Review: Hopping corpses and flying demons. Evil sorcerers and spooky zombies. What would a Hong Kong horror film be without these supernatural elements? Dormant over the recent past, these monsters have been in a deep sleep. Only a few productions have attempted to reanimate them, like Tsui Hark's VAMPIRE HUNTERS and SHAOLIN VS EVIL DEAD, but without any success.

The demon/vampire productions dominated the Hong Kong box office and made the big bucks in the late '70s and early '80s. Films like SPOOKY ENCOUNTERS, MR VAMPIRE and A CHINESE GHOST STORY left their prestigious mark on Hong Kong cinema during that era and are still recognized today as cult and classic films. But what about those other, lesser known, horror and fantasy movies of that time? Since the genre was doing pretty well at the box-office, every distributor and producer was trying to cash-in on the wave of popularity. Many attempts failed.

The Spooky Encounters: A Gwailo’s Guide To Hong Kong Horror explores not only the most famous films of the genre but the infamous ones as well. From their humble beginnings to recent productions, Spooky Encounters includes in-depth synopses, interesting facts and anecdotes about these fascinating movies.

The book is divided into 5 chapters and includes a handy movie index. The content arrangement is inadequately structured for a reference book. The book is also lacking in illustrations; it exhibits a few, mainly from Mr. VAMPIRE and ZU: WARRIORS FROM THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN. It would have been nice to have some posters and more pictures of the movies examined in this guidebook.

The book is poorly structured, but the general content makes it interesting to read. The volume covers the most popular and important films of that era and maybe a bit too well. For someone who doesn't like spoilers, I often found myself skipping over many synopses of movies I have yet to see. The information is interesting but includes many story spoilers. If you mind this approach, it is something that you often come across while reading the analyses within the book. So be mindful there are no spoiler alerts. Nonetheless, the writer's point of view on each film is entertaining.

Even if the book is not perfect, it contains a good dose of interesting information about the history and the major productions of the genre. The book is a good introduction for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. However, if you are an Asian cinema fan or familiar with Hong Kong horror films, this might not be the best deal out there. Except for a few anecdotes that you might not have heard before, the titles scrutinized in this volume are probably not obscure enough for your taste.

Score : 3 / 5

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