# The House (2005 film)
**The House** (凶宅, *Hung Chak*) is a 2005 Hong Kong Cantonese horror film directed by Ng Man-Ching (伍文拯), starring Maggie Shiu Mei-Kei, Cheung Siu-fai, and Wayne Lai Yiu-Cheung, about a mother and daughter haunted in a cheap rented apartment[1](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/128402) • [2](http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-house2005.html). It should not be confused with the Thai horror film *The House* (บ้านผีสิง) directed by Monthon Arayangkoon, which was released on 23 August 2007, two years later[3](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/57126?language=en-US).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | 凶宅 (Hung Chak); original language Cantonese[1](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/128402) |
| Release | Hong Kong, 24 November 2005[1](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/128402) • [4](https://www.filmek.hu/movie/128402) |
| Runtime | 93 minutes (1h 33m)[1](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/128402) • [4](https://www.filmek.hu/movie/128402) |
| Director | Ng Man-Ching (伍文拯)[1](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/128402) • [4](https://www.filmek.hu/movie/128402) |
| Writers | Sam Leong Tak-Sam and Mei-Si Yi[1](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/128402) |
| Principal cast | Maggie Shiu Mei-Kei (邵美琪), Cheung Siu-fai (张兆辉), Wayne Lai Yiu-Cheung (黎耀祥)[1](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/128402) • [4](https://www.filmek.hu/movie/128402) |
| Genre | Horror, in the haunted-apartment mode[1](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/128402) • [2](http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-house2005.html) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The story follows Jane Ching (Maggie Shiu), whose husband's drug addiction destroys her life and forces her to support herself and her young daughter Ling by taking a job as a security guard[1](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/128402). Mother and daughter move into a run-down cheap-rent apartment, where the hauntings begin: one night Ling sees a soaking wet child doing homework at her desk[1](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/128402).
The haunting takes the form of a pair of ghosts, a pale wet boy and a young woman in [Chinese opera costume](https://www.edgepedia.org/chinese-opera-costume). A police officer, Wai (Eddie Cheung Siu-fai), visits the mother and daughter; he is a man full of guilt and sadness, having killed Jane's addict husband Kam (Wayne Lai) in a justified shooting[2](http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-house2005.html).
## Identity and disambiguation
The title "The House (2005 film)" attaches to two unrelated works from that year, the Hong Kong film and a Canadian feature, as well as a Thai film from 2007, and the Hong Kong film is the one identified by the leading film-database records. TMDB lists the 24 November 2005 Hong Kong release with original title 凶宅 and original language [Cantonese](https://www.edgepedia.org/cantonese)[1](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/128402), and a Hungarian database independently gives the same original title, premiere date of 2005-11-24, 93-minute runtime, and the same director and cast in [Chinese characters](https://www.edgepedia.org/chinese-characters)[4](https://www.filmek.hu/movie/128402).
The disambiguation candidates are:
- **The House (2007, Thailand)**, original title บ้านผีสิง, directed and written by Monthon Arayangkoon, released 23 August 2007 with a 1h 43m runtime, about a reporter named Chalinee investigating a house where three women were killed by their lovers, starring Intira Jaroenpura. Its 2007 date makes it a distinct, later film[3](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/57126?language=en-US).
- **The Haunted House (2005, Cambodia)**, directed by Heng Tola for Campro Productions, released 20 May 2005 in Central Khmer, about developers renovating a house that was formerly a traditional Thai dancing school[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6222878/).
- **The House (2005, Canada)**, directed by David Krae for Aquila Pictures, a 110-minute English-language feature[6](https://www.crew-united.com/en/The-House__49553.html).
## Cast and crew
Ng Man-Ching directed; the screenplay is credited to Sam Leong Tak-Sam and Mei-Si Yi[1](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/128402). The Hungarian database gives the director's name in Chinese as 伍文拯 and the leads as 邵美琪 (Maggie Shiu), 张兆辉 (Cheung Siu-fai), and 黎耀祥 (Wayne Lai)[4](https://www.filmek.hu/movie/128402). The specialist review confirms the casting of Maggie Siu as Jane Ching and Lai Wai-Han as her daughter Ling, and notes the director's name also romanized as Wu Weng Zheng[2](http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-house2005.html).
## Themes and style
The film works within the conventions of mid-2000s Asian horror. The review identifies the two ghosts as "gwai" and characterizes them as hungry ghosts, and notes that the film combines the period's stock figures, the wet ghost, the child ghost, and the long-haired female ghost, into what it calls an ultra-spooky pairing[2](http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-house2005.html).
The same review credits the film's execution rather than novelty: skillful acting, moody cinematography with superb lighting, eerie sound effects, and a subtle musical score, which together make the haunted-house motif captivating, and it judges the film "an excellent-of-kind horror flick"[2](http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-house2005.html).
## Reception and availability
Coverage of the film in English is thin. One specialist review, at Wild Realm Reviews, treats it favorably as a well-crafted example of the haunted-house genre[2](http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-house2005.html).
## References
1. [The House (2005), The Movie Database (TMDB)](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/128402)
2. [Wild Realm Reviews: The House](http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-house2005.html)
3. [The House (2007), The Movie Database (TMDB)](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/57126?language=en-US)
4. [The House, filmek.hu (Hungarian film database)](https://www.filmek.hu/movie/128402)
5. [The Haunted House (2005), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6222878/)
6. [The House, Feature Film, 2005, Crew United](https://www.crew-united.com/en/The-House__49553.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Psychological horror films › Psychological horror films, 1990s and 2000s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license