Diagonaldi
Very well executed
StunnaKrypto
Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.
Zlatica
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
GL84
Taking a job as a security guard, a man working in a cursed department store finds that a series of strange events plaguing the area after his arrival is tied to a deadly curse on him and must resort to increasingly mystical means in order to save himself and his family.This one was quite the enjoyable and creepy effort. One of the film's greatest attributes is the fact that there's quite a lot of rather creepy and rather inventive methods here to drive home the general storyline involved here. There's a great deal of work here in the first half where it's a steady stream of rather chilling incidents throughout here, from the mention of the worker carving up the boss that allows for his entry into the company, the exceptionally creepy elevator ride into the basement which floods with water and opens up to a darkened basement with a creepy relic below only to all mysteriously vanish on the ride up with no trace it was ever there and the bizarre incident of the one worker choking on a chicken bone in his cornmeal. All of these are rather fun scenes that get by alongside the striking imagery used to denote the demonic presence in the building, ranging from bright ornate colors against the drab surfaces to the fog continually filtering through the room which really gives this one a rather creepy atmosphere. Connecting all of this to the possession angle and all he needs to do in order to banish the spirits out makes this one quite promising leading into the striking finale which is where this one really gets frantic and thrilling. From the creepy encounter in the car on the road away from the store to the various black magic rituals that the shaman undertakes in battling the spirits and finally to the big encounter in the hospital parking lot with the ghosts while his wife is there giving birth under the guise of protecting her from the final stages of the possession, this is frantic and thrilling supernatural-influenced action which ends this on a rather positive note. Although these here are quite enjoyable, there are a few issues to be had with this one. The main issue is the fact that there's never once any believable reason why anything happens here. A lot of the story is based on the mysticism and folklore of the country which doesn't make for a coherent narrative to follow along in here as failing to understand why anything is happening is a crucial matter of this one. This extends to a few of the plotpoints in here as not only is there no reason for why he needs to be at the place to begin with, a fact brought up by the characters themselves and never answered, but a lot of the actions within here make no sense and there's a distressing lack of explanations for much of what goes on here. The only other minor point here is the dull periods in the middle which consist of him just going around looking for answers and there's not a whole lot of action going on here with this one being a little too dragged out with all the different elements going on to really hamper the pacing. Otherwise, there's not much else wrong here.Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.
BA_Harrison
Proud husband and father-to-be Cheung Ging-Keung (Charlie Chin) is determined not to rely on his businessman father-in-law for employment; instead he takes a job as a night watchman at an industrial complex that, unbeknown to him, is home to a malevolent spirit who plans to be reincarnated as his son. A Taoist priest warns Cheung of the danger that he and his family are in and tells him that his only hope is to go to his workplace and banish the spirit before dawn by placing a magical talisman on the navel of the spirit's corpse. Of course, doing so ain't that easy…80s Hong Kong horror movies appeal to me because they are often so unlike anything that Western cinema can offer, delivering the weird and the wacky in spades. Unfortunately, The Imp, from director Dennis Yu, is nowhere near the most original nor the craziest Asian horror flick I have seen (that would really take some doing), offering up only a few mildly bonkers moments amidst an excess of smoke, strong green lighting and things randomly bursting into flames, whilst playing out at a frustratingly measured pace with a surprisingly serious tone. To be honest, there's barely enough of the wacky stuff to make it worthwhile for fans of Asian madness.The best that the film can offer is a guy choking on a bone while eating dog soup, with the consequent operation on the aforementioned man providing most of what little gore there is, plus a couple of other random supernatural deaths, including one guy being suffocated by a newspaper(!), and another bloke named Fatty being waylaid by supernatural fog before getting burned in his car. Towards the end of the film, Yu picks up the tempo a tad, chucking in a few cruddy zombies, and ends proceedings on a unexpectedly downbeat note.For me, however, the strangest (and therefore most memorable) sight is that of Fatty sporting his bright red, English slogan t-shirts: the first has the somewhat perplexing phrase 'Am I A Girl?' written on it in big white letters, while the second one exclaims 'No! I Am A Man'. Now that is weird!
HumanoidOfFlesh
"The Imp" was made by Hong Kong film-maker Dennis Yu,who also directed nasty "I Spit on Your Grave" rip-off "Flesh and the Bloody Terror"/"Beasts"(1980).The film is extremely creepy and offers some wonderful visuals.There is a distinct air of claustrophobia and impending doom over the entire film.The final scene is extremely disturbing."The Imp" is filled with truly chilling and ominous atmosphere,so fans of atmospheric horror won't be disappointed.There is almost no gore,but the zombies/evil spirits are very creepy.Highly recommended.
dmuel
This film is not all that good, most of the chills are only on the hammy face of the protagonist, a half-baked actor, as he wonders around his workplace at night hearing strange noises and seeing wisps of smoke. NOT one of the better Hong Kong horror films from the pre-communist era, don't bother unless you're bored.
