Wu gong zhou

There are at least 3 different films being reviewed here! Some guy is reviewing 'Begotten', a majority of people are reviewing The Most Disturbing Film In The Universe (which I thought I was downloading after scanning a couple of the reviews), and a sanity-restoring few are reviewing the flick I just saw. A nice 80s Hong Kong black magic romp, with some gross out live centipede barfing at the end nicely rounding things off. It may not have been the disturbing nightmare I was anticipating, but this altogether different prospect was highly enjoyable, I thought, if pretty standard fare. Also of note, there is a great bit of moody 80s synthesizer work in here, which sounds awfully familiar to something from El-p's 'Fantastic Damage' album! OK, after some more digging, I think some people are reviewing Takashi Miike's segment of Masters Of Horror, called 'Imprint'. Others are reviewing 'Cutting Moments'. However, there is still one that is eluding me, which appears to be a HK 80s horror: wizards, decapitation, transformation etc. What the hell is this film?

I've been hunting this one for years, I mean, the real stuff. It's easy to obtain as a download but I wanted the VHS. It never had a proper release and is only available on Japanese VHS. Even then it's hard to find and when you do you will have to pay over 100$ or more. Was it worth that hard earned cash, because some love it but most of the geeks hate it. Luckily I didn't hate it. It wasn't that gory as I expected but still it do delivers. First of all what I was surprised of was that it had some full frontal nudity without the blurred pubic hair so typical for Japanese flicks. It is offending in their believe to show the genitals. But here they were all in tact. The centipede's do attack and there were no effects used, it was the real stuff. Real animals were used and by saying that there is even some animal cruelty by skinning a chicken alive, once done she's decapitated so for animal lovers, leave this flick on the shelves. If you can't take flicks about wizards and voodoo stuff or doesn't really like Eastern flicks again don't watch it. Some scene's are indeed not for the squeamish, for example the vomiting scene's were a girls vomits centipedes who are alive. Nevertheless, strange flick, glad I found it finally after years of searching. And some effects are indeed passé but don't be annoyed by that. Low on gore or blood but high on weirdness.

Kai-lum has recently returned from Canada to Hong Kong, finding his sister struck by a horrible unknown disease after she visits "Southeast Asia". Kai-lum investigates and finds it has something to do with a seedy looking character in need of either a haircut and shave or a better make-up artist. Kai-lum drags along his gal, Chee, in search of the truth and finds that his deceased grandpa was involved in some nasty doings. A spirit man now seeks revenge on all in grandpa's family, including Kai-lum. The old conjurer has a special bad spell which inflicts death by huge, Southeast Asian centipedes. Can Kai-lum defeat the evil sorcerer with the help of his chanting Buddhist monk pals, or will he need even more powerful help from Shao-lin kung fu mystics (also in need of better wigs and fake beards) to defeat the evil magic man?? I ain't gonna tell you. Chock full of Southeast Asian weirdness and gross out fights with bugs. Only if you enjoy off-beat Hong Kong flicks.

I'd heard some really bad things about this film before going into it; but decided to see it anyway simply because it sounded like it could be good; and since Centipedes are one of the most horrific creatures alive, the film had quite a good chance. The people that have seen this film seem to be divided into two camps; some say it's disgusting and disturbing, while others say it's boring - almost like they've seen two different films! Unfortunately, I saw the boring one. The plot focuses on a wizard who decides to take revenge against a young girl who is wearing a necklace that apparently belonged to some old adversary. He takes revenge by having her cough up a load of centipedes, and after her death; her brother decides to investigate. I'm not all that well versed in Asian cinema, but I gather this is a part of some vomiting sub-genre; and that's a sub-genre I can't see myself seeing much more of. The only real disturbing scenes in the film are the ones that involve people vomiting centipedes; and once you've seen it, you don't really need to see it again. The plot is frankly dull, meaning the film has little in the way of interest or value. Centipede Horror is a rather rare film, and as such I would advise most people to do what they would do with actual centipedes; stay well away.

I write this comment almost 12 days after watching this movie and still there is a sense of discomfort about this movie, when I think of the way it ended. Very frankly "Centipede Horror" freaked me out. Seen a lot of Din Long Lee (Hong Kong Police Madame 3) vehicles, but this one, Dang!!!! really put me off. First of all the movie is paced so slowly that it kinds of puts off track and then last 30 minutes just blows you off, with a last few scenes taking the cake. This in no way can be described as a family picture, rather, it is a movie for psychos whose time might be better spent getting their noggins looked at. With decent acting from all of them. I give this one nevertheless a 0/10 just for sheer bad vibes...

Steer clear.