I’m still the bravest man in town

If Looney Tunes were live action kung-fu horror comedies from Hong Kong, this is exactly what they would look like. As I’m watching I can’t help but think Evil Dead owes at least a bit of it’s spirit to this crazy movie.

Spooky Encounters moves along lightning quick with fun ideas, great visuals, and some really nice stunt work. I had a great time and I’ll certainly be back for more.

This was my second Sammo Hung flick and I gotta say this crazy lunatic certainly has my attention.

Are you afraid?
No, just a little scared.

Cinematic Time Capsule - 1980 Ranked

Cinematic Cheese – 1980

80's Hong Kong Horror, Hopping Vampires, Martial Arts and Comedy what more could you ever want or need in a film!

It rang all my bells and blew all my whistles it was that GOOD!

This movie has legit the most bizarre and possibly the greatest freeze frame ending of all time, like I swear to god.

Should be considered required Halloween viewing in any self-respecting household when October rolls around. Literally nothing puts a bigger smile on my face than watching Sammo Hung duking it out with some martial arts wielding jiangshi in what is like a fucking robot dance off routine between the two contestants or Sammo Hung battling his own possessed hand in one of the many sequences that directly inspired Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness or Sammo Hung *literally* becoming Sun Wukong; all of which happens in this movie.

Sammo reluctantly fights ghosts as Krzysztof Penderecki blares in the background. This is about as seamless a combination of action/horror/comedy as you're likely to see in any realm of cinema. What's the closest American equivalent? Ghostbusters? The Monster Squad? I love them both, but yiiiiiikes.

This also ends with extremely casual wife-beating. Double YIKES.

This is so much fun.

Poor “courageous” Cheung, not only is his wife cheating on him, the guy she’s sleeping with is also out to kill him! With the help of a witchcraft scorcerer, which may not be the fastest/most efficient way, but definitely makes for a whole bunch of entertaining scenarios.

Influential martial arts filmmaker Sammo Hung stars in this “groundbreaking” kung-fu horror comedy that introduced us to the “jiangshi genre”. Basically just hopping vampires/zombies.

And there’s so much going on. The kung-fu is impressive, the horror is fun, the comedy is borderline slapstick, and somehow it all just works perfectly fine together. Possessed monkey kung-fu is always entertaining, I guess!

Also, best last 10 seconds I’ve seen in any movie in a long time, I sincerely laughed out loud. Plenty reviews here on Letterboxd “spoil” it, but trust me, it’s so much better to see it in action!

The VVitch would have been a completely different film if it took its cues from this Witchcraft - there would have been more lasers, monkey kung fu, hopping vampires and mystic mumbling. It also would've ended with Ralph Ineson gut-punching Kate Dickie 6 times before freeze-framing into the credits.

Jokes aside, this is a cracking fun fantasy comedy from a Sammo at the height of his powers as a performer and director. And who knew he had such a gift for the surreal and weird? I certainly didn't

How have I not reviewed or rated this before? I think LETTERBOXD may be eating some of my entries like a hungry ghost.

A grab-bag of everything that would come to define the 'Spooky' era of Hong Kong Cinema (mostly Hopping Vampires) It hangs loosely as a narrative, but when you have so many fun gags and such an action-packed third act, I can't complain.

I can only be scared!

Well, okay, that final shot is...problematic.

Some complaining!

Fun as heck when it's not being problematic as heck.

Sammo presents the greatest hopping vampire movie of them all.

Encounters of the Spooky Kind delivers the horror/comedy goods in spades, but it also features some of Sammo's best fight choreography, rivalling anything Jackie Chan was achieving at the time - that canteen fight is JAW DROPPING.

The comedy, while certainly off-the-wall, doesn't grate like so many other films of it's era, allowing the film to flow at an even pace and it's a testament to Sammo's deft instincts as a director that the comedy scenes feel so naturalistic, where in lesser hands, would just be obnoxious.

Overall, Encounters of the Spooky Kind is just a great movie from start to finish. The action is relentless and just builds and builds until it's bat-shit bananas conclusion, before capping it all off with the most insane cinematic freeze-frame of all time.

4½ Sammo's out of 5

another one of those fever dream types of chaotic films that are just brilliant HAHA. i barely even remember the movie BUT it was incredibly fun and it was memorable that way.

I came for the madcap HK movie hijinks, but I did not expect the top rank Sammo fights during the last hour. Ends with an insane madman freeze frame ending that’s worth it to get there.

Scavenger Hunt Challenge #70 | January 2021 (3/31)
Prompt 26: Watch a South Korean, Japanese, or Chinese film.

I need to watch more Sammo Hung movies. This was fun and insane with some awe-inspiring kung fu action.

“Being chased by ghosts is still better than sleeping with you!”

Leave it Sammo to nearly get himself killed by a fiery stunt at the end of this movie. Yikes. 

This is great fun though, just as expected. It’s been a while since I’ve watched one of his films, but Sammo Hung delivers again with a wonderful blend of horror, action, and comedy. It takes a bit to get to the action and there’s more fast-talking wizardry than you’ll know what to do with, but it checks all the boxes and is a hell of a good time. Seek this one out!

Added to:
• 1980 Horror — D Edward Ranks (8)

silly & fun. I now unfortunately have the strong desire to watch every film that has these "hopping vampire / corpses". Didn't laugh as much as I was hoping to going into this, but still had a wonderful time. Sammo Hung and whoever played the kung fu corpse did incredible.

j'ai trop aimé l'énergie chaotique trouvée dans ce film. un vrai mélange parfait entre l'horreur, le comédie et le kung fu.

Bingo! This IS horror comedy. Gila absurdnya, bangsat lucunya.

Film #45 for HORRORx52 2020.
Task 40/52: Comedy Horror

Film #28 off my Birth Year Challenge

This film is bonkers and a lot of fun. It's a kung fu horror comedy and it's very over-the-top silly. The fight scenes were some of my favorite parts -- the choreography is excellent and fights themselves are funny, reminding me a lot of Jackie Chan. Some bits were a little too dumb for my taste, but overall I still liked this quite a bit.

you really don't get better action that in martial arts helmed movies.

this was so fucking good. physicality, horror, and comedy simmered, sautéed, baked to perfection.

editing style is bonkers and works so well.

watching films in my native language is somewhat sobering and sad for me at the moment, but it made me feel good too. completely incoherent thought.

more horror-comedy martial arts films please

Sammo presents the greatest hopping vampire movie of them all.

Encounters of the Spooky Kind delivers the horror/comedy goods in spades, but it also features some of Sammo's best fight choreography, rivalling anything Jackie Chan was achieving at the time - that canteen fight is JAW DROPPING.

The comedy, while certainly off-the-wall, doesn't grate like so many other films of it's era, allowing the film to flow at an even pace and it's a testament to Sammo's deft instincts as a director that the comedy scenes feel so naturalistic, where in lesser hands, would just be obnoxious.

Overall, Encounters of the Spooky Kind is just a great movie from start to finish. The action is relentless and just builds and builds until it's bat-shit bananas conclusion, before capping it all off with the most insane cinematic freeze-frame of all time.

4½ Sammo's out of 5