Jui gwai chat hung

I just realized that I haven't watched an 80's movie in three weeks (for my "Revenge of the 80's Horror"-thread). And when I finally did pop one in..., I managed to watch this?!?! THE TRAIL is from the same man who brought us BRIDE OF CHUCKY, no less, and it's one from his earliest Hong Kong period. It could be loosely described as a horror-comedy mixed with that typical kung-fu/western-vibe. While A Chinese GHOST STORY is still the best movie in this field I've ever seen, THE TRAIL rattles and shakes from all sides, making it a less solid experience.

I even had difficulties figuring out exactly what kind of story this movie was trying to tell. I got the part about the oozing, leprosy-infested swamp-zombie out for revenge (and a nice creation he was, indeed). But it was harder to figure out what all the other characters where doing, running around in this movie. At one point they were smuggling opium, and the next they were after gold?? The humor in this film is often so dumb, it borders on slapstick. Yet still, it did provide some chuckles. The horror parts are played out right and are well dosed between all the other nonsense.

THE TRAIL is easy fodder and watches away nicely. Some nice looking sets and lighting with a distinct comic-book vibe. Some gooey and oh-so typical 80's effects. And a completely pointless and ridiculous final segment: All of the sudden, explicitly making fun of THE EXORCIST??? Boy, I really didn't see that one coming...

One remarkable thing though... I'm still scratching my head over the fact of how exactly Ronny Yu and his producers got away with this one: They lifted, ripped, stole (or call it whatever you want) a very recognizable part from John Carpenter's score (in collaboration with Ennio Morricone) for THE THING, and used it repeatedly throughout THE TRAIL... Left me baffled...

Pretty crazy flick, this one.

This is a dark comedy horror from Hong Kong, a story about a group of opium smugglers, disguised as Taoist Priests transporting hopping corpses, who is asked to transport a real corpse to its final resting place. However, they accidentally lose it in a pool of quicksand and it later resurrects into a vampire, going on a deadly rampage and attempting to avenge his death by finding his killer.

This film's cinematography was pretty dark and plot is quite fast-paced; we get into the vampire action fairly quickly. The acting was good, with some funny one-liners mixed in, courtesy of Kent Cheng. We unfortunately do not see the face of the vampire until the very end, but it does gives off that sense of suspense and intrigue of the unknown creature.

It's not as good as the later movies in the Mr. Vampire series or in the ghost comedy genre due to lack of character development and limited action, but it's a decent enough movie for a horror night.

Grade B-