Director: Kuei Chih-hung
Year: 1981
Country: Hong Kong
Alternate Titles: Gu
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Following the discovery of a dead body, a police detective who helped solve the case finds that the spirit who caused the murderer to embark on his killing spree has now possessed him and turns to a devout priest to perform the necessary rituals in order to protect himself.
Review:
There was quite a lot to like with this one. One of the many positives of this one is the fact that there's such a deranged and wild atmosphere present in this one due to the black magic cursing involved. The way the spells are enacted in here are quite intense and often creepy, being that they're carried about in the one room where all the different black magic relics are shown from the skulls, black candles, strange jars lining the walls, and the different pots and containers featuring all the ingredients to make their spells come to life. The way they include all the different objects here, from the silver bells on the strings of the ceramic boxes to carving out the writing with the special tree branch and the special altar where they reside over during all the special ranting and enacting their spells, all combine together to give this one a rather creepy and frightening atmosphere which is what makes the film work as it does.
This as well carries over into the rather fun curses that actually get played out here, from the black marks on the body that continually spread across them to the different artifacts turning into animals and other objects being turned into lethal and rather dangerous elements to attack their victim that it becomes all the more effective even before adding in the requisite vomiting up worms and maggots that is included in here. Once it finally gets to the spectacular spiritual battle between the two sorcerers at the end, there's just such an insanely wild and fun time here with the frenetic action enabling the two sides to engage in battles against each other as we get to see the dueling priests throughout here fire some truly outrageous spells at each other. Cursing pictures in order to cause painful sores to appear on the body, causing their equipment to crumble into dust at the merest touch, bringing objects in the room to attack the other, and other activities, there's such a wild and crazy assortment of black magic featured here that the film becomes a highly visceral experience on that alone.
Even the other finale, from his battle to get free and how he reacts while under that control, makes this one quite fun. What makes all this sorcery at the end work is the fact that the build-up exploring what happened to him here, from his relationship with the girl that's quite fun and innocent to the strained way he interacts with his daughter amid the slow-building realization of his curse, the set-up to this one manages to work quite nicely and gives this one the burgeoning storyline necessary to really fuel the rest of this one rather nicely. The only thing that doesn't really work here is the fact that there's the second affliction in the final moments rather than built up so that it really makes a rather strange inclusion. It comes off so suddenly and with no real purpose that this could easily have been removed without effect. Otherwise, there's not much to dislike here.
Overview: ****.5/5
An immensely enjoyable gross-out film that doesn't have much wrong about it, this one manages to carry itself as a top-shelf entry in the genre even if it doesn't go to the extremes as later efforts. Give this a look if you're a fan of the style or creative crew, while viewers who aren't interested in the genre or subject matter should heed caution.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with this cooperation.
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