Review of Encounters Of The Spooky Kind

Introduction

Encounters of the Spooky Kind was the first movie to blend horror, comedy and a little bit of kung fu. The legendary Sammo Hung stars as Cheung, who is caught up against his will in a dark plot and soon finds himself at the receiving end of some very spooky encounters…

This cult film is best described as The Magnificent Butcher meets Evil Dead 2.

Video

The remastering of the picture by HKL is virtually perfect. The blacks are solid, the wild colours vivid, and the detail is astonishingly high – not just for a 1980’s Hong Kong movie, but for any. The only flaw I found was some print marks visible, but these were only noticeable upon close inspection. The picture here stands up there with the best, and most recent releases.

Audio

Unfortunately we have to make do with a stereo mix here instead of HKL’s usual 5.1 remix, which is a shame because a film with anything supernatural always benefits from spatial effects. However, the 2.0 mix here is very good, reproducing sound effects clearly and free from hiss. The subtitles are HKL’s usual remastered ones, and are as always readable throughout.

Features

The commentary by Bey Logan, as is pretty much standard with HKL DVDs now, is as always very good, with Logan using his vast knowledge of the Hong Kong cinema to full effect. The Sammo Hung interview runs in at 13mins long, and covers his general movie career instead of specifically on one film. The interview is certainly entertaining, but unfortunately you may have already seen much of it on other HKL Sammo discs. The restoration featurette is an excellent look at the work HKL put in at their facility. This lasts 19mins and is certainly not modest – and rightfully so, as they deserve every bit of praise lavished upon them. This has also featured on other discs before however, such as Iron Fisted Monk.

Finally, the other extras are a picture gallery, animated Sammo biography and two trailers for the film.

Conclusion

Encounters of the Spooky Kind is a raucous introduction to the horror/comedy/kung fu genre – bizarre, gory and very, very fun! The fight scenes are superb, with Sammo proving he is one of the best old-skool weapons fight choreographers in the business. His fight against four swordsmen using the short bench, and the pole fight between the two wizards stand out in particular. Although the ending is a bit tasteless, as with the case of Jackie Chan`s Drunken Master 2 this does not spoil the enjoyment of the film because the main actor is just about charming enough to pull it off.

New extras on this DVD are a bit lean, but the picture restoration is superb. Anyone liking this movie should definitely check out “Mr. Vampire” when HKL release it early in 2002.