CENTIPEDE HORROR

A young woman tells her brother that she is going to south east asia for vacation. Her brother (Kirk Miu) reminds her that their grandfather had always warned them never to go there, but she is determined. She is attacked by centipedes the first week there, and later dies in the hospital, covered in festering, pus-filled boils.

Her brother is convinced that something isn't right (i wonder how he figured that out?) and begins to investigate. He Eventually discovers that his sister fell victim of a centipede curse, a very powerfull curse that only a few magicians can do. He also finds out why his grandfather forbade him and his sister from traveling to S.E. Asia, it turns out that he "accidently" killed two women and burnt down an entire city to cover it up! Now, 50 years later, a descendant of one of the people killed in the fire is using blck magic to get revenge for their ancestors.

Miu teams up with a couple of local magicians, which leads to several over the top black magic wars that provide some of the most bizarre imagery i've ever seen: ghost chickens, fireballs, magic oil made from melting the chins of dead children, and of course the repulsive grossout centipede purge climax, and yes it's true, she actually throws them up.

There are some strange references to Nicholaus Roeg's DON'T LOOK NOW, with a kid in a red rain coat running around, and despite of the film's extreme subject matter and nastyness, director Keith Li does provide some effective chills here and there.

The climax includes at least 500 centipedes swarming around a hotel room, crawling in through electrical sockets and cracks in the wall. You can see that the actors were pretty fucking disgusted, which makes the scene all the more creepy. Finally, the evil magician is defeated when Miu spills water on his necklace, which causes a cobra to grow out of it, which promptly embeds itself in the magicians head!

Miu's girlfriend, now free of the spell ralphs up about a dozen centipedes, and we are treated to wonderful close-ups of the foul substance splating on the floor.

What i like so much about this film is the amount of creativity. The exorcisms and black magic duels are very inventive, using wierd special effects and camera tricks, using Chinese folk lore as a reference for some and just plain making the rest up. And to be honest, i think this is the only Hong Kong film i've ever seen without a single kung fu fight or shootout.