Encounters of the Spooky Kind

Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980) is a Hong Kong mash-up of kung fu, horror and slapstick you can watch online on iFILM. Sammo Hung directs and stars as Big Guts Cheung, a villager famous for fearing absolutely nothing.

His wife wants him dead, so she tricks him into spending a night in an abandoned temple where a hired sorcerer is already waiting. What follows is a brawl with reanimated corpses, dueling spell-casters and a sprint from hopping vampires that lasts until the roosters crow. Hung takes on the undead with the same fists he uses on the living, and that is the whole joke. The choreography comes from a Peking-opera-trained body, and every scare lands wrapped inside a gag.

This is the film that lit the fuse for the jiangshi kung-fu craze that later boomed with Mr. Vampire. The fight staging still holds up, and the physical comedy needs no subtitles to read. Stream Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980) online on iFILM.