Time to go way, waaay out with this classic old Chinese Horror/ Exploitation example of the weird films of HK’s heyday of horror, 1983’s “Devil Fetus”, just released on DVD as part of Joy Sales “Legendary Collection”.
Neko has herself an old copy of this one on VCD, but when I found out it was going to be remastered and released on DVD, I just had to grab this goofy one all over again…..
Remember…. this girl’s tastes in movies tends to be, shall we say “special”, and I’ve always had a soft spot for the truly baaaaaad and silly…
So…. is it worth your time as well? Let’s find out!
This one is a great example of the over-the-top, crazy, enthusiastic Category III HK film at it’s best. While it boasts little in the way of “special effects” by today’s standards, it more than makes up for it with nutty Taoist sorcery blended with some bits from “The Exorcist” and a nod to all the “evil baby” films made here in the West.
Our synopsis for this one reads:“Lau Hung-cheun spins this ultra-low-budget gross-out horror flick. When a nice young couple buy an antique vase during the Festival of the Hungry Ghosts, all sorts of bizarre and unnatural things start occurring. For one thing, a series of nasty, horrid monsters start having sex with the wife, Shu-ching, while she sleeps. When her husband tries to break up one of these nightmare trysts, he gets sprayed with a gas that melts his face. Writhing in pain, he throws himself out the window. Later, the hapless Shu-ching gets attacked and killed by her pet cat. During the funeral, a hideous devil fetus bursts out of Shu-ching’s abdomen. The priest manages to seal the coffin shut and puts good luck charms throughout their old house. When new owners arrive, they inevitably disturb the talismans, resulting in worm-infested pastries and a rash of raping and killing.” ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Yep….that’s basically it alright. Only Shu-Ching buys the haunted Jade with her Mother-in-Law while her hubby is out of town on business. After that she starts having obsessive crazy sex with the icky green demon spirit that is trapped within it……. like EEEEWWWWWWHHH, GROSS!! If there was ever a reason NOT to buy strange antiques at a street auction this would probably be the best one…
Her personality shifts to evil… and her Sister-in-Law gets suspicious that she’s acting all pregnant, even though her husband’s been gone for 6 months….. Oh-oh!! Before that gets to be an issue though, he arrives back home and lasts long enough to catch her in the act…. Smashing the Jade gets him roasted by evil and does a number on his face before he throws himself out a window to his death. Probably the smartest guy in the whole movie if you ask this lil’ catgirl!!
Well…. the grieving widow doesn’t get much better treatment. Rather than continuing to do the nasty on a nightly basis with her, it possesses the family cat and knocks her off a railing to her death….. Not really certain why… it’s just that sort of monster…. Well, they say “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”…. so maybe this just simplifies things?
During the funeral, the title evil baby/fetus/thing gets all frisky and tries to do the whole “rip my way outta mommy’s dead womb” trick. Lucky for the guests, the presiding priest is quick enough to slap some magic charms on her coffin and seal the thingee away before anybody sees. He warns grandma to keep the pair’s funeral plaques isolated and not to disturb them or the magic charms he puts on them for… oh…say…12 years, after which the spirits will harmlessly reincarnate and solve everything. Naturally it all goes well…. for about 11 years. Darn…….
Well…. Shu-Ching’s two young nephews grow up and become young men, each with their own interests, and then a family friend, Jojo comes to town for a visit. The oldest boy falls hard for her, and while taking her to see grandma in the old family house, they drop by his aunt and uncle’s old room to light some incense for them….. but Jojo knocks over the sacred charms on auntie’s funerary plaque. You just know THAT’S gonna be a problem… The wicked demon spirit follows them home, and then hops inside the family dog. Seems he likes to possess pets, I guess. After that, he get’s a lil’ kinky with a guest at Jojo’s welcoming party later that night and then attacks the eldest son getting himself samurai sword skewered but good.
Now…. that might have been the end of things if any common sense had prevailed…. I mean, the family dog freaks and attacks somebody, you get his corpse checked for rabies right? Nope… apparently you have some of the domestic help bury his doggie corpse out in the woods instead. Anyway… all that means is that evil spirit hops out of doggie and into younger brother who steals the doggie body and stashes it under his bed for the occasional midnight snack. YUCCCKKK!! GROSS!!
Junior gets all evil…. tries to drown Jojo… attacks, rapes and EATS a Maidservant….. but do the family do anything to get him some psychological help? Nope…. Do they at least try to tie his freaky ass up to stop his crazy behavior? Ummm… nope. This part of “Devil Fetus” leaves one to scratch your head and say “WTF? Are these people just plain Looney?”
Apparently even grandma can’t be trusted…. as when they finally get the priest from earlier to do a house call to fix him up, she sabotages the magic and gets the priest killed…. by being drilled headfirst into the ground like a tentpeg!!
Eventually, everybody gets either killed or raped by the Icky Demon thingee….. Dad gets squooshed in a crazy steamroom “accident”. Mom gets smashed around in the Chinese version of “The Exorcist” old haunted furniture gag.
It’s poor Jojo who ends up as “love doll” for mister creepy, but the eldest son does finally show up to kill off his brother and wrap this one up…..
So….. Ummmm?…. What you are probably thinking is, “But Neko-chan…is it actually any good?”Well, if you like really crazy “special effects” from the 80’s that look like they should have come from the 70’s…. a lot of weird asian mysticism, and some devil worshiping movie ideas put through the ol’ “Chinese culture filter” and spit out to resemble a drug induced nightmare out of Indonesia, then this one oughta fit the bill.
Seriously though. Neko gives “Devil Fetus” a firm 3 “Meows” out of 5 for being just the sort of wacked out, enthusiastically bad film that few people have the guts to make anymore, either in China or on this side of the Pacific. It’s not a great film, it’s not even a good film, but if you like watching trashy movies with some friends for an evenings laughs, then “Devil Fetus” will do nicely.
It was hard….but I even managed to find a Trailer!! Enjoy the silliness!!
Miss Nekoneko, I’m reading some of your old reviews and in case you haven’t noticed this I’d just like to mention that some of your old covers (and trailers) have disappeared into the great big pitch black Cyberspace abyss.
Yeah… I’m still struggling to fix all the mangling that occurred when I went from being hosted at Delirium Vault to being over at WordPress.
All my image files and video links got a bit messed up in the transition…. unfortunately, while all the images are here… but mislabeled… the videos were completely lost.