Han dynasty, and today, believers are discouraged from picking up discarded red envelopes from the ground, for fear of becoming trapped in wedlock to a lonely spirit.
Cheng’s version gives the superstition an unexpected yet hilarious LGBT-infused spin, as Greg Hsu Kuang-han’s homophobic police officer is inadvertently betrothed to the ghost of a gay man (Austin Lin Po-hung), who dies accidentally while planning his wedding.
8. The Bridge Curse: Ritual (2023)


For the sequel, Hsi turned his attention not to a bridge, but to another supposedly haunted university campus where students take part in the well-known “Elevator Game”, visiting different floors in a specific sequence to invite supernatural encounters.
In the film, a group of students design a video game based on these encounters, but one of their number mysteriously slips into a coma before they can complete it.
Incidentally, some netizens online also linked the elevator game to the bizarre circumstances surrounding the death of Canadian student Elisa Lam at a Los Angeles hotel in 2013.
9. Dead Talents Society (2024)


Taking a markedly different tack, Detention director Hsu continues his penchant for compiling numerous existing legends into an original narrative with this gleefully absurd take on the afterlife.
Gingle Wang takes the lead as a young woman who dies under uncertain circumstances, only to learn that her final resting place is far from secure. If she fails to come up with a successful haunting concept and win an underworld talent contest, her spirit will be banished to eternal damnation.
Into the mix of this supernatural screwball comedy, Hsu incorporates several well-known legends, from ghostly schoolgirls to haunted hotels.
10. Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo (2025)


The latest addition to this blossoming subgenre reinvigorates a noted hiking tale, similar to The Tag-Along’s little girl in red, with a fresh sci-fi twist.
Legend has it that anyone who encounters a mysterious yellow-clad figure in the mountains will be led to their doom. Chen (Jasper Liu Yi-hao) and Song (Hong Kong actress Angela Yuen Lai-lam) play a young couple who lost their friend under similar circumstances five years earlier and return to find him.
But when Song dies, Chen discovers he is stuck in a time loop, doomed to relive the same day until he solves the mystery and rights a terrible wrong.
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With the release of Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo, here are other Taiwanese horror films and the allegedly true stories behind them


With the release of Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo, here are other Taiwanese horror films and the allegedly true stories behind them.


10 Taiwanese horror movies that turned to creepy urban legends for big-screen inspiration

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}With the release of Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo, here are other Taiwanese horror films and the allegedly true stories behind them

1. The Tag-Along (2015)

With the release of Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo, here are other Taiwanese horror films and the allegedly true stories behind them