A story about a video of a group of people going hiking and a mysterious little girl in a red dress following them.

Auntie Shui is missing. All her friends and neighbors are worried about her. “Missing Person” posters are put up around the neighborhood, some people light off firecrackers to help ward off evil spirits and break whatever curse may have befallen her. Meanwhile, real estate associate Ho Chih-Wei (River Huang) has overslept again and his grandma (Yin-Shang Liu) tries to wake him up and get some breakfast in him before he rushes off to work.

Unfortunately, they have a little argument about Chih-Wei’s girlfriend, so the morning is not off to a great start. It gets even worse when something ghostlike starts creeping around Grandma Ho’s place and suddenly grabs her head and forces its way into her, possessing her completely.  Coincidentally, Auntie Shui has returned, but she is changed. All she can say is that she’s sorry, so sorry, because she said her name.

Huh? Okay.

Chih-Wei convinces his radio host girlfriend Shen Yi-Chun (Wei-Ning Hsu) to come for dinner tonight, even though she and Grandma Ho do not get along.  When they get to the house, Grandma is nowhere to be found.  Coincidence that her friend Auntie Shui has returned and Grandma has disappeared?   New posters go up with Grandma’s face on them, but Cheh-Wei keeps seeing fleeting glimpses of her, even though she is not around. And who is that little girl in the red dress he keeps seeing?

At work, Cheh-Wei receives a package with a camera in it. He turns on the camera and watches the video saved on it: a group of older hikers (is that Grandma in the group? Auntie Shui?) in the mountains, laughing, enjoying the day, oblivious to the little girl in a red dress following a few feet behind them.  One of the (kind of obvious) things the group is laughing about is the old superstition about calling out someone’s full name in the forest, and why you shouldn’t do it: the spirits will find you and possess you in order to make you stay in the forest forever.  Pretty soon, Cheh-Wei and his girlfriend are in way over their heads in the fight for their very souls.

If my summary feels a little disjointed, blame me, not the filmmakers, because in the movie all this information (and there is a lot) flows naturally from scene to scene, weaving a thematic web of vengeful spirits and evil curses that traps the characters and manifests itself in shocking and mildly disgusting ways.

Because the movie was made in Taiwan, using local myths and superstitions as its basis, it might have more of an impact with an audience that is already familiar with the story of the little girl in red that steals souls to keep in the forest but don’t let that deter you. This is a creepy movie with a few very well-placed surprises and frights.  The CGI effects are sometimes hokey and sometimes horrific, but they definitely get the job done.

Director Cheng Wei-Hao made this as his first feature film (he has since made The Tag-Along 2 and Who Killed Cock Robin?) and he coaxes some great frights out of the darkness and silence of an empty apartment or a forest trail. Huang and Hsu are very good as the couple dealing with their own commitment issues in the midst of all the spooky, and their lovely and natural rapport really sells their relationship. Overall, The Tag-Along is a good, solidly scary movie that also has some genuinely touching emotional moments between family members and lovers.

Take my hand, let’s go for a walk in the forest. I promise not to say your full name out loud.

Oh, and don’t look behind us.