The Spooky and the Supernatural

Mr. Vampire

Dir: Lau Koon-wai
Scr: Szeto Cheuk-hon
Prod Co: Golden Harvest
Cast: Lam Ching-ying, Ricky Hui, Moon Lee, Chin Siu-ho, Pauline Wong
1985 | Colour | DCP | Cantonese | Chi & Eng Subtitles | 98min

Following the success of Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980), Sammo Hung produced a string of ghostly comedies that became major box office hits. Mr. Vampire saw Hung bring in his long-time cinematographer Lau Koon-wai to take the director’s chair. The film became an unexpected sensation in Taiwan, prompting an immediate Hong Kong release, where it eventually ranked among the five highest-grossing films of 1985 and sparked a wave of vampire films in Hong Kong. These films draw on folklore from Hunan province, where sorcery is said to make corpses walk, and they blend these tales with Western zombie beliefs to create a distinctive cinematic creature.

Mr. Vampire marks the beginning of Lam Ching-ying’s iconic run as a Taoist priest battling the undead. The film follows this priest as he is tasked with relocating a wealthy man’s coffin for better fengshui, only to discover that the body has not decayed and is on the brink of becoming a vampire. With his two apprentices, he sets out to combat the vampire. Chin Siu-ho, as one apprentice, adds a romantic touch through his encounter with a beautiful ghost girl, while Ricky Hui, playing the other apprentice, and Billy Lau Nam-kwong lend their comic talents throughout. The scene in which everyone must hold their breath to avoid detection by the vampire is especially hilarious, and inspired the film’s Chinese title when released in Taiwan.

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