Is there any film director working in Hong Kong nowadays who is more prolific than Herman Yau? Just in the last 12 months alone, he's got five films released theatrically: the award-winning prostitute pic True Women For Sale, horror drama The First 7th Night, Shaw studio reviver Turning Point, thriller-comedy Split Second Murders, and gangster actioner Rebellion. Despite being small low-budget quickie fare, Yau's films are often well crafted and original, but some do slip off the radar of the cinema-going public. The First 7th Night unfortunately was doomed to such undeserved oblivion, as it is actually one of the better Hong Kong horror films out there most filmgoers have never seen.

An old hand at the horror genre, Yau isn't content just making a straightforward scarefest. The film serves up some chilling scenes to live up to its billing, but there is more real substance to it. Gordon Lam plays cab driver Map King, so named because he knows places other drivers don't. He leads a lonely rootless life and the cab is where he works, eats, and sleeps. One day, he is hired by a mysterious man called Xiao Ma (a black-clad Julian Cheung) to lead the way to a remote, deserted inn called Spring Thunder Hotel, which was already burnt down some thirty years ago. Why would anyone want to go to a place like that? Who in the hell is this guy anyway, and what exactly is inside the cargo of his truck?

The suspenseful road movie setup soon gives way to a tale of terror as Map King begins to relate to Xiao Ma the legend of Spring Thunder Hotel over the long overnight drive. Once upon a time, the inn is tended by a beautiful woman named Fong (Michelle Ye), who lives with her young son. Her seemingly calm and peaceful life is threatened one fateful day when the inn is visited by a quartet of armed robbers on the run. Tension rises. One of these fugitives (Eddie Cheung) lusts for Fong, leading him to commit a very big mistake that night, the 7th night after the passing of Fong's husband, when the dead is supposed to come home to see their family.

Fear is an emotion inherent in the human psyche, and it is often manifested in stories people tell, because by coding it in narrative form, the storyteller (and the audience, too) creates an inner sense of security. For Map King, his scary story about the Spring Thunder Hotel serves as his defense mechanism against the skeleton in his closet. This becomes apparent when the film is given a Rashomon-like twist, as Xiao Ma counters with an alternative take of the story - the same setting, the same characters, but a different outcome - and this one may hit closer to home. Fortunately, the director gives the film a satisfactory ending that allows our hero the chance to confront and exorcise his demon.