Mr Vampire (1985)

Director: Ricky Lau

Starring: Ching-Ying Lam, Siu-hou Chin

Run Time: 96 mins

Certificate: 15

 

Plot Outline: After agreeing to rebury the corpse of a wealthy man's father, Master Gau and his two assistants find themselves being plagued by the living dead.

The Review: Along with Encounter of the Spooky Kind, Mr Vampire was one of the pioneering films from Hong Kong to fuse comedy and horror in a way not really seen or heard of in the West apart from The Evil Dead. Just like it's fellow horror flicks, Mr Vampire is an insane mix of martial arts, horror and slapstick all fused together. Anyone unfamiliar with Asian mythology will find the sight of hopping vampires a bit weird. These aren't traditional vampires in the Western sense - they're more akin to zombies. They return to life but death has stiffened them up so much they can't do anything but hop about. A quick prayer scroll attached to the forehead will render them immobile. They're not the blood-crazed monsters of the Western world and it's very interesting to follow the mythology as the film goes on. Mirrors, rice, written paper and candles are all used throughout the film instead of the usual stakes, crosses and holy water. Add this imagery into the total inventive mayhem that is the fight scenes and you have a completely nutty film which never lets up the pace. There's countless fights with hopping vampires, zombies and evil sorcerers and when the main characters aren't running around inside houses screaming and flailing around helplessly, they're doing the same thing outside! There's no explanation of who Master Gau is and why he has two bumbling assistants. There's no explanation of the guy who ferries the hopping zombies around from town-to-town with him (a frequent sight in these films and I want to know what it's all about). But you don't need the explanations. It wouldn't make any sense and as it stands, the unexplained happenings just add to the nutty mayhem. Ching-Ying Lam has often been overlooked by his more famous counterparts like Jackie Chan and Sammo but the guy is a very talented martial artist and he's also got a quite good deadpan delivery which helps up the comedy aspect of certain scenes. Ricky Liu is hilarious as one of the bumbling assistants but proves himself a few times as a competent martial artist.

Final Verdict: Mr Vampire is a great Hong Kong horror and martial arts flick. It's not as good as Encounter of the Spooky Kind but it's one of the best this unique genre has to offer. Western audiences may find the whole hopping vampires and slapstick elements a little too hokey to enjoy the film but if you like your films daft and entertaining, look no further.

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