WTF China?!?: Seeding of a Ghost

The famous Shaw Brothers are known for many things, but their horror films are often far down on the list. Films like The Boxers Omen are often forgotten in favor of such films as The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. This says nothing about their kung-fu films, mind you, other than a positive thing about their notoriety. Enough people talk about those films, however, so let's talk about a horror one. Today's film is a movie whose plot sounds like a combination of Night of the Living Dead and The Last House on the Left. Can it possibly live up to that premise? Probably not, but let's find out. This is...

Seeding of a Ghost

The film begins by setting up the scenario that cannot possibly take a turn for the worse. We cut a nice, young couple who have a bright future. The young woman even has a nice job as a card dealer at an upper class casino. Things are going about as well as that couple from The Sinful Dwarf, so you know something has to happen. The young woman begins to fall for an older, rich guy who can give her the fancy stuff that she has always wanted. She begins to have a tryst with the guy, even going as far as hiding from her man whilst on a date.  Yeah, this is not the pleasant relationship that I was promised.  While out on a date, our heroine decides to dump her golden purse, however, and walk home.  If you were expecting logical thinking, you were looking at the wrong lady!  She runs afoul of some thugs who decide chase her to an empty house and have their way with her.  She's not keen, but they don't seem to care.  Given the title, you should not be surprised by the following statement: she dies.

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Not surprisingly, the boyfriend is a bit upset by this news.  First off, he is considered the prime suspect, especially when it becomes clear to everyone that his wife was not exactly faithful.  He is not too keen on the idea, to say the least.  When he finds out all of the details about her attack, he is even more pissed and wants revenge.  How does that go?  Um, not well.  He gets beaten up and arrested for assault.  Because we need to include more cliches, one of the men has friends in high places and gets the protection.  Naturally, he goes with the next best option: black magic.  I know- that seemed obvious to me too.  The movie gets really good at this point, which makes sitting through the early build-up worth it.  He learns all of the magical tricks from the wizard, but learns that there are some downfalls.  The more you use black magic, the more your body gets scarred.  Well, it's still better than the explanation from Jack the Giant Killer or Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders!  To say that the movie escalates in its latter half would be a giant understatement.  You get corpse sex, blood monsters and face melting.  I won't spoil it for you...not that I could make sense of it really.  The End.

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This movie is good, but you have to be patient.  In the beginning, it really drags its feet!  Once it picks up, the crazy shit keeps you interested through until the end.  The tone of the movie is really weird though, choosing to focus on the grim and grimy without any sign of letting up.  These black magic movies tend to either get really dark, really 'tongue-in-cheek' or both.  Honestly, the best two films to compare this to are Eternal Evil of Asia and The Queen of Black Magic.  In that regards, it is inferior to both of them, but not by a major margin.  Asia does have the weird comic bits that feel really out of place, which this film does not.  Queen has inferior special effects, but they are also less bloody.  If you have to make a choice, I would say this: if you like dark, weird and bloody, check this movie out.  It is slow-going, but really delivers in the end.  What it delivers is something I simply can't explain.

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Next up, a David Carradine classic that involves motorcycles, laser guns and disco sex.  I gave my hero long enough of a pass, so this is totally on!  Stay tuned...