Mr Vampire ll is a 1986 Hong Kong comedy horror film directed by Ricky Lau starring Yuen Biao, Moon Lee and Lam-Ching-ying. The film centres around an archaeologist that discovers a trio of zombie vampires and hope to profit from there discovery. However, after they are revived, they try, and archaeologists try and fail to kill them resulting in their escape. Mr Vampire ll is a fun film and a worthy sequel to the original.
The direction in the film is good. The direction has a classic horror Movie setup combined with comedy with the set-up of the cave. The film uses slapstick physical comedy combined with classic horror elements as shown with the set up with the dead body. The zombie vampire children then introduced with a talisman covering his face, the film is good at giving an unusually sense of normality with the zombie vampires being shown in the professor’s home. The film has an element of innocence comedy to it with the vampire zombie child being cute and the professor’s assistance clowning around with a corpse. Despite being a comedy, the horror tension is real. The scenes in the film have a natural comedic flow to them as he tries to put on talisman on two vampires the film cleverly uses its own implemented rules by putting a talisman on themselves in veery classic comedy move. Despite their inherent goofiness the fight scenes are great crazy and over the top. The kids then talk about the zombie vampire child is cute and adds a bit of heart to the film leading to the film’s whimsical nature. There is cuteness of her helping the vampire into their house as instead of the original the ghost powers in this film have aa whimsical nature to them. The film very much feels like a kid’s movie there is very much a comedic nature to it as they dress him up and take him around the park for comedic effect like a kid coming of age movie. There is attention to the film as they unwrap the vampire, they position the vampires in such a way when they take their photo to look the there killing them. The film almost acts like a piss take of itself as it doesn’t take itself seriously but when he takes the picture it becomes an actual strangulation as the film has a silent comedy style. There is a scene were hops behind the zombie vampire following him like a silent film as there are other comedy scene like a slow-motion fight a scene and another good scene with corpses in a morgue which has good horror atmosphere.
The acting in the film is good. Chung Fat does a good job as Kwok Tun-wong the elderly aerologist that discovers the vampires. Billy Lau does a good job as Chicken and Ka Lee does a good job as Sashimi Kwoks students that acts like comedy sidekicks. Agassi Wang does a good job as the female adult vampire and Cheung Wing-cheung male adult vampire as somewhat sympatric characters that are looking for their son. Hoh To-wai does a good job as the boy’s vampire innocent kids detached from his parents. Hon To-yue does a good job as Chia-chia a girl that befriends the vampire boy. Choi Man-gam does a good job as Chia-chias brother and Bowie Wu does a good job as Mr Hu Chia-chia’s father.
The writing in the film is good the film has a classic horror movie set of archaeologists looking for treasure and finding a plate that says made in Hong Kong. They remove gold teeth from a skull and find a ring and open a tomb. The zombie vampire child is introduced with a talisman covering their face as they take the zombie vampires back home. Later, in the film the zombie child comes back to life when they drive him around in their van and the talisman blows off as their desire is to make money of the corpses. There is lots of comedy in the film with the child dancing to the music and turns of the radio and when they notice each other they get scared. The talisman comes of the female vampire as she stalks one of the characters around as they film also shows a lot of comedy elements such as the vampire playing with the light. A character then puts the talisman on and off the vampires at alternative time as the silent comedy is everywhere with the characters walking in a box then stopping. There is genuine tension in the film mixed with comedy as when they tie the vampire to the wall it is a genuinely funny scene. Family dynamics are sown throughout with the zombie vampire child very much acting like accidently leading to the comedy, as the theme of the film seems to be about lost children and people with nowhere to go. The kids then befriend the zombie vampire child as it shows of its magic powers by floating the toys as they negotiate him into the gang like a kid’s film. As this is going in the researchers and the others remove the talismans as the vampires attack them. Chemicals are then smashed making everyone slow as they run away with the vampires chasing after them in slow motion, as the ultimately knocks out the girl with a hammer trying to fight the zombie vampires who strangles the girl as he breaks his metal steak on her foot they try to run away slowly as they make the zombie vampires drink chemicals. Later, they break into the morgue to destroy the zombie vampires and in a comedic twist can’t stab the corpse because its frozen. The professor and his students then steal the courses as the priest and his helper steal their van with them inside. They then escape the truck and try not kill the vampires by setting fire to the truck, but they escape. The dad finds out about the vampire kid his children have been harbouring as the adult vampires come in to get the kid. When the kids save the vampires the from a sort of friendship with one another as the police try and track them down. The vampire hunters then go into the house and fight and stab the female vampire as well as blowing up their greenhouse with the vampire inside. The film ends with them taking the vampire boy away as they are chased by another vampire.
Most of the cinematography in the film is although not incredible works just fine. There are some good physical comedy gags that are helped with the camerawork such as the vampire child waking up to next to the two people in the car and they don’t seem to notice. There is also a good shot of the POV of the vampire looking through a create and a good use of blue lighting in the film. The special effects in the film are good in an 80s cheesy entertaining way. The look of the zombie child with his clothing and white makeup is cheesy but works with the style. There are good practical effects with the vampire bite, there is a good use of string work with the zombie vampires seemly having the force, as well as cool 80s lighting effects on the sword.
Overall Mr Vampire ll is a fun entertaining film. The film works well as a sequel and acts as a good entry in the Mr Vampire film series.
