"Spooky Encounters" (aka Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind; 1981) is a seminal work in the hybrid genre of Hong Kong comedy/kung fu/horror films. While this had been done before by the Shaw Brother's "The Spiritual Boxer" (1975), "The Spiritual Boxer Part II" (1979) and Lo Wei's unsuccessful "Spiritual Kung Fu" (1978), "Spooky Encounters" is the film most causal in the formative kyonsi (hopping vampires) craze of the 1980s with "Mr. Vampire" (1985) as the best example of that sub-genre with its plethora of sequels. It was directed by and stars Sammo Hung Kam-Bo ("Warrior's Two" and "The Prodigal Son" who would also produce "Mr. Vampire") during the golden age of Golden Harvest and was the first film under Sammo's Bo Ho Films Company.
Sammo stars as Bold Cheung an affable courageous not-so-bright cuckold who works for Mr. Tam (I am not quite sure what Cheung does though). However, Tam is cheating with Cheung's wife and Cheung came awfully close to finding the two together; however, he did find a shoe that was left behind. Since Tam, who is going to run for mayor, does not want any scandal he decides to employ the services of a black-magic Taoist named Chin Hoi to murder Bold Cheung. Luckily his brother-in-witchcraft Tsui (Chung Faat who is also in Sammo's "Prodigal Son" and "Magnificent Butcher") is astonished he will breaks the rules of the sect (the four rules are: must not be greedy, must not kill, must not insult our god and must not behave badly) and goes off to help Cheung.
Tsui's first good deed is to help Cheung survive a bet with an employee of Tam (played by the ubiquitous Wu Ma) to spend a night in a haunted place that looks like a giant storage shed. It houses a kyonsi – an undead vampire/zombie that is stiff, has to hop to get around, can suck blood through its long fingernails (does not happen here) and has good kung fu skills for some reason. Cheung being a bit of a dullard gets talked into staying two nights. Obviously this does not work so Mr. Tam ends up framing Cheung for the murder of his wife though no body is found. Now Sammo has the law after him led by the Inspector (Lam Ching-Ying) as well as the supernatural sorcerer.
There is not much to complain about in this film. The few annoyances with the movie is the episodic structure the film takes on in the beginning and the underutilization of Lam Ching-Ying ("Mr. Vampire") fighting especially since he is credited as an action director. Also, the very ending is quite unsuspecting (not necessarily for Hong Kong aficionados) and seemed a bit excessive and hard to watch (for those who have not seen it I will not spoil it, it even startled me the second time I watched the movie). You also might not appreciate the film if you like chickens (unless you like exploding ones). There is also some mention of animal killing though nothing is shown (except for the chickens).
The strengths of the film are many. Sammo is in the best shape of his life during the early 80s. He does look slightly corpulent but his kung fu and movement appears effortlessly and adroit (a big difference to how he would appear in the late 80s and beyond). I did notice he was doubled in a few scenes like when he was transformed into the Monkey King, he does not do some of the swinging movements, but for most he was not doubled. There are a couple of classic fight scenes with the tea house bit where Cheung loses control of his arm to the evil Taoist and takes on the tavern (I do not think it influenced Evil Dead II though you never know) and the excellent showdown at the Longevity Inn where Cheung is transformed into the Monkey King and has to fight the Dragon Slayer. In those fights Sammo does some great fighting with a bench in the first and a spear in the second. The whole finale I found quite entertaining with the dueling Taoists. Sammo's direction was also strongest in the 80s where he uses hand-held cameras to great use and has nice composition within frames. He does overuse under-cranking in this movie though he tends to do that a lot in his films (as well as most Hong Kong films during that period). His best asset as a director is that he makes everyone else look better and never puts himself in the forefront if he does not have to.
The mixture of humor/action/spookiness works well too. The horror aspect is definitely influenced by the Shaw Brother's films like "Black Magic" (1975) but never goes into the grossness (or nudity) of that film. The humor lightens the macabre aspect while kung fu and comedy meld well for some reason. "Spooky Encounters" is not scary or gore-filled by today's standards, but it is still a good spooky film that is a must for those into 1980s Hong Kong martial arts cinema or fans of Sammo Hung.
Best advice learned from this film -- when you need more chi stamp the ground and if two opponents are evenly matched the one with the higher alter will win.
