Towards the end of the Shaw Brothers' rein over kung fu cinema, the studio branched out into other genres, enjoying some success in the supernatural horror market. Much of their horror output was typified by black magic storylines with gross-out special effects, Bewitched being one of the best examples.

The film opens with the discovery of the decomposed body of a little girl, a nine-inch spike having been hammered into her skull. A police investigation leads to the arrest of her father, Stephen Lam Wai (Fei Ai) who admits to the murder, but claims that he was under the influence of a spell. Sentenced to death by hanging, the man tells his story to policeman Bobby Wong King-Sun (Melvin Wong),and begs the cop to find out what drove him to kill.

According to Lam Wai, the trouble began when he wooed a pretty young woman, Bon Brown (Lily Chan),while on holiday in Thailand. After several days of being romanced by Stephen, Bon gave her new beau an amulet and made him swear to return to her by June 30th. When Stephen returned home to Hong Kong, he boasted about his holiday romance to his work colleagues (no doubt telling them about Bon's topless sprint across the beach, which is shown in slow-motion),but neglected to keep his promise to return. That's when the crazy stuff started to happen: the amulet caused a large stain on his chest, which sprouted hair, he became impotent, and his daughter began to act very strangely indeed. An old woman told him that he had been possessed and that the person closest to him would try to kill him and the only way to stop them would be to hammer a large nail into their head.

Bobby doesn't believe a word of the killer's crazy story, until he too experiences a scary supernatural phenomenon. Now convinced, he travels to Thailand to investigate, learns that Bon had a spell put on Stephen (the magic involving oil extracted from the corpse of a pregnant woman),and attempts to remove the curse with the aid of an old witch (who performs a ritual with some bad flute playing, a levitating skull, a twig and what looks like a small Wade figurine of a frog). When this fails, he visits a monk, who enters into a supernatural battle with the wizard who cast the spell. Cue lots of yuckiness, including the villain drinking blood from a vat full of dead babies, his face oozing pus, and a nail slowly pushed through the palm of his hand.

Unfortunately, the monk is unable to defeat the powerful wizard, and needs a week to recover before he can try again. During these seven days, Bobby is subjected to a variety of spells cast by the miffed magician, which leads to more madness, including the cop developing an appetite for raw pork liver, a bout of heart trouble caused by a lemon, Bobby's wife being stabbed by a flying knife, and a guy getting dragged under a moving car. Director Chih-Hung Kuei also sees fit to throw in those mainstays of the genre, maggot eating and worm vomiting. Meanwhile, Bobby also has to contend with an escaped lunatic who is causing havoc, having got his hands on a cop's gun (in the film's most shocking moment, the madman shoots a child several times in the chest).

The entertaining ending sees the return of the monk, refreshed and ready for round two, in which he successfully desiccates the wizard, forcing a bat demon to fly out of his mouth!

Detective Wong King Sun is investigating the horrific and violent death of a little girl at the hands of her father, who claims that he was under the influence of a wizard. This takes the detective all the way to Thailand to learn more and, as happens in films such as this, to be cursed by a powerful magician named Magusu, who was supposedly played by an infamous Malay sorcerer. That's what the credits say and who are we to deny the words of Shaw Brothers or any exploitation studio when you get right down to it?

Wong King Sun decides to fight black magic, he needs a white magic monk. What follows is an entire movie of one-upmanship battles over whose magic is strongest, including a gut-churning moment when the evil magician grabs that pause that refreshes. Except that we're not talking about Coca-Cola. This dude likes to sip from a big urn filled with unborn children and blood.

If that last sentence made you wince, turn back now. Bewitched is a ride through absolute chaos. It's gorgeous, it's frenetic and it's also unafraid to try and make you throw up throughout its running time. And if this one seems like it's going to be too much, its sequel, The Boxer's Omen, goes even further. Director Chih-Hung also made the equally blood and madness-filled Corpse Mania.

We all know that old Chinese chestnut of advice, right? Don't take the virginity of village women, ghost them and then just move on or you'll be covered in body hair, unable to get it up and eventually hammering a spike into your daughter's head so that she stops being possessed and attempting to kill you.

"The moral of the story is to admonish people against casual sex and to be on guard against witchcraft." That's what the end says. As for me, I'm all about movies with neon colors, glittery bats that come to animated life and actual black magic rituals being used to entertain audiences.

Sex, horror and exploding bats are the main ingredients for this early 80's Shaw Brothers thriller from director Kuei Chih Hung, the man who brought us the fantastic horror film, Hex, The Boxer's Omen, Killer Constable and many more. It stars Ai Fei, from the Shaw classics House Of Traps, Human Lanterns and Death Duel, as a man arrested for the murder of his daughter, having claimed that she was possessed, and that he himself, had a spell put on him after meeting a Thai girl and leaving her jilted. The first shock of the film comes pretty quick as a kid playing ball comes across the grossly, realistic body of his daughter in the woods - complete with 6 inch nail driven into the top of her head that forcefully gets removed. Its the first of many moments that will make you wince through the atmospheric and fun, Bewitched...

Told in flashback (in part) from the jail cell to officer Melvin Wong, Ai Fei's stories convince Wong to head to Thailand to learn more about the black magic rituals, leading to a crazy run of events, leaving him with much more than he bargained for!

I like Bewitched! It's something a little different and has some pretty cool tricks going on that keeps viewers entertained right through. These include graphically disturbing corpses, a séance with floating skulls and twigs that write alone, evil wizards versus good wizards, reanimated bodies, a possessed child munching down on raw meat, brutal car accidents, levitating knives and much, much more.

Director Kuei keeps things tense as the story rolls along with some incredible visuals and darkly wild atmosphere throughout. There's a rawness to Bewitched that just seems to keep you gripped, along with its ominous music and sound effects that just add to the experience. Its beautifully shot for the most part, capturing some wonderful shots of Thailand (including its fantastic, giant movie posters on the buildings),with some incredible lighting which makes it look amazing and very nice to watch. This is also aided by the incredibly clean, crisp and colourful print, 88 Films have provided here allowing us to see the ultimate version of this classic...

The great Melvin Wong does a wonderful job, as do most of the cast, with real-life wizard Hussein Hassan playing the dark villain of the piece. He gets to take part in an extended battle with a good wizard, attacking each other with spells that gets violent and bloody, that leads to the evil wizard drinking the blood from a (shockingly graphic) barrel of dead babies and internal organs for more power!

It's really quite disgusting.

The final half hour sees Wong return to Hong Kong to follow-up his case. Its here that he finds his Ai Fei in the prison hospital, wrapped from head-to-toe in bandages, violently throwing-up worms, and slashing his stomach open! And it only gets worse for him, with the detective now finding himself suffering the same problems and pains that first plagued his prisoner...

Bewitched certainly isn't boring, and I'd go as far to say that it definitely put a lot of people off going to Thailand upon release. With some great use of practical FX for its time, solid direction, and plenty of WTF moments to keep you entertained, this little gem should please any fan of horror. Kuei Chih Hung was one of the finest horror directors in Hong Kong of that period, so I'd suggest checking out some of his other titles and giving this one a go.

Overall: Mad, gross, shocking and beautifully made, Bewitched is a crazy piece of Hong Kong cinema that deserves a watch!