Corpse Mania

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Corpse Mania; here's the breakdown of my ratings:

Story: 1.50 Direction: 1.25 Pace: 1.25 Acting: 1.25 Enjoyment: 1.25

TOTAL: 6.50 out of 10

Scolecipobics and Necrophobics beware of this picture. I hope the cadavers in this movie weren't actresses lying still. If they were, then you have my heartfelt respect. To be covered in so many crawling maggots as they twitched and skimmed the hairs on your body: Urgh!

What Corpse Mania possesses in its story is an evolving and unfolding murder mystery. I would hasten to add that it's one of the best I've seen. It works brilliantly to keep your curiosity circulating through your brain as you try to deduce, before the detective, who is the demented killer. What's more, the clues are there - along with a plethora of red herrings. Sadly, the story stales around midway, and my attention drifted - Though only slightly. I was back to being fully immersed for the climactic reveal, which I'd only gotten half correct. Damn, my deductive skills are slipping.

This dark thriller does contain some wince-inducing imagery. Enter slick bluish-skinned naked women covered in maggots. Alone, that is awful enough, but they then add the necrophilia element into the mix. If these scenes don't chill the morrow in your bones, I think you should go and see somebody. However, it's Chih-Hung Kuei that makes these frightful scenes more frightening by adding soft focus, subdued lighting, and empathic colours, which gives them a sense of elegance and grandeur, especially in the corpse washing section. And that only adds to your uneasiness. Kuei lets the story unfold at a steady pace, which is ideal for this type of tale. It allows the audience plenty of time to take in the facts and the gory details.

The cast, on the whole, is excellently suited to their characters. The one exception is Master Li, though I suspect that is down more to the writing than the actor's performance. It would have been nice to have more background on Master Li and his motives for wanting to free the prostitutes. It would have given the actor more to put into his performance. At the moment, he's cold and mysterious, which isn't a terrible thing. But the poor old actor just sits around looking bored. He needed more fire in those eyes. When you see Master Li, you see a bloke who's laidback to the point of being horizontal. He doesn't appear to possess the energy or the motive to carry out these acts. I wanted more from our alleged madman fetishist.

I would happily recommend Corpse Mania to all dark thriller fans around the globe. And, I hope your little grey cells fire better than mine did on the day.

Please feel free to visit my Killer Thriller Chiller and The Game Is Afoot lists to see where I ranked Corpse Mania.

Take Care & Stay Well.

You know... When i say i want a Mystery this is what i mean... Mysteries like Se7en and Manhunter are horrible, because there's nothing going on. This is a movie that actually has something always going on, and you it's fascinating and interesting. If Nekromantik and Guinea Pig & Guinea Pig 5 had a baby, this movie would be it.

I can say that the ending was unexpected! I though Master Li was the killer the whole time! The ending was completely off guard! The acting is for the most part good, some of the scenes in this movie look incredible. There were 3 or 4 scenes in this movie that just look beautiful.

The story is a serial killer that's also has paraphilic disorder, strikes again, and then the law is trying to capture him. However, the way the movie is structured, the way it just turns 360 degrees like MARTYRS, and actually keeps you going, is a miracle. I can not say that there was anything boring during this whole movie!

If you are into serial killer mysteries stuff like THE UNTOLD STORY, ROSARY MURDERS, ANGST, HENRY PORT. OF SERIAL KILLER, BEDEVILLED, EBOLA SYNDROME, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and PEEPING TOM, and sure GUINEA PIG films, because there are elements in this that remind me of that franchise, this is in your BOAT.

"Corpse Mania" is a Hong Kong giallo. As such, it features a masked killer, blood like red paint, and stylish photography.

Unfortunately, and typically for HK genre flicks, this one also features a hard-to-follow plot, murky characterisation and too much dialogue. The only times it really got my attention were particularly well photographed moments using light and shadow. At times, it's like a photography book come to life.

The movie is called "Corpse Mania" presumably as a reference to its killer's necrophilia. There is only one scene of this, which is nowhere near as repulsive as it could have been, mostly because the "corpse" in the scene is clearly an actress pretending to be dead.

Also, like apparently all HK horror flicks, this one features an abundance of creepy crawlies. At least in this case they don't spew forth from people's mouths like they did in "Seeding of a Ghost" and "Centipede Demon".

CORPSE MANIA (1981, original title Shi yao) is a rare Asian attempt at a giallo, although it starts off as something entirely else. It was made by Shaw Brothers, the Hong Kong studio best known for their kung fu epics, although they knocked out a fair few atmospheric and very grisly horrors in the early 1980s and this is certainly one of them. It starts off with a true crime feel, as a husband's love for his wife carries on after her death...Grisly stuff for sure, a mix of queasy necrophile love scenes and copious maggotry, so only strong stomachs need apply here.

Thankfully things soon take a different turn, with a killer wielding a massive knife and wearing a blue gown, black hat, sunglasses and white scarf works his way through folk associated with a busy brothel. BLOOD & BLACK LACE seems a key inspiration here, but the film has an atmosphere all of its own, and the murders are grisly enough to satisfy ardent horror lovers. Not one of Shaw's best horrors, but watchable all the same if you like seeing the inspirations.

Following the discovery of a dead body, a police inspector realizes the similarities to a case from a neighboring village and travels there to conduct his investigation where he falls into the plot of a vicious killer conducting a killing spree against a local whorehouse and must stop it.

Overall, this one has plenty to recommend about it. The movie's at its best when dealing with the abundant and grimy sleaze packed into it. The very nature of a killer running around defiling bodies and committing necrophilic acts on those bodies is quite unsettling from the very start, and doing as many detailed shots of the body's being examined while absolutely crawling with maggots and worms is absolutely revolting. That the girls are nude in this manner while covered in such a nausea-inducing state makes for a queasy experience which is suitably matched by the scenes caressing the naked bodies in the morgue in an almost orgasmic manner to really get an uneasy feeling about the material present. The extended close-ups and panning shots along the body showing the insects crawling out of the orifices or simply congealed on the various points present with the rotting, desiccated skin underneath creates even more disgust and grime within here, and helps to provide the appropriately dirty air throughout with the revolting concept being equaled by their realistic execution. Another suitably strong aspect here is the melding of the grimy atmosphere with the storyline. The inclusion of elements from the giallo and krimi genres, especially the policeman's dominance of the first half conducting an investigation into the crimes and setting the events around a whorehouse playing major roles in the film. From the first attack on the security guard on patrol to the excellent ambush inside a car outside the whorehouse and then the big dual attack at the chicken farm nearby that offers two different attacks inside, there's plenty of strong action scenes throughout here. With the finale taking place in the upper realms of the whorehouse with a fun attack and chase scene giving this one lot of great gore and fun at the ending, these manage to hold it up rather nicely. There are a few minor issues with this one. The biggest problem to be had is the rather flat and sedate pacing that runs throughout the first half, as the scenes not focusing on his investigation tend to be quite bland with the focus on the whorehouse and their inner workings, which aren't in the least bit interesting. Watching how they entertain guests, the behind-the-scenes struggles trying to keep the sickly performer healthy and the various bits of comic relief trying to get inside the building don't have much of any interest as it drops the necrophile angle in favor of these investigations singling out the individual we all know is the killer. That aspect also manages to hold the later half back since the main focus here turns away from these aspects to turn to the slasher scenes and investigations. With the revelations and double-crosses in this section emerging into far more convoluted scenarios than necessary, this half of the film is a lot more underwhelming than it really should be.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Full Nudity and explicit themes of necrophilia.