The Holy Virgin vs The Evil Dead - All The Trimmings

Dec

7

The Holy Virgin vs The Evil Dead - All The Trimmings

≡ Category: Action, Category III, Exploitation, Fantasy, Hong Kong, Martial Arts, Worth A Look |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Action/ Martial Arts/ Exploitation/ Category III/ Fantasy
Director: Tony Liu
Year: 1991

Rating:

WORTH A LOOK

I’m not generally a fan of campy movies, but you’ve got to give The Holy Virgin vs The Evil Dead some credit, starting with that title. This is a movie that includes copious gratuitous nudity, gore, machine gun battles, flame throwers, man-eating fish, special effects painted directly on the negative, and lots of kung fu.

Normally, the fact that star Donnie Yen was a horrible actor at this stage of his career would be a demerit, but instead it just adds to the fun.

Nonetheless, The Holy Virgin vs The Evil Dead is not the non-stop party it should have and could have been.

It’s disappointing that it isn’t directed better, especially coming from Tony Liu, who gave us such wonderful flicks as Bastard Swordsman and The Lady Assassin. The pace drags sometimes, something you don’t want in an absurd flick.

And even with a cast that includes Donnie Yen, Ben Lam, and Ken Lo, the martial arts, while plentiful, are not as awe-inspiring as they should be. Blame that on fight coordinators Lung Sang and Fan Chin-Hung.

I might as well tell you the plot. While high school teacher Shiang Chin-Fei (Donnie Yen) is hosting a late night barbecue for his luscious female students (!), a sex maniac (Ken Lo) comes out of nowhere and rapes and kills everyone except the teacher. Of course, cops Sergeant Chen (Ben Lam) and Sergeant Hu (Sibelle Hu) don’t believe Shiang Chin-Fei’s story, but never mind. The maniac, which turns out to be the Moon Monster from a Cambodian religious sect, kidnaps Sergeant Chen’s girlfriend and whisks her off to Cambodia. Soon enough, Sergeant Chen and Shiang Chin-Fei are in hot pursuit.

Of course, the plot is almost irrelevant. The point is how many exploitation elements can be crammed into the movie. I must say that the screenwriters do a good job of this, but they fare less well in terms of plot mechanics and dialog.

I know a lot of people will disagree with me on this, but even in a movie which is intended as exploitation, craft counts for a lot, and that’s exactly where The Holy Virgin vs The Evil Dead is lacking.