The Imp (1981) by Dennis Yu

Director: Dennis Yu

Year: 1981

Country: Hong Kong

Alternate Titles: Hung bong

Genre: Supernatural

Plot:

Taking a job as a security guard, a man working in a cursed department store finds that a series of strange events plaguing the area after his arrival is tied to a deadly curse on him, and he must resort to increasingly mystical means in order to save himself and his family.

Review:

This one was quite an enjoyable and creepy effort. One of the film's greatest attributes is the fact that there's quite a lot of rather creepy and rather inventive methods here to drive home the general storyline involved here. There's a great deal of work here in the first half where it's a steady stream of rather chilling incidents throughout here, from the mention of the worker carving up the boss that allows for his entry into the company, the exceptionally creepy elevator ride into the basement which floods with water and opens up to a darkened basement with a creepy relic below only to all mysteriously vanish on the ride up with no trace it was ever there and the bizarre incident of the one worker choking on a chicken bone in his cornmeal.

All of these are rather fun scenes that go hand in hand with the striking imagery used to denote the demonic presence in the building, ranging from bright ornate colors against the drab surfaces to the fog continually filtering through the room, which really gives this one a rather creepy atmosphere. Connecting all of this to the possession angle and all he needs to do in order to banish the spirits out makes this one quite promising, leading into the striking finale, which is where this one really gets frantic and thrilling. From the creepy encounter in the car on the road away from the store to the various black magic rituals that the shaman undertakes in battling the spirits and finally to the big encounter in the hospital parking lot with the ghosts while his wife is there giving birth under the guise of protecting her from the final stages of the possession, this is frantic and thrilling supernatural-influenced action which ends this on a rather positive note.

Although these are quite enjoyable, there are a few issues to be had with this one. The main issue is the fact that there's never once any believable reason why anything happens here. A lot of the story is based on the mysticism and folklore of the country, which doesn't make for a coherent narrative to follow along in here, as failing to understand why anything is happening is a crucial matter in this one. This extends to a few of the plot points in here, as not only is there no reason why he needs to be at the place to begin with, a fact brought up by the characters themselves and never answered, but a lot of the actions within here make no sense, and there's a distressing lack of explanations for much of what goes on here. The only other minor point here is the dull periods in the middle, which consist of him just going around looking for answers, and there's not a whole lot of action going on here, with this one being a little too dragged out with all the different elements going on to really hamper the pacing. Otherwise, there's not much else wrong here.

Overview: ****/5

A really enjoyable, if slightly flawed, possession effort, there's quite a lot to like here, but a few drawbacks present that do hold it back from the upper echelon of the genre. Those with an interest in this era of the genre, who are intrigued by the style or approach, or who are major fans of Asian Horror in general, will have a lot to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.