Director: Ho Meng-hua
Year: 1976
Country: Hong Kong/Singapore
Alternate Titles: Gou hun jiang tou; Revenge of the Zombies
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
After a rash of mysterious illnesses, a group of doctors at a hospital become concerned that the incidents are the work of a malevolent wizard set to wreak havoc on society with a slew of deadly spells for his pleasure, forcing them to get past the nature of his work to finally stop him.
Review:
This was a rather fun and gruesome follow-up. Among the more worthwhile factors to be had here is the strong dive into the world of the supernatural by means of establishing the world of the supernatural as a way of knowing what’s happening. The whole idea of the strange illnesses and bizarre diagnoses from what’s brought into the hospital serves to generate a kind of impressive mystery element due to the unnatural nature of the cases brought up, and it sets up the kind of world where the black magic he utilizes feels quite at home even within the modern setting. Knowing that the setup to everything requires a series of unconventional and generally bizarre ingredients that are to be collected not just from the individual he aims to work his magic on but also the more general requirements offers up the means of moving this along at a fine clip as well, with the numerous individuals cursed coming to the station in the condition they are with the signs of black-magic-corruption all over them.
That all means the various attempts at allowing the spells to come to life and take shape are filled with the kind of gruesome, gross-out content that would be expected in such a setup. From the beginning, when the village woman is attacked by a crocodile and the body itself is recovered and cut open, there’s a decidedly obvious sense of the arcane utilized in these sequences going forward with specific rituals including shaving off skin from a woman’s pubic area to melt it into a liquid and force her to drink it, sucking breast milk from the source to use as a base for a specific poison, or corrupting articles of clothing covered in bodily fluids to use as a means of controlling the individual. Even more impactful sequences, from the roomful of zombie corpses that are controlled via massive spikes nailed into their head or using special tools to remove worms and maggots crawling within the body of a possessed individual, there are some fun moments here presenting the spells as more of a part of the film.
The end result of these enhanced aspects is a rather fun series of scenes showing the aftermath of these graphic encounters. Not content to just rely on the same thing from the first film involving the use of grotesque deformed facial features to showcase revulsion in someone else, melting down into a pile of organic mush crawling with worms and maggots, or the obscenely unnatural attraction to someone else, there’s more fun to be had here with the scenes focusing on the zombified helpers getting involved to help sell how powerful the spells truly are. Knowing the importance of the wax figures and how to control the zombies, we get fun scenes involving the possessed trying to kidnap those who anger the wizard or martial arts battles with the creatures in the burning ruins of his house, as this goes for the gloriously Gothic finale involving burning down the house to escape the villain. Overall, these all make for an immensely likable and worthwhile genre effort.
There are some factors keeping this down. The biggest factor here is the troubling setup that makes way too much of a spectacle about his fantastic powers, which feels incredibly out of place in the modern city where this is set. Him being this kind of over-the-top bragger who can do these powerful spells isn’t a big deal, but the word about what he can do is going to get out and make itself known about what he’s doing, which seems like something that would work for his anonymity a lot better in a more old-school environment had this been a period-set film like so many of their other genre fares were. It’s all quite obvious what’s going on and that he’s the one responsible, based on the outright simple investigation to prove it’s him, and with the lackluster way he goes around hiding his powers that only confirms everything even clearer, this is a disappointing way of going about it. The other big point is a bit of needless animal cruelty thrown in for no reason at all involving a harmless crocodile being gutted and disemboweled for no purpose, which is immensely tough to watch, all of which hold it down.
Overview: ****/5
A solid and generally effective follow-up, this one manages to get a lot of worthwhile factors to it that make it a more extreme version of the original in a way that may or may not appeal to all viewers. Those with an appreciation for this style or approach, or who are fans of the creative crew, will have a lot to like here, while most others out there might want to heed caution.
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