Horror Movie Review #12: Vampire vs Vampire

VAMPIRE VS VAMPIRE
Directed By: Lam Ching Ying
Release Date: 1989 (Hongkong)
Running Time: 60 minutes
Language: Chinese
Horror Type: Vampires
Sex? - None
Gore? - Same
Momel's Rating: 1/5

A village is in peril because of some bad Feng Shui, and its up to the One Brow Taoist Priest aka Mr Vampire to correct the mystic currents. In the course of the investigation, they unearth a decaying corpse with red eyes, and believe it to be the source of the bad feng shui. They ordered the corpse to be destroyed, but the ruby crest on the sword buried in its chest was too much of a temptation to some, so the burning of the corpse was delayed. It turned out that the dead body is that of a vampire, the Western, Dracula-kind of vampire, and he's in a very bad mood.

This movie pits the very familiar Chinese ghostbuster Mr Vampire against one stereotypical Western Vampire; his Tao Magic against his vampirism, his magnificent kung fu against his demonic reflexes, his flashy mysticism versus his carnal bloodlust. There's not much to say about this movie, really, except that it, in no way, aligns itself with some of the more formidable battle scenes in horror movies. There's Jason versus Freddie, Vampires versus Werewolves in Underworld, the Aliens versus the Predator, and so on. You may notice the poor production value, but you might as well ignore that since people back then probably enjoyed the props as much as we did with our present day Lord of the Rings Trilogy. They made good sense of what resources they have available in the 80's, and produced an okay-enough rendition of Eastern Mysticism against Western Vampires.