Bewitched (1981) Movie Review

Fans of Shaw Brothers horror and indeed of wild exploitation cinema in general have a real reason to celebrate with the release of the long sought after “Bewitched”. Directed by the legendary Kuei Chih Hung, who gave the studio a number of morally reprehensible genre classics such as “Killer Snakes”, “Corpse Mania” and “Hex”, the film serves as a prequel of sorts to his immortal “The Boxer’s Omen”, possibly the greatest, craziest black magic extravaganza of all time. Whilst “Bewitched” doesn’t quite attain the same level of gruesome insanity of its successor, it still serves up a high quotient of grotesque thrills, marking it as one of the best in the sleazy sorcery subgenre and as an absolute must see for all fans of the form.

The film starts in shocking fashion as a family’s countryside picnic is overrun by ants, leading to the discovery of a dead six year old girl with a long spike driven into her head. Bobby, the pipe-smoking officer in charge of the case (played by Melvin Wong, also in Tsui Hark’s “We are Going to Eat You” and Billy Tang’s category III classic “Run and Kill”), soon tracks down the culprit, who turns out to be Lin (Ai Fei, who featured in a number of Shaw productions, including “Bat Without Wings” and “Innocent Lust”), the girl’s own father. Despite claiming that he was under the influence of an evil spell, the poor man is sentenced to death. Soon after, he summons Bobby to his cell to tell his tale, which as usual revolves around a trip to Thailand and an unwise dalliance with a local girl, who rewarded his seedy ways by asking an evil wizard to place a curse on him. As Bobby heads to Thailand to get to the bottom of things, he comes to believe Lin’s sad story, and enlists the help of a priest to try and break the spell. Unfortunately, in doing so he too becomes a target himself and soon finds his life threatened by the foulest of black magic.

Along with his fellow Shaw Brothers shock master Ho Meng Hua, nobody does black magic like Kuei Chih Hung, and “Bewitched” has everything the genre fan could wish for, packing in plenty of exotic travel footage (as usual working around the xenophobic assumption that Thailand is a hotbed of sinister sorcery where everyone seems to know their friendly local evil wizard), maggots, putrid corpses and much, much more. In fact, the film is a virtual encyclopaedia of nasty spells – from the self explanatory worm spell, split head spell and others, through to the innocuous sounding but vicious lemon spell. All of these are proudly announced on screen, coming complete with graphic depictions of their ingredients, preparation and results. As such the film can be seen as an educational experience, and even the most dedicated genre fan is bound to learn something new. Certainly, only viewers with strong stomachs need apply, as Kuei manages to work in some truly nauseating sights, revelling in every possible unpleasant detail with considerable glee. He also throws in lots of nudity, with one noteworthy sequence offering an incredibly long slow motion shot of bouncy topless beach running, followed by some frolicking in the waves and groping in the surf which isn’t exactly “From Here to Eternity”. These and other similar scenes give the film an even more sordid feel, which of course makes it all the more entertaining, albeit in a rather depraved fashion.

The story is engrossing, not due its unsympathetic characters or to Bobby’s slow witted investigation, but since the viewer is eager to see the next disgusting spell. Certainly, it is hard to feel sorry for Lin, whose trip to Thailand seems to have been exclusively to go whoring, and who immediately assumes that the women he meets there are prostitutes – though this is in part due to an unfortunate misunderstanding resulting from an attempt to mime out the profession of typist, which he naturally confuses with that of massage girl. This is by no means a criticism, as to be honest the characters in this kind of film are necessarily disposable in the worst possible way.

At the same time, the film is well made, with Kuei utilising weird colours and discordant music to drum up an other worldly atmosphere, effectively keeping the viewer on edge with the constant threat of surreal and unpredictable developments as black magic again and again shatters the rational peace of the modern world. There are a number of tense and exciting spell duels, particularly towards the end, and the film benefits from a fast, thrilling pace, with very little time wasted on trifling matters such as character development. Possibly best and most amusing of all is the fact that the film ends with a sombre statement which informs the viewer that it has actually been a moral lesson designed to admonish people against casual sex, and of course, to avoid witchcraft – a valuable warning indeed.

All of this adds up to make “Bewitched” a highly entertaining film which again shows why Kuei Chih Hung is held in such high esteem by fans of far out trash cinema. Offering a cavalcade of gore and grue, it demands to be seen not only by genre aficionados, but by anyone who mistakenly believes that all Asian horror revolves around long haired female ghosts.

Chih-Hung Kwei (director) / On Sito (screenplay)
CAST: Hussin Bin Abu Hassan … Exorcist priest
Fei Ai, Lap Ban Chan, Lily Chan, Miao Ching, Piao Chin, Kwok-Kwong Choi, Kin Ping Chow