arispull

I saw this one in the cinema because the story and trailer intrigued me. A made-in-Japan zombie virus lands on Thai shores during World War II, so the Japanese and Thai army have to contain the threat and keep it under cover at any cost. There is enough war action and some interesting set pieces (tropical beach, jungle, cave etc.), plus good portions of blood and gore, which was a nice surprise. However, as usual with Thai movies, a lot of unnecessary melodrama kicks in and it's made worse from the fact that the zombie ghouls...speak and weep for their families and loved ones... As a result, it's not as good as the previous Thai zombie film I'd seen (The Black Death from 2015), but it still has some interesting zombie mayhem moments to offer. As an extra note, the director started as part of the 'Ronin Team', responsible for the black magic horror classics Art Of The Devil 2&3, so he shows a taste for blood and gore in this offering as well. And it's not a zomedy, which is a good thing.

This was in fact the veteran director's last film. It doesn't reach the macabre quality of his classic horror films for the Shaw Studios (Black Magic 1&2, The Oily Maniac) but echoes them in a 90s Cat. III way. A young guy from Hong Kong travels to Chiang Mai, Thailand, to learn black magic spells from a local wizard. He soon abuses this dark art, and the conclusion brings divine justice.

The horror elements are not that strong in the movie but we still see several macabre black magic spells, snakes, centipedes, magic battles, a female zombie and other things (like a small army of magical dwarfs!). On the other hand, the emphasis is on the exploitation angle, since there is nudity abound. Not a masterpiece but again it delivers the goods, especially for those into Asian black magic horror films and Cat. III cinema in general.