Making his directorial debut, Hsu clearly has an eye for striking imagery, and Detention is filled with moments of shuddering, abstract beauty. But his ghost story never quite materializes from its uncanny ether.
Detention(返校)
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Taiwan · 2019
Rated R · 1h 43m
Director John Hsu
Starring Gingle Wang, Jing-Hua Tseng, Fu Meng Bo, Yun Chung-Yueh
Genre Horror, Mystery
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
Set in 1962 during Taiwan's White Terror period, two students are trapped at their hillside high school at night. While trying to escape and find their missing teacher, they encounter ghosts and the dark truth of their fate.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The Film Stage by Jared Mobarak
While a lot of Detention is steeped in anguish and anxiety, the terror induced by those emotions becomes the pathway back into the light.
The absorbing and entertaining Detention works well enough as a primer on a traumatic period of history, and as a story of semi-supernatural salvation for sins past, that it earns its surprisingly moving final moments, and even its heavily on-the-nose exhortation to modern-day Taiwan to remember and honor its ghosts.
Los Angeles Times by Noel Murray
In gaming terms, this movie’s characters find themselves on a screen where every move leads to a bottomless pit. The nightmare they’re in is as existential as it is visceral.
Users who liked this film also liked
Black Sunday
(La maschera del demonio)
A vengeful witch is released from her tomb…
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy • 1960
- Director Mario Bava
- Cast Barbara Steele, John Richardson, Ivo Garrani, Arturo Dominici, Enrico Olivieri
- Genre Horror
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Shudder, Shudder Amazon Channel, Criterion Channel, IndieFlix, AMC+ Amazon Channel, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Shudder Apple TV Channel, Shout! Factory TV, Freevee, Kanopy, Plex, Plex Channel
The Housemaid
(하녀)
When opportunity knocks, answer at your own risk.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Korea • 2010
- Director Im Sang-soo
- Cast Jeon Do-yeon, Lee Jung-jae, Seo Woo, Youn Yuh-jung, Park Ji-young, Ahn Seo-hyun
- Genre Drama, Thriller
- Available on AMC+, AMC+ Amazon Channel, IFC Films Unlimited Apple TV Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Amazon Video
Mr Vampire Saga 4
(殭屍叔叔)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Hong Kong • 1988
- Director Ricky Lau
- Cast Wu Ma, Loletta Lee, Chin Ka-Lok, Anthony Chan Yau, Yuen Wah, Pauline Wong Yuk-Wan
- Genre Horror, Comedy
- Available on Criterion Channel
A Conspiracy of Faith
(Flaskepost fra P)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Denmark, Germany, Sweden • 2016
- Director Hans Petter Moland
- Cast Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Fares Fares, Pål Sverre Hagen, Jacob Ulrik Lohmann, Amanda Collin, Johanne Louise Schmidt
- Genre Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
- Available on AMC+, AMC+ Amazon Channel, AMC Plus Apple TV Channel , IFC Films Unlimited Apple TV Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Kanopy
Behemoth
(悲兮魔兽)
A sobering Chinese documentary about the environmental, sociological, and public health effects of coal-mining in China and Inner Mongolia.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- China, France • 2015
- Director Zhao Liang
- Cast
- Genre Documentary
- Available on Fandor, Apple TV, Microsoft Store, Kanopy
Marrowbone
A young man and his three younger siblings are plagued by a sinister presence in the sprawling manor.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Spain, United States • 2017
- Director Sergio G. Sánchez
- Cast George MacKay, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Mia Goth, Matthew Stagg, Nicola Harrison
- Genre Drama, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
- Available on fuboTV, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, FlixFling, Kanopy, Hoopla, Plex Channel
The Great Buddha+
(大佛普拉斯)
The night security guard at a Buddha statue factory along with his friend, a recyclables collector, become entangled in a web of dark secrets after stumbling upon videos that document the promiscuous meetings of the factory's wealthy owner.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Taiwan • 2017
- Director Huang Hsin-yao
- Cast Cres Chuang, Bamboo Chen, Leon Dai, Lin Na-Dou, Michael Chang Shao-Huai
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on Amazon Video, Kanopy
Forgotten
(기억의 밤)
19 days’ missing, when my brother returns, my reality starts to crack down.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Korea • 2017
- Director Jang Hang-jun
- Cast Kang Ha-neul, Kim Moo-yul, Moon Sung-keun, Na Young-hee, Nam Myung-ryeol, Lee Na-ra
- Genre Thriller, Mystery, Drama
- Available on Netflix, Netflix basic with Ads
Ready to Mingle
(Solteras)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Mexico • 2019
- Director Luis Javier Henaine
- Cast Cassandra Ciangherotti, Gabriela de la Garza, Mariana Cabrera, Irán Castillo, Sophie Alexander-Katz, Diana Bovio
- Genre Comedy, Romance
- Available on Netflix, Netflix basic with Ads
The Outsiders
(鬥魚)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Taiwan • 2018
- Director Han-Chen Ke
- Cast Gingle Wang, Charles Lin, Andy Wu, Mike Lin, Hung Chien, Chris Chiu
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Call
(콜)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Korea • 2020
- Director Lee Chung-hyun
- Cast Park Shin-hye, Jeon Jong-seo, Kim Sung-ryung, Lee El, Park Ho-san, Oh Jung-se
- Genre Thriller, Mystery, Science Fiction
- Available on Netflix, Netflix basic with Ads
Dear Comrades!
(Дорогие товарищи!)
A Communist party worker finds her worldview changed after her daughter disappears in the chaos of a major labor conflict.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Russia • 2020
- Director Andrei Konchalovsky
- Cast Yuliya Vysotskaya, Vladislav Komarov, Andrei Gusev, Yulia Burova, Sergei Erlish
- Genre Drama, History
- Available on Apple TV, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Tubi TV, Kanopy
Cry
(叫び声)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2019
- Director Hirobumi Watanabe
- Cast Hirobumi Watanabe, Misao Hirayama, Riko Hisatsugu
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Sadness
A virus mutates into a disease that turns ordinary people into vicious monsters.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Taiwan • 2021
- Director Robert Jabbaz
- Cast Berant Zhu, Regina Lei, Ying-Ru Chen, Tzu-Chiang Wang, Tsai Chang-Hsien, Lan Wei-Hua
- Genre Action, Horror
- Available on Shudder, Shudder Amazon Channel, AMC+ Amazon Channel, Shudder Apple TV Channel, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, Hoopla
Martyrs Lane
Leah, a 10-year-old living in a large, old house, can't quite work out why her mother seems so distant.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 2021
- Director Ruth Platt
- Cast Kiera Thompson, Denise Gough, Sienna Sayer, Steven Cree, Hannah Rae, Anastasia Hille
- Genre Horror
- Available on Shudder, Shudder Amazon Channel, AMC+, AMC+ Amazon Channel, AMC Plus Apple TV Channel , Shudder Apple TV Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube
Eternal Spring
(長春)
When members of Falun Gong hack China’s state TV to expose brutal repression – lives are changed forever. Celebrated comic book artist Daxiong tells a story of the resilience of those fighting for religious freedom.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Canada • 2022
- Director Jason Loftus
- Cast Daxiong, Jin Xuezhe, Lan Lihua, Wang Jianmin, Zhang Zhongyu, Wang Liansu
- Genre Animation, Documentary
- Available on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel