The Seventh Curse (1986)

Dr. Yuen (Siu-Ho Chin), a young, impetulant man (he is erroneously referred to as a cop in the summary), is on an expedition in Thailand to find herbs to treat AIDS, when he interrupts a local tribe's ritual in order to save a young woman with whom he's infatuated who is about to. He and the woman are soon captured and cursed, he with a Blood Curse, she with a Ghost Curse. A year passes and the Blood Curse arises to remind the doctor of his deed. He must venture back to Thailand to stop the curse from killing. Together with Dragon (Dick Wei), a Thai native who lives in the area Dr. Yuen visited, Wesley (Chow Yun-Fat), Su (Sibelle Hu Hui-Chung) and annoying reporter Tsui Hung (Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk), Dr. Yuen travels back to the origin of the curse. It is a good thing Dr. Yuen carries and arsenal and is accompanied by Dragon and Wesley, because his own M.A. are not what one expects in a Golden Harvest Film. Dr. Yuen has 7 days to stop the curse or die. Each day at the same time, an artery bursts somewhere in Yuen's body. The 7th day, his heart will burst. Not exactly a countdown anyone wants. He has to deal with crazy Sorcerer Aquila, Aquila's henchmen, a bizarre "demon" which resembles a sperm with fangs and what is supposed to be a flying God to reach the Buddha concealing the cure for the 7th Curse. I do feel sorry for any black hued animal in Thailand after watching this. If you ignore all the times Dr. Yuen gets his butt handed to him, the M.A. in this is pretty good. The special effects are good for the era. A rocket launcher is used to save the day. So, if you like explosives and wasting bullets, this is a good one to watch. There are cameos of Golden Harvest vets in this movie that make up for some of the campiness. I gave it a 7 for the cameos and the M.A. sequences.

The special effects in "The Seventh Curse" are incredible. Particularly memorable are those nasty little demons that look like deformed babies; they fly at you and eat you up in about 5 seconds, like piranhas. But the rest of the film is just frantic, mindless drivel. The filmmakers throw in everything but the kitchen sink (from an irrelevant hostage situation at the beginning to karate-chopping monks), hoping that the pieces will somehow fit together - they don't. I never cared about anyone or anything in this film, except for the adorable Maggie Cheung, and even she is too loud at times. Chow Yun-Fat fans will be disappointed with his very minor part, but at least they will be rewarded at the end, when he shows why he is the epitome of "cool": all the other characters waste their time trying to fight the huge unstoppable bloodthirsty flying "Alien"-like monster, but he enters the scene and simply.....I don't want to spoil it, see for yourself. (**)

This could be discribed as a splatter version of Indiana Jones. Throw in some martial art scenes, stupid looking monsters and a dull Chow-fat, and The Seventh Curse is what you get! It's stupid and badly acted, but the entertainment value is huge. This is what entertainment is all about...

I have seen many a horror film in my day; Americain, Canadian, European, Japanese, Korean and Hong Kong. The Seven Curses brings cheesey eighties horror to new heights for gore and blood. Not to say that this is anything remotely scary, but a couple of scenes are brutally gory. Best part of the film: check it out in slow-motion in the scene where they drive the jeep through the worm-tribe's hut and up the steps of the temple. Just after they drive the jeep through the hut, one of the extras is a little slow on his feet and gets PLOWED by the jeep! I can't believe they used that take! OUCH! Anyways, if you're a fan of cheesey horror, and like gore and splatter-fests, check it out. If you like doing the whole MST3000 thing, check it out. If you're a big fan of horror, check it out. Otherwise, find something else to watch...