Hung bong

"The Imp" was made by Hong Kong film-maker Dennis Yu,who also directed nasty "I Spit on Your Grave" rip-off "Flesh and the Bloody Terror"/"Beasts"(1980).The film is extremely creepy and offers some wonderful visuals.There is a distinct air of claustrophobia and impending doom over the entire film.The final scene is extremely disturbing."The Imp" is filled with truly chilling and ominous atmosphere,so fans of atmospheric horror won't be disappointed.There is almost no gore,but the zombies/evil spirits are very creepy.Highly recommended.

I have no issue with movies that to one degree or another take their time to progress. Indeed, as abnormal occurrences increase throughout the length in this case, there's perhaps a thin sense of plot development until about halfway through the length. In the meantime, however, 'The imp' is still suitably well made and engaging, and only ever more so. Overseen by director Dennis Yu, the production makes excellent use of lighting, effects, and cinematography to fashion an unnerving ambience. Aided by an enjoyable, tense original score, the picture ably crafts a measure of atmosphere through each successive scene of odd goings-on, and to that end the production design and art direction are splendid, too. Not everything comes off quite as well; the second death scene reminds so much of modern B-flicks like 'Slaxx' that I had to suppress the urge to laugh. For any peculiarities that may present, though, far more so than not I think this is a great bit of fun.

Plenty of horror movies around the world play fast and loose with various systems of belief to help build the stories they tell. Maybe it shows my lack of knowledge of Chinese or Hong Kong cinema, but I feel like feng shui, yin and yang, and other aspects of Chinese mysticism and folk lore have been employed to such ends much more rarely. This title, however, is full of it, genuinely and sincerely; no matter how earnest other features may be in exploring superstitions, the treatment here nonetheless feels like a breath of fresh air. With that said, somewhere between the writing, direction, and perhaps the editing there's sometimes a feeling of directness in the progression of the course of events that makes one aware of our suspension of disbelief; some scenes, story beats, and character relationships appear to be Just So as they present. Again, however, this seems more like a quirk than an outright flaw, for by and large the screenplay strikes me quite strong - cohesive, complete, and fairly compelling.

One might reasonably argue that 'The imp' spreads itself a little thin at times, becoming unfocused. It should be reiterated, too, that the film distinctly paces itself: for as much as the movie plays with supernatural horror - evil spirits, unnatural violence, and death - not until the climax does it achieve such a major peak of vibrancy as we expect from the genre. Yet for all that is done well here, including costume design, hair and makeup, blood, sound design, and more, the feature unquestionably builds a pervasive air of mounting dread and unease. At large the production seems relatively straightforward and low-key, without the same tendency toward special effects and utmost visualization that is common to American or European genre fare. It says much, however, that this manages to deftly navigate and inhabit the same spaces without the same premier advantages. When all is said and done, I rather think that I would stand 'The imp' next to its international brethren without any reservations, for it very successfully accomplishes the same desired extremes of the cinematic experience.

With complements to the filmmaker, cast, and crew, I wasn't sure what to anticipate when I first sat to watch, but this proves itself over these 95 minutes. More than worthy enough of its own merits, in my mind it earns favor as well for broaching topical areas that aren't often touched upon in genre flicks. In whatever way you're able to watch it, as far as I'm concerned 'The imp' is a terrific, engrossing slice of horror that deserves more recognition. Two thumbs up from me!

Proud husband and father-to-be Cheung Ging-Keung (Charlie Chin) is determined not to rely on his businessman father-in-law for employment; instead he takes a job as a night watchman at an industrial complex that, unbeknown to him, is home to a malevolent spirit who plans to be reincarnated as his son. A Taoist priest warns Cheung of the danger that he and his family are in and tells him that his only hope is to go to his workplace and banish the spirit before dawn by placing a magical talisman on the navel of the spirit's corpse. Of course, doing so ain't that easy…

80s Hong Kong horror movies appeal to me because they are often so unlike anything that Western cinema can offer, delivering the weird and the wacky in spades. Unfortunately, The Imp, from director Dennis Yu, is nowhere near the most original nor the craziest Asian horror flick I have seen (that would really take some doing), offering up only a few mildly bonkers moments amidst an excess of smoke, strong green lighting and things randomly bursting into flames, whilst playing out at a frustratingly measured pace with a surprisingly serious tone. To be honest, there's barely enough of the wacky stuff to make it worthwhile for fans of Asian madness.

The best that the film can offer is a guy choking on a bone while eating dog soup, with the consequent operation on the aforementioned man providing most of what little gore there is, plus a couple of other random supernatural deaths, including one guy being suffocated by a newspaper(!), and another bloke named Fatty being waylaid by supernatural fog before getting burned in his car. Towards the end of the film, Yu picks up the tempo a tad, chucking in a few cruddy zombies, and ends proceedings on a unexpectedly downbeat note.

For me, however, the strangest (and therefore most memorable) sight is that of Fatty sporting his bright red, English slogan t-shirts: the first has the somewhat perplexing phrase 'Am I A Girl?' written on it in big white letters, while the second one exclaims 'No! I Am A Man'. Now that is weird!

This film is not all that good, most of the chills are only on the hammy face of the protagonist, a half-baked actor, as he wonders around his workplace at night hearing strange noises and seeing wisps of smoke. NOT one of the better Hong Kong horror films from the pre-communist era, don't bother unless you're bored.

Taking a job as a security guard, a man working in a cursed department store finds that a series of strange events plaguing the area after his arrival is tied to a deadly curse on him and must resort to increasingly mystical means in order to save himself and his family.

This one was quite the enjoyable and creepy effort. One of the film's greatest attributes is the fact that there's quite a lot of rather creepy and rather inventive methods here to drive home the general storyline involved here. There's a great deal of work here in the first half where it's a steady stream of rather chilling incidents throughout here, from the mention of the worker carving up the boss that allows for his entry into the company, the exceptionally creepy elevator ride into the basement which floods with water and opens up to a darkened basement with a creepy relic below only to all mysteriously vanish on the ride up with no trace it was ever there and the bizarre incident of the one worker choking on a chicken bone in his cornmeal. All of these are rather fun scenes that get by alongside the striking imagery used to denote the demonic presence in the building, ranging from bright ornate colors against the drab surfaces to the fog continually filtering through the room which really gives this one a rather creepy atmosphere. Connecting all of this to the possession angle and all he needs to do in order to banish the spirits out makes this one quite promising leading into the striking finale which is where this one really gets frantic and thrilling. From the creepy encounter in the car on the road away from the store to the various black magic rituals that the shaman undertakes in battling the spirits and finally to the big encounter in the hospital parking lot with the ghosts while his wife is there giving birth under the guise of protecting her from the final stages of the possession, this is frantic and thrilling supernatural-influenced action which ends this on a rather positive note. Although these here are quite enjoyable, there are a few issues to be had with this one. The main issue is the fact that there's never once any believable reason why anything happens here. A lot of the story is based on the mysticism and folklore of the country which doesn't make for a coherent narrative to follow along in here as failing to understand why anything is happening is a crucial matter of this one. This extends to a few of the plotpoints in here as not only is there no reason for why he needs to be at the place to begin with, a fact brought up by the characters themselves and never answered, but a lot of the actions within here make no sense and there's a distressing lack of explanations for much of what goes on here. The only other minor point here is the dull periods in the middle which consist of him just going around looking for answers and there's not a whole lot of action going on here with this one being a little too dragged out with all the different elements going on to really hamper the pacing. Otherwise, there's not much else wrong here.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.