Devil’s Curse (1988)

Warning: some spoilers to follow!

aka Devil Curse

aka Devil Curse Country

Original title: 猛鬼咒

Hong Kong cop Chan Che (Sun Xing) accompanies a group of his police buddies on a Thailand trip. He’s a bit of the party pooper of the operation, or simply the only one who isn’t a total creep, for he is happily married to Wai (Emily Chu Bo-Yee), and not interested in picking up Thai girls with the lads – particularly since the couple now has a baby on the way.

Alas, things turn into a darker direction when Chan helps a local woman named Chuma (Yip Yuk-Ping) get her wallet back from a pickpocket (and beats up the pickpocket’s buddies, because we need at least a martial arts scene early on). Though he doesn’t show more than polite interest, the young woman is very smitten with Chan. So smitten, she jumps at the offer of a statuette that purports to be a god placed in a cage in her wizard father’s wizard den to help her out by teaching her a fitting spell. Chan is soon ensorcelled and seduced, yet still returns to Hong Kong and his wife.

That is of course not going to be that, and Chan soon finds himself beset by visions, spirits and apparitions sent by Chuma and her patron, all as part of a highly dubious campaign to win him over and – eventually – to get rid of his wife.

Up until the point I’ve left the synopsis of To Man-Bo’s Devil Curse, the film is a pretty typical example of the sub-genre of Hongkong CATIII horror about men from Hongkong cheating on their wives while travelling in Thailand or other parts of Southeast Asia, and then getting beset by black magic problems instead of Glenn Close doing nasty stuff to their cats. It’s a bit milder than many CATIII movies of the type: Chan’s not a shitheel played by Anthony Wong, and the black magic business uses a minimum of centipedes and other creepy crawlies. Even our villainess isn’t quite so villainous, but more the naïve victim of a more dangerous power.

Then, once Chan has lost the fight against his own possessed hand and his wife and unborn kid are dead, the movie takes a sudden left turn into a much weirder, goofier and entertaining direction, when Wai’s cousin (she might be Chan’s cousin, because these are typical HK subtitles) decides to use her dangerous half-knowledge of Taoist magic she has picked up from books her Taoist priest daddy (Kwan Hoi-San) leaves laying around. Quickly, the ghost of Wai and her child are put into a mannequin and an incredibly ugly doll, respectively, and things escalate into sudden vampirism, several magical duels in the inimitable Hong Kong style, and other particularly enjoyable things.

That’s not exactly what I came for or expected from Devil Curse, but when mannequin possession, a wire fu fight between a ghost (in the usual white gown) and a demon guy with an impressively fake moustache, and many a shot of priests and sorcerers shooting drawn lasers out of every orifice are offered, I’m not the boy to complain, nor one to decline.

Director To dips the ever increasing madness into lots of blue dry ice fog, green spotlights and whatever other colour seems to be appropriate at the moment. When he can’t afford a special effect, he vigorously edits around the problem via triple reaction shots; when he can, he’s making sure the audience really notices the effect. Bonus points to whoever chose the music to needle drop, particularly in the finale: going from John Carpenter to John Williams is as bold as it is awesome, and really hits home the main feeling I left Devil Curse with – that this is a film going all-out to entertain you in its increasingly crack-headed and wonderful way.

Dead Curse (1985)

Original title: 猛鬼迫人

A couple of years ago, Inspector Ma prevented a witch (Angela Yu Chien) leading a Kali (or Carla, as the subtitles insist, leading to inspiring moments like the witch shouting “Carla, give me strength!”) cult from sacrificing a child, killing the witch and her assistants (witches in training?) in the process. With her last breath, the witch cursed the inspector and his family.

Now, four years later, Ma is sitting in a wheelchair, his wife is gone, and since it is July, ghost month, there’s nasty stuff in store for him and his family - his little daughter, his reporter sister Mimi (probably Elaine Kam Yin-Ling) and Mimi’s fiancée, cop Ah Chiu (Poon Chun-Wai). Particularly Mimi will turn out to have to fight off the brunt of the witch’s ire. Not that the family as a whole has it easy: little ghost children try to drown and then hang Mimi’s niece, the witch regularly appears to have a good laugh, the witch’s dead assistants attempt to throw Ma from his balcony – it’s quite the July for these people. And that’s before we come to the bit later on when Ah Chiu has a bit of ghost sex (or humps the witch’s coffin, if you can’t see ghosts) and becomes possessed afterwards, speaking in the witch’s voice.

Another female friend or family member – as it often goes with the more obscure Hong Kong films from this era, the burnt-in subtitles aren’t particularly clear so your guess is as good as mine – does have contact to a sifu named Kwan (Kwan Hoi-San), so spiritual help will be forthcoming eventually, but Kwan isn’t the most impressive example of his kind, so it’s not at all sure he will actually be able to beat the witch and her Carla-given powers.

As I said, Dead Curse – directed by one-timer Chong Biu Man and actor Gu Sam-Lam - is a reasonably obscure bit of Hong Kong horror of its time, but it’s a fun example of the style nonetheless.

Now, even though it was rated CAT III at the time, this isn’t as extreme and crass a film as one might hope or fear. There’s no centipede eating or puking action at all, and the supernatural elements are relatively conservative, featuring a lot of dry ice and green light and little that’s icky in any way, shape or form. In fact, the make-up for the ghost children is as traditional as they come, suggesting a film that sees itself standing at least with one foot in the less crazy Hong Kong horror of the 50s and 60s (and of course earlier). Its other foot, however, certainly stands in modern (80s) times. It’s not just the ghost sex scene or how the climax evolves into a magical battle between the Sifu, five elemental guardians he has conjured and the flying witch who can shoot a red laser beam out of her finger now. Rather, camera set-ups, movement, editing and general pacing do completely belong to its own time, things hopping merrily along with little time for film or characters to drag their heels between mild yet fun stunts, general spookery and moments of classic HK 80s goofiness (where else would the encounter between a threatened little girl and two ghost children come to murder her in a somewhat complicated manner include a running gag about ET?).


It’s certainly not a film that’ll leave a contemporary viewer in awe, disgust or terrible suspense, but Dead Curse’s forward momentum, its diligence in delivering at least one horror set piece every five minutes, its moments of craziness, its masses of dry ice fog and green light, its perfectly likeable leads and its general sense of fun do make for a very enjoyable time for a viewer with any kind of interest in Hong Kong horror of this time. I have no idea what anyone who doesn’t would make of this one, though I would assume that a flying witch shooting a red laser beam at a kung fu guy fighting her with a wooden coffin is of interest to any human being with taste and style.