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The Imp (1981)

Dir:: Dennis Yu

Cast: Charlie Chin
Kent Chang
Wah Ngok
Ching Wong

Later remade, this is the original 80's film from Director Dennis Yu and tells the tale of an unlucky man named Ah Keung who's Wife, Lan, is pregnant with their first child.

Keung has been trying to find a job to support his, soon to be growing, family without any luck. In fact luck I something he has never really had his whole life.
Then, when all seems lost Keung discovers a newspaper shoved under his door, confused at why it's there, as he does not subscribe to it, he opens it up. Suddenly a wind blows and turns the page over to a job ad for a Security Guard at a new, only partly rented out, shopping Mall. He gets the job and thinks his luck is finally changing.

He works with five other man, Uncle Han, Mr Hong Kong, Little Ting, Little Bo and Fatty (Kent Chang, a regular in many Hong Kong horror films). All goes well at first but then strange events occur, the lift he is in seems to go beyond the basement level and a green light and fog envelop him.
Terrified he tries to convince the others at what just happened but they do not believe him. Then Mr Hong Kong chokes on a bone while eating. He is rushed to Hospital (cue a nicely gory tracheotomy sequence) but during the operation he wakes up and lurches towards to Surgeon with a strange liquid spurting from his mouth. He collapses and dies.

During Mr Hong Kong's' burial, a Taoist Priest notices the men and he senses something wrong about Keung.
The Priest tells him that he was born at an unlucky time and that he has too much 'Yin' in his life. Yin is associated with everything dark, earthy and Female.
Yin and Yang must be in harmony or bad luck can follow.
And it does.

Lan has gone very pale, is acting sinister, and has re-arranged the house for bad luck Feng Shui (where placement of buildings and objects can change destiny), Keung hears creepy laughing in the Mall at night, more disaster's strike and all seems to be going horribly wrong.

Then the Priest tells Keung that the evil spirit of a child murdered in the mall (which Keung finds out was once used as a hideout for a gang of child kidnappers and murderers) has chosen him to help it's reincarnation, and it's plans involve Keungs unborn child…

Very slow in it's pacing and bereft of any real energy in its many dialogue heavy scenes, "The Imp" is a very 'old school' type of Hong Kong horror movie.
After an intriguing start the film bogs down in too many shoddily handled plot explanation set ups that sap the genuinely creepy atmosphere built up in it's supernatural sequences. Which is a shame, as the film has some good stuff buried in the heap of pedestrian scenes that make up too much of the overly long running time.

The deaths are a curious mixture of the grizzly (the choking and operation demise, which is a terrific jolt) and the laughable.
An example of the latter is when one character is smothered to death by a flying page of wet newspaper! Much terrified moans accompany the unintentionally comic scene of a grown man desperately trying to rip said wet paper off his face.
A mist en-shrouded death in a car is more successful and is handled in such a bizarre way (the car vanishes in the mist only to have it clear and the vehicle suddenly plummet earthwards all smashed up) that you just have to smile at the unique imagination of Hong Kong film makers.

We also have some well staged scenes with the creepy ghost child who, in one expertly designed sequence appears on top of a lake that's covered in flames in a barren landscape illuminated by dozens of fires, is an effectively unnerving creation that helps the dark atmosphere of the movie no end.

Yu (who also Directed "Evil Cat" and the semi notorious cult flick "Flesh and the Bloody Terror") goes to town on these sequences and even throws in some highly effective, blood drooling Zombies, but seems bored with the rest of the plot.
A plot that is also very Chinese. The aforementioned Yin and Yang and Feng Shui play major parts in the story, but their explanations strike home as more of a school lesson than horror movie dialogue. Some of the references are also obscure to Western viewers.
For example, when Keung suddenly attacks the kitchen stove much head scratching will occur unless you know that to the Chinese a stove represents the womb and his attack is an attempt to hurt the fetus he is convinced will be possessed by the spirit.
The Chinese elements of the story are better served in great sequence where (in a big cultural difference to the methods used in such Western movies as "The Exorcist") the Taoist Priest attempts to defeat the spirit with chants, much striking of poses with his magic sword and strategically placed spells on, that essential ingredient of Hong Kong supernatural cinema, pieces of yellow paper.

Another plus is the finale, which goes the way most American movies would never even contemplate, but it's not enough. Some good parts do not, in this case, add up to a satisfactory whole.
Worth a look to see a familiar plot told from an Asian perspective, but expect a lot of blandness between the frights.