Shiang is a teacher who is toasting marshmallows with 5 of his beautiful female students on a beach when all of a sudden the moon turns red and a tall, long-haired man with glowing green eyes attacks them. Though Shiang does his best to protect his students, he cannot stop the man who has super-human strength. Shiang is knocked out in the fight and when he comes to, he finds his students have been torn to shreds. When the police arrive on the scene he is arrested and assumed to have murdered the girls. They don’t believe his ridiculous story of a tall man with green glowing eyes attacking them. Shiang is bailed by his friend Chiou, a private eye and together they set out to find the killer with the police tailing the duo. The green-eyed killer strikes again with a woman having her throat ripped out. Chiou manages to get himself inside the crime scene where the killer was praying to an idol god and take some pictures of it. Shiang and Chiou ask a woman who has some knowledge of the occult if she has any idea about the idol. She tells them that it is linked to a tribe in Cambodia. The idol is also linked to a Moon Monster, an evil being whose resurrection is signalled with the moon turning red. The Moon Monster is in league with a Cambodian man named Ma Tien, a leader of a cult who is after a certain kind of woman for a special ceremony as it coincides with a very important date. That certain woman is Shiang’s ex-wife Shamen who the Moon Monster tries to kidnap. Luckily her lover, a police detective Chen is on the scene and together they manage to electrocute the Moon Monster in the swimming pool. However, he isn’t down for long and is able to come back to life in the morgue and then kills an associate of Shiang’s who was helping him in the case. Shiang, Chiou, Chen and Shamen head to Cambodia to stop the Moon Monster’s master Ma Tien. They’re aided by Princess White, the daughter of the head of a local tribe who has a magic sword which can kill the Moon Monster. Meanwhile Shamen who is out shopping is kidnapped by Man Tien’s goons. Will our heroes be able to rescue Shamen, stop Ma Tien and destroy the Moon Monster?
With a title like this, I just had to check this movie out. I don’t know if it was just a shameless cash-in by the studio marketing team to use the name Evil Dead in the title but it has absolutely nothing to do with Sam Raimi’s movie trilogy. There’s no zombies at all here. Maybe the movie’s original Cantonese title meant it wouldn’t make much sense in English so they gave it a snappy title that would stand out or it was just bad translating? If the first reason is true, it was a genius move by the studio. I’m sure anybody browsing through a DVD shop and seeing the title alone would go and buy it……..well I did anyhow!! The movie itself is a Cat III OTT horror/action movie which has got great fights, nudity, gore and a fantastic vampire-like monster with green eyes who goes around ripping clothes off women and tearing their throats out. For HK movie fans who like their violence and action there’s plenty of brilliantly choreographed gunplay and martial arts. There’s also a fair bit of unnecessary nudity culminating in the climax where about 150 women strip off for no reason at all. It’s a very cheesy movie to watch even with all the action and the plot is a bit of a mess with a lot of holes in it but I doubt viewers will really care about that. It’s one of those movies where your head will boil if you try and find any meaning to the plot. It’s best if you sit back and enjoy the wild ride that unfolds before you.
Donnie Yen is the main star of the movie and he’s always good to watch. His martial arts fights are exciting though short in this movie. Pauline Yeung is excellent as Princess White (the Holy Virgin of the movie title)and I love the magic sword she has which has a red lightning-like whip which comes out of it. It’s a shame that Sibelle Wu only has a small scene as a mouthy police officer. She’s introduced after Shiang is arrested and quickly disappears from the story soon afterwards.
It’s hard to tell if this movie was supposed to be a camp comedy or a serious fantasy martial arts/action movie but whatever the way it was supposed to be there’s no doubt it’s very entertaining and I had a blast watching it. Even with the cheese factor it’s definitely worth taking a look as it’s a lot of fun. Recommended.
Sadako’s Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Sadako's Movie Shack 