Like many Hong Kong horror films, Red Spell Spells Red goes for the gross out. Squealing pigs are killed on camera. Chickens are ate live. And, of course, scorpions crawl over the background, including on the actors. Anyone with a fear of scorpions should avoid this film like the plague. Viewers with no such fear will enjoy seeing how far the actors will go for their art. Unfortunately, also like many Hong Kong horror films, Red Spell Spells Red suffers from awkward pacing.
A Hong Kong camera crew doing a story on The Red Dwarf Ghost, an evil sorcerer who was killed in 1919, travels to a less developed country in South East Asia. There, the crew ignore the warnings of the locals and go into the tomb of the sorcerer. In the name of good footage, the crew unseals the sorcerer's casket and a red mist comes out. The producer is satisfied with the footage and rushes back to Hong Kong, leaving the news presenter (also his lover) and the crew behind to film local color. Soon, odd things begin to happen as the crew members seem to be under a curse. If they bleed, they die. In the special case of the news presenter, she finds that scorpions will crawl out of any drop of blood she spills.
This is a gooey film that delivers on its freak show set up. The wild ending features the lead actress going round and round on a waterwheel as cast members our possessed and holy men try to contain the Red Dwarf Ghost. Too bad getting to that climax is such a chore. The viewer feels like he is watching lots of that local color that the camera crew is supposed to be filming. Also, the film shoehorns in some flat comedy involving the antics of two horny crewmen. A few early set pieces stand out (an attack by film strip is one), but most of the fun is in the film's final twenty minutes, right before it (abruptly) ends. Overall, Red Spell Spells Red is worth watching for the last third but just barely.
A Hong Kong camera crew doing a story on The Red Dwarf Ghost, an evil sorcerer who was killed in 1919, travels to a less developed country in South East Asia. There, the crew ignore the warnings of the locals and go into the tomb of the sorcerer. In the name of good footage, the crew unseals the sorcerer's casket and a red mist comes out. The producer is satisfied with the footage and rushes back to Hong Kong, leaving the news presenter (also his lover) and the crew behind to film local color. Soon, odd things begin to happen as the crew members seem to be under a curse. If they bleed, they die. In the special case of the news presenter, she finds that scorpions will crawl out of any drop of blood she spills.
This is a gooey film that delivers on its freak show set up. The wild ending features the lead actress going round and round on a waterwheel as cast members our possessed and holy men try to contain the Red Dwarf Ghost. Too bad getting to that climax is such a chore. The viewer feels like he is watching lots of that local color that the camera crew is supposed to be filming. Also, the film shoehorns in some flat comedy involving the antics of two horny crewmen. A few early set pieces stand out (an attack by film strip is one), but most of the fun is in the film's final twenty minutes, right before it (abruptly) ends. Overall, Red Spell Spells Red is worth watching for the last third but just barely.