Encounter of the Spooky Kind is a 1980 Hong Kong martial arts comedy horror film directed by and staring Sammo Hung. In the film Hung plays Cheung a man who gets his life targeted by his wife’s lover by employing a witch who unleashes vampires, zombies, and ghosts against him. These attacks are countered by a rival sorcerer who takes Cheung in as his disciple leading to an escalation of events and a battle between the two sorcerers. Encounters of the Spooky Kind is a fun entertaining film that any fan of weird crazy movies should watch.
The direction in the film is good. The film has an interesting use of Asian mysticism to create scary or dramatic moments that are shown in a funny way. The film has some genially intense moments as well as comedy wee the opening sequence turns out to be a dream. The actors in the film have a good snappy back and forth with each other with a supranatural element throughout as ghosts are an important part of the story. With the marking of unwon graves it shows that the film is steeped in Asian mysticism. The film has a clear artificiality with it mixed with reality as shown through overly dramatic sound effects. When the ghosts appear, they look cheesy as the artificial nature of the film becomes reality as an actual ghost lights the candle. The actual ghost that appears although cheesy looking is presented in a real and serious way as they to get the character through slapstick comedy as the film mixes comedy and tension as well. The ghost then attacks him through the mirror with her extendable arms though slapstick comedy he cuts her hand off.
The films shows that Cheung’s wife is having an affair with a spiritual master as affairs are a recurring them throughout the film. Encounters of the Spooky Kind is a non-spiritual spiritual film as the priest act more as hitmen than priests, as they use something called hell money literal spiritual currency to ward off evil which again shows a lot of Asian mysticism but does in a perverse way. The film has a classic horror style combining classic horror tropes with Asian magic. Then the vampire ghost zombies first appear form there coffin the film uses a classic horror trope to create genuine scares which is then quickly subverted to a silent comedy style. The film has slapstick comedy mixed in with genuine tension as the fight scenes are choregraphed in a physical silent slapstick comedy way combined with classic horror tropes and imagery. Cheung seems to have a sort of cosmic bad luck as mysticism plays a big part of the film with weird spells and rituals. These weird rituals involve killing a chicken, dripping its blood into a cup, drinking it, and spitting it into a box, as the film constantly combines marital arts and sword play with magical ritual and incantations. Within the film eggs are used to repel the zombie vampire ghosts as the film combines funny over the top comedic fight scenes with great martial arts. There is a crazy ending to one of the fight scenes were Cheung lies backwards into the roof after. Blood was dumped on the zombie vampire ghost and because of the blood on him people try to frame him for killing his wife but as they plan his execution he escapes. The film is full. Of classic Asian motives such as respecting the dead when Cheung apologies when he knocks over a coffin and the zombie slowly comes towards him without him noticing making for a tense scene before being cut with comedy as the zombie acts as he does. The film is stereotypical in the imagery it uses but in a way that works using traditional witchcraft imagery of a black cat that turns into a zombie and attacks Cheung as his life is like a comic joke that goes from bad to worse.
When the evil Taoist priest uses magic in a fight scene the film brilliantly combines mysticism mixed with classic Asian cinema fight scenes and classic slapstick comedy this scene witch ultimately comprises of Cheung dodging makes for a great fight scene. His Taoist friend then stops then using voodoo Asian mysticism as Tsui initiates Cheung by drawing talismans of his body which again uses classic Asian mysticism. Through these incantations voodoo doesn’t work on him as the evil priest tries to stab him thorough the heart as again the film uses classic Asian mysticism combined with horror in a b-movie style. The film has a creepy otherworldly feel to it as well as a b-movie style with the zombie vampire ghosts fighting them in which they use mystic weapons to fight them off. They then incarnate a sword using mysticism. The climax of the film is epic and great a stand-off battle that feels like a western or samurai like duel combined with an anime-esc over the top one on one fight scene. As both priests possess their apprentices with animal spirits as they fight in a funny way as they sound like animals when they talk. In this epic fight scene where they are possessed Cheung kills Tam in an epic battle between the two priests. Tsui then defeats Cheung but badly hurt falls to his death as Cheung lives.
The film ends with Cheung’s wife seeing everything that happened and tries to get back together with him saying Tam was about to rape her, but Cheung however knows she’s lying and punches her several time before throwing her. Sammo Hung does a good job as Bold Ceung the at first incompetent protagonist of the film that rises to the occasion. Chung Fat does a good job as Priest Tsui the antagonist of the film. Lam Ching-ying does a good job as the inspector investing Cheungs possible murder. Jonny chan does aa good job as Priest Chin Hoi the priest that is having an affair with Cheungs wife. To Siu-ming does a good job as Ah To. Huang Ha does a good job as Master Tam who is having an affair with Cheungs wife. Dick Wei does a good job as Master Lok the voodoo priest that controls Bold Cheung. Cheung Ging-boh does a good job as Uncle Fok tai Miu does a good job as Adviser Lau.
The writing in the film is good. Encounters of the Spooky Kind is a classic Asian ghost story mixed with comedy with good comedy writing. The film has supernatural stuff form the start with the ghost coming out of a jar and attacking a guy, but this turns out to be a dream. The film shows Cheung and his wife to be in a bad relationship as Cheungs wife is cheating on him. Cheungs nickname is big guts by him marking unknown graves it shows that the film is steeped in Asian mysticism. Cheung decides to go along with his friend to a ritual where he sees a ghost as his finds paly a prank on him to make him think his seeing ghosts, however it turns out there are ghosts not just his friend who is dressed like a ghost playing a prank. The artificiality of the film becomes reality as an actual ghost lights the candle as a real ghost appears in the mirror. The ghost then appears in the mirror and pulls the guy through it as the ghost appears again but doesn’t get him through slapstick comedy. The ghost then attacks him through the mirror with her expendable arm with is slapstick comedy as he defeats the ghost, but the house is destroyed. The film then shows Cheung who is an apprentice and has a master the film also has a theme in the film with is that of affairs with the rice man’s wife having an affair. Cheung sees his wife with someone who runs away but his wife turns the tables on him and guilt trips, Master Chan the person Cheungs wife is having an affair with is worded about Cheung catching him with his wife, so he decides to kill him, so they get a sorcerer to get rid of him. The sorcerer doing this doesn’t care and just wants the money, but his apprentice doesn’t approve and is more spatial as they offer him to get rid of Cheung by offering Cheung money to spend the night in a haunted house. Cheung bumps into the sorcerer’s apprentice who doesn’t want to kill him as he explains to Cheung what he must do. Cheung goes into the haunted house as the guy locks it, as the sorcerer does an eastern mysticism ritual to conger up zombie vampire ghosts to kill Cheung. To do this the sorcerer burns an effigy to release the vampire zombie ghosts as the vampire ghost zombie appear from the coffins creating genuine horror. The film has a silent comedy style to it as the character pulls himself up as the vampire zombie ghost rotates with the evil Taoist priest controlling it.
Cheung sells the vampire zombie ghost away in a coffin and when the evil Taoist priest tries to control it, he hurts his head, however he manages to break the vampire zombie ghost out of the coffin. The film has great physical silent comedy style fight scenes with zombies that can only be controlled at night. Cheung comes out of it alive but destroyed and ends up accidently accepting to spend more time in the haunted place for more money. Cheung and his master then end up making a potion to defeat the vampire zombie ghosts as they need 50 eggs of a certain type, but the guy doesn’t have enough and gives him a mixture of eggs. It is said that a certain type of egg will repeal evil spirits as well as weird rituals involving killing chickens as blood spits into a cup with, he drinks and spits it out into a box. The film combines martial arts and sword play with magical rituals and incantations with Cheung uses eggs to repel. The zombie vampire ghost and Cheung get into a fight with funny crazy over the top comedic fight scenes with great martial arts, combined with comedy were the sorcerer needs water and stops so the zombie that is mimicking him stops. The fight then starts back up again Cheung throws blood on a zombie vampire ghost defeating him and sorcerer making him fly backwards into the roof. From this he ends up in a full body cast for comedy, Cheung then comes back to find his house destroyed, his wife missing and him being framed for murder, and they plan on exciting him. He then knocks the police out and escapes as he sleeps in a destroyed coffin next to a corpse which comes alive. The zombie acts as he does which, he comedically exploits to comedic effect as he tries to get the zombie to hit himself with a brick only for the zombie to hit him as a black cat awakens and the zombie fight him.
Cheung then traps himself with the zombie and the people who are after him until they all run into each other as he then meets Tsui who hides him in a coffin. Tsui takes Chung on as his disciple, as the evil Taoist priest uses magic to control him like voodoo leading to him causing a ruckus at the dinner with great fight scenes and slapstick comedy. His Taoist friend then stops the other priest leading to a martial arts sword fight in which their Taoist powers are used, he then gets the guards to try and kill or injury Cheung leading to a great fight with him dodging. His Taosit friend then stops them with voodoo as the other priest fights them as they escape, they find out Master Tam is behind this. Tsui initiates Cheung by drawing a talisman on his body, as then through incantation the villain’s eyes glows green and he congers up an evil spirit being a cloaked Skellington and its followers. The zombie vampire hosts descend on them as a fight scene happens. There is a good use of mysticism in the film with abouts such as a light form a mirror which is used to possess Cheung to find out what is happening from the zombie vampire ghost. They then challenge the evil priest in a alter magic duel that feels like a combination of a duel from a western, a duel from a samurai film and a sequence from an anime as they shoot magic and deflect it at each other. They then use the magic of the gods on each other to make the students fight each other, as they are possessed by animal spirts as a great fight scene happens which is funny as they sound like animals when they talk with the villain’s disciple defeated.
The evil priest Chin then uses his magical powers to possess. Tam in a fight against Cheung who kills him in a great fight scene as when all hopes is lost the priest uses his shoe to possess him and Cheung kills him. The two priests engage in an epic battle with Chin burning Tsui, Cheung ten cuts off the legs of Chins alters causing him to lose balance giving Tsui a chance to hit him with magical fire as Chin is set ablaze and falls of the later burning to death. Tsui however is also badly hurt and falls to his death. The film ends with Cheungs wife seeing everything that happened tries to get back together with him sating Tam was about to rape her, Cheung however knows she’s lying and punches her several times and throws her.
The cinematography in. the film is good. Most of the cinematography in the film is decent but nothing really to talk about. There are some great bits of cinematography throughout the film. there is a good use of dark lighting throughout the film and 70s style zooms. There is also a good use of bleu lighting and great sequence were there is rapped signal frame editing when a vampire zombie ghost is moving forward. There is also a good use of red and green lighting in the film.
There are special effects in the film a good in an enjoyable cheesy way. The film uses a cheesy Skellington arm and a puppet looking ghost which are cheesy effects that work well and fit the tone of the film. There is also good gory effect such as flesh being eaten as well as the ghost make up which is very cheesy but in a good way. The effects also include red nails for the ghosts and good ghost make up making their flesh look rotten. The ghosts extend their arms witch is a good effect which is used when they pull a guy through a mirror. There is also a good effect when the house crumbles down as well as a good look to the zombie vampires. The film also uses cheesy b movie customers in a fun and entertaining way, as well as a good use of string work with the zombie vampire ghosts flying. There is a god effect of a mirror that produces a green light as well as yellow blood coming for ma possessed person’s body.
Encounters of the spooky kind is a fun, entertaining, crazy film that nay fan of weird movies should watch.