Black Magic with Buddha (1983, Lieh Lo)

"The Black Magic with Buddha" is one of the better I've seen in a line of early HK horror films revolving around sorcery and demonic shit. Frankly, in the past I've found these types of flicks typically dull, poorly paced and drawn out. And while there's not much exception here, this one contains a few bits of cheezily, weird entertainment.

A couple of guys track down, unearth and extract the living brain from a mummy that apparently grants wishes. One of them takes it back home where he uses the slimy, pulsating brain to help him achieve a high level of wealth that will allow him to fit in with his fiancés snobby rich, unsupportive relatives. After a few more wishes - and some brain-related demises on his behalf - he becomes successful and gets married, but ultimately forgets to send the brain back, via some kind of holy water ritual. This pisses the brain off, causing it go berserk on everyone...

It's ridiculous and definitely drags in spots, but this one held my interest a bit more than other movies of this ilk, such as "Eternal Evil of Asia", "Centipede Horror" and "Devil Fetus". The guy getting swarmed by blood-thirsty, breathing brains in the bathtub was funny (Although, I don't think it was suppose to be...) and the ending is very chaotic and somewhat amusing, I'd say. Still, like I said, these type of HK 'black magic' movies aren't really my thing. "The Black Magic with Buddha" is very disjointed and tiringly schlocky, but still manages to be 'okay'. They also blatanly lifted some of the score from Don Coscarelli's "Phantasm". Bastards...