Starring Ai Fei, Huang Chin-Shen, Lily Chan Lee-Lee, Fanny, and Hussein Hassan. Written by Sze-To On. Directed by Kuei Chih-Hung. Produced by Mona Fong. A Shaw Brothers production.
Stephen Lam (Fei) is arrested for the murder of his daughter, admits to driving a nine-inch nail through her head, is found guilty, and afterwards asks Bobby (Chin-Shen), the policeman overseeing the case, to listen to his story, swearing that it was Thai witchcraft that compelled him to do what he did. Intrigued, Bobby looks into these claims and is soon the target of black magic rituals himself.
An extended flashback reveals how Stephen went on holiday to Thailand, had relations with a local woman called Bon Brown (Lee-Lee), returned to Hong Kong and promptly disregarded his promise to return to her, prompting the woman to seek supernatural revenge via Magusu, an evil spell-caster (Hassan).
We’re soon witnessing various rituals, including a ceremony invoking a Vegetable Basket Spirit, which is enacted in silence and stillness, helping the scene to stand out when compared to the usual hectic, noisy rituals seen in most Hong Kong horror films. There’s also a grisly sequence in a temple mortuary, where the chanting Magusu sticks a spike into the foot of a dead pregnant woman to make her sit up, then uses a candle to make oil drip from the fake-but-grotesque corpse’s nostrils. Yet another novel instance of weird witchcraft involves the dark sorcerer burying a needle-transfixed lemon under the tarmac of a street: every time a pedestrian steps on the buried object it triggers stabbing pains in Bobby’s chest!
The standout supernatural sequence, however, is the remotely-fought confrontation between Magusu and a Buddhist monk. Director Chi-Hung nicely contrasts the bright, clean, expansive look of the monk’s Thai temple with the sorcerer’s dimly-lit, shuttered shrine room, as the two men utilise different arcane methods to counteract each other’s mystical might. With Magusu’s veins filling with green gunk, the black magician prays to a bat effigy on the wall, which becomes a ‘real’ bat creature that flies off and kamikazes into the monk’s ceremonial fan to wreck his ritual! This whole duel of mystic men is really well-handled.
When the film’s finale comes, it is reliant on the sudden, handy intervention of the monk at an airport. The monk causes Magusu to become all slimy and develop blisters, which inflate like balloons and pop…
…and then, somehow, the monk makes Magusu transform into an old woman…
…and then… a bat-creature puppet crawls from the old crone’s mouth!
The monk proceeds to pick up the (rather sweet-looking) bat and slip the lil’ critter into his pocket. End of story! This is a brilliantly bizarre finish to the film, utilising garishly fun, lo-fi effects, that drives home the fact that BEWITCHED is a continually diverting, enjoyable, and colourful Shaw Brothers horror yarn.
Monster Zone 