BEWITCHED (1981) **
A man is arrested for murdering his daughter. At his trial, he claims a witch put a spell on him and he’s promptly sentenced to hang. Before the execution, he tells a detective how it all happened. He was visiting Thailand and picked up a girl thinking she was a prostitute. When he returned home to his family, strange things started happening. His daughter began sleepwalking and ate raw pork liver. Then he became impotent and weird shit started growing on his chest. He thought the only way to stop it was to kill his daughter. The cop is intrigued and sets out to check on the guy’s story. Pretty soon, he comes under a magic spell too.
The opening sequences are fast paced. Director Kuei (Corpse Mania) Chih-Hung does a great job at cutting all the fat from the police investigation and being like Joe Friday, giving us just the facts. (He also gives us a great slow motion scene where the topless witch frolics on the beach.) Once he introduces the supernatural elements into the film, things get awful sluggish. The scenes of the various voodoo ceremonies aren’t exactly scary and are really drawn out. The battles between the good and evil monks locked in mortal combat are pretty lame and the use of flashing lights and endless chanting gets repetitive after a while.
There’s still some good stuff here. We get people with green goo shooting out of their faces, a mummified man oozing glop all over, and ghoulish nurses with crusty faces going crazy. These moments are ever so brief and it makes you wish that Chi-Hung had played up these elements more. He returned two years later with a sequel, The Boxer’s Omen, which was a lot crazier and much more entertaining.