The best scene of the new Taiwanese horror film The Bridge Curse comes early in the film. Six college students are on a cursed bridge supposedly haunted by a rage-filled spirit. One of them gets left alone on the bridge – of course.

When he drops his cell phone on the bridge’s steps, I paused the film. I only do this when a scene’s tension is too great for me to bear. Unfortunately, the rest of the film didn’t hold that level of tension. Still, this scene made the rest of the film worth it for me.  

This Bridge Curse could’ve been a straightforward ghost story, but it chose a different path. Its story is spread out over four timelines – the 1990s, 2012, 2016 and 2020. This factor becomes the film’s strength and weakness. 

It’s not the confusion of managing four timelines that sapped the film’s strength – even with subtitles, I could still keep it all straight – it’s the low tension scenes, which could’ve been more frightening if they were set up differently. 

Also, the use of flashbacks further cut tension because I already knew how some of the scenes would end. 

The Bridge Curse offers some unique moments, which makes it worth watching for those who love horror. But if horror isn’t your genre, you might not appreciate it as much and probably should skip it. 

Some Scenes Too Slow

So I ask you – if you were a college kid who had just come back from a terrifying experience with a vengeful ghost on a bridge – an experience so scary that you ran away leaving one of your good friends behind – wouldn’t you rush out of a campus bathroom after somebody grabbed your arm from under a bathroom stall and burned his or her handprints onto your forearm? 

Exactly. So would I. 

But not this character in The Bridge Curse. Not only does he stay in the bathroom after his arm sauté, he takes a bathroom tour. Of course, bad stuff is happening all around him, but he’s not leaving. He stays and stays and stays.

The bathroom faucets are overflowing. Gee, I wonder who did that? Maybe the somebody who just gave you a third-degree burn on your arm?

Does he leave the bathroom? Nope. He plays plumber and unclogs the drain where he finds stringy black hair. Gee, whose hair could that be? Time to leave the bathroom, maybe? 

The scene was getting so boring that I began rooting for the ghost – Kill him already! 

So what went wrong? Not only was it a flashback, but the scares seem backward to me. I believe for a scene like this to work the tension should rise from low to high. 

When you start with a ghost burning your arm, you have to up the ante from there. The arm burning was the high point in the scene, so I think it should come later. When it’s first, I’m let down when it’s less tense from that point on. Also, the scene was too long for me. 

While I was watching The Bridge Curse, it reminded me of the Final Destination franchise. I think that’s because with the flashbacks, I have prior knowledge of what will happen to the characters. (Every Death in Final Destination Series Ranked)

In Final Destination films, people cheat death after one of them in a group has a premonition that they all were going to die together in a horrible accident. As a result, they avoid this horrible accident. 

But shortly thereafter, death comes looking for them and kills them off one by one. All the other five Final Destination films work on the same premise, if you haven’t seen them – which you should – right after reading this blog. 

In all the Final Destination films, I pretty much know the kids are going to die, but I’m not 100 percent sure because it’s not a flashback. It’s in real-time, so that creates tension. 

Also, Final Destination directors and writers employ creative ways for the characters to meet their demise, so I’m always wondering how it’s going to play out. That tends to build engagement and tension. 

The Bridge Curse’s flashbacks dampened the death scenes that were mostly mundane anyway.  

The Final Destination creators understood the limitation of their premise and accounted for it. In so doing, they’ve reaped the benefits for a franchise that has lasted multiple films. 

In fact, Final Destination 6 is in the works, I hear. 

One Great Scene and Ending  

Sometimes a film has one great scene that makes it worth seeing despite other drawbacks. The Bridge Curse paces well enough, but if it weren’t for one of the first scenes and the ending, it probably wouldn’t be as successful. 

In the best scene that I alluded to before, six college students are on the bridge to find the rage-filled ghost. I don’t want to give too much away, but I will tell you that I was truly uncomfortable during this scene.

It had all the hallmarks of a well-executed horror scene – a person alone in the dark, an actor who’s displaying agonizing fear without overdoing it and a well-written and logical scene with creative twists. 

As far as the ending goes, I didn’t see it coming, yet it made sense. I don’t think you could ask more from a film finale than that. 

I appreciated that the writers earned their money with this ending and didn’t give up as many horror film endings do. 

I often see films with great premises and executions, but the ending feels rushed or seems like an afterthought – as if they really didn’t know how to end it but ended it anyway. This film doesn’t do this, and I appreciate that. 

Final Thoughts

Overall, I offer an ambivalent review. I liked the beginning, tolerated the middle and felt satisfied with the end. 

If you like horror, it’s not a bad film. It’s easy to understand and moves well through the scenes. Many middle scenes are mundane, and I can imagine the film could lose a few people here. 

But the film’s beginning and ending are strong enough to pull it through. Also, it does try to be more interesting with the four timelines than typical horror films. But like I said before, it’s a big risk, and it didn’t always pay off in this film. 

What do you think? Let me know in the comments. 

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The Bridge Curse Rating (out of five):