Seeding of a Ghost (1983) User Reviews

Classic Sex and Gore Fest

[dbborroughs · 8/10 · 23 August 2004]

First off this film is pure exploitation. This is sex and violence and really gross, even by todays standards. Its not the best film ever made, but if you want gore and worms and gross things with your beautiful naked women this is for you. This film belongs in the exploitation hall of fame.

A very bare bones explanation of the plot has a beautiful woman having an affair because she is bored with her husband of a couple of months. She wants to run off with her lover, who is also married, but he won't go. Getting out of her car on a lonely stretch of road she finds a phone and calls her husband who's cab driver. While she is waiting she is raped and killed by two guys. The husband uses the services of a black magician he once saved to get revenge on the killers and the lover. Its gross fun from that point on.

The sex is early on as we see the very beautiful wife naked in the shower and having sex with her lover. Proving that this is exploitation at its finest we have a slow motion topless jog along the beach.

This film has a reputation for being gross out royalty and its nice to report that this certainly is the case. This is a film that will have you going "yuck" quite often. Done before CGI this film is helped by knowing that what you see is what you get, people really are spiting up insects and such.

The problem for me was that it seems oddly paced. Don't get me wrong the plot moves, but at times it seems a bit talky, which is odd since what you see is what you need to see and hear.

See this film.

I rated it as a 7 out of 10, but thats for most people who want to see a gross out horror film from overseas. For hardcore exploitation film fans or those who love gross effects this is a classic and should be 10 out of 10.

Only mildly outrageous...

[Clickety-Clack · 6/10 · 11 December 2006]

High expectations can be a bad thing when it comes to viewing obscure exploitation films. The problem is, once you've finally seen the film in question, it's like all of the past descriptions and reviews of it that made you want to see it in the first place were for a different film completely. SEEDING OF A GHOST suffers from this very syndrome. While certainly odd and unique, I have to admit that I was disappointed by this. Don't be fooled by all the hype surrounding this in cult movie circles; it's not half as outrageous as you've probably been led to believe.

The plot is suitably contrived. A cab driver accidentally runs into a mysterious vagrant, who promptly scuttles off into the woods. Meanwhile, his wife Irene has begun an affair with a handsome married man; she asks him to marry her, he refuses, and later that night she ends up getting raped and murdered by a couple of hoodlums. The cabbie is inexplicably led to her body through supernatural means, and decides to take revenge. He goes to the aforementioned vagrant, who promptly digs up Irene's body and begins a series of black magic rituals that lead to all sorts of weird happening amongst the perps: one guy throws up worms over his dinner plate, another is tricked into eating brains, and the married man's wife is possessed. Without giving anything away, all of this eventually leads to a blood-soaked finale in which Irene sets out for a final revenge...

From all the reviews I had read about SEEDING OF A GHOST, I had been led to believe that it was an incredibly disgusting, disturbing and downright nasty little film. Well, only a portion of that is correct. This film is not bad at all, but it's hardly notable. It reminded me of an EC comic book like TALES FROM THE CRYPT: it's incredibly over-the-top and weird, but too silly to be taken seriously. And although not as comical as, say, MR. VAMPIRE or A Chinese GHOST STORY, this still has a sense of humor, albeit a very strange one.

One thing this film is is SLEAZY; there's an undercurrent of misogyny here that will not fly with a lot of Western viewers. All of the women are essentially dumb, slutty punching bags, and the film is packed with a number of leering, gratuitous nude scenes that are so blatant in their execution they're not even erotic. The truth is, by the one hour mark I was kind of fed up; I had been given nudity galore, sex, creepy atmosphere, explosions and multiple kung fu fights (!), but what I really wanted was some horror. This film's structure is totally disjointed; it's like the filmmakers were making it up as they went along.

Thankfully, there's the final ten minutes. As many other viewers have noted, the climax is worth viewing in itself. Think a more outrageous, blood-splattered Asian version of John Carpenter's THE THING, and you have the right idea. I wanted more of that! Overall, SEEDING OF A GHOST was hardly as off-the-wall, gross, and skin-crawling as I was hoping for. It's more in line with the rest of the Hong Kong films I've seen, in the sense that all it wants to do is please the viewer, not necessarily scare him or disturb him. Hong Kong fans should seek out the incredible (and very similar in tone) SEVENTH CURSE with Chow Yun-Fat over this one.

That Ghost just Seeded all over the curtains!

[ElijahCSkuggs · 8/10 · 2 September 2008]

This weirdo tale revolves around lies and deception, lots of revenge, and even more black magic.

When our leading star's wife is killed he seeks revenge by acquiring the local Voodoo dude. Who for some weird reason, was played by two dudes, which they tried hiding up that fact by loading the second player with tons of make-up....pretty weird/funny. Anyways, when Mr. Voodoo comes into play all the people who were bad to the wife prior to her death "will never know peace again", or something like that. And ain't that the truth.

When you Seed a Ghost, you better know the results, because they're f@cked up. Just like this movie. And that's a good thing! With a high amount of nudity, some sex and even a fight scene for good measure, the movie delivers loads of entertaining qualities. It's like an action/horror/fantasy/comedy flick rolled into one. And when the end comes you're only treated to a sorcery fight with one of the most fun and silliest ending I've seen in a long time. There's a lotta blood flying.

I've gotta mention the direction and cinematography, for a flick like this (and I say that with love), it had some pretty inventive shots. Definitely surprising.

The flick unfortunately kinda dragged at parts though. You once in a while will realize that something entertaining hasn't happened in a little bit. But don't dismay, since the movie does entertain pretty consistently. And also, maybe fault to the writing, you just never really care for any character. But with a movie like this, I only came into it looking for the "goods" and that's what I got.

Seeding of a Ghost is a truly weirdo hybrid of a flick that should be watched if you like to watch different movies. It's really a recommendable flick just because it seems to be one of the best this whacky genre of action/horror/fantasty/comedy combo flick has to offer. Definitely one of the most bizarre times I've had in a while watching a movie.

Average Hong Kong smut, but with a fantastic finale!

[Coventry · 7/10 · 9 October 2006]

Perhaps the extreme cinema of the Far East simply isn't my cup of tea, but I can't possibly be as praising about "Seeding of a Ghost" as most of my fellow reviewers around here. Moreover, if it hadn't been for the excellent last half hour and the downright brilliant end-sequences, I probably would have rated the film negatively. "Seeding of a Ghost" is a difficult film to get into… It's all very hectic at first, with the introduction of numerous characters and the entire plot synopsis as described on the back of the DVD happening in the first 10 minutes already. Oh yes, the least you can say about this Shaw-brothers production is that it's a spirited and outrageous film! An amiable-looking cab driver accidentally runs over a sorcerer and this uncanny figure promptly informs him that very BAD things will happen to him as from that moment. He sure isn't lying, as the cabbie's wife starts an extramarital relationship with a gambler and shortly after she's raped and killed by a duo of thugs. The heartbroken cab driver, after being suspected of the murder by the police, attempts to get back in contact with the sorcerer and develops a plan to wreak havoc upon everyone who was responsible for his wife's death. The whole building up to the supernatural vengeance (which is, according to me, the actual point of the film) is very incoherent and contains too many redundant moments. Considering the available budget, however, it's an adequately made film with a solid director and fairly stylish camera-work. Even though you sometimes haven't got the slightest idea what's going on, you keep watching because it's intriguing and because you inexplicably know that somehow your patient will be rewarded. And, indeed, then comes the sensational finale that instantly causes you to ignore everything that might or might not had bothered you until then. The gambler's pregnant wife literally SPAWNS a grotesque and hideous monster that repulsively butchers a whole bunch of unrelated party guests. It's a non-stop series of splattering blood and guts and it kind of feels like a crossover between John Carpenter's "The Thing" and Peter Jackson's "Braindead". You don't have to be a horror specialist to realize there are far worse films to get compared with! The make-up effects are deliciously nasty and the smutty monster is a very engaging little creation. It's one of the greatest closures to an average film I ever saw and it forced me to rate the wholesome rather positively after all. Recommended especially to cult-hunters and other sick puppies.

Do Not Interfere With Black Magic

[SamuraiNixon · 6/10 · 9 November 2011]

I have been putting this off for a few years (I have had the DVD since 2009) mainly because I thought it was going to be shockfest that outdid The Boxer's Omen in gonzo-style horror. Well it was not even close to The Boxer's Omen which still holds a place deep in the suppressed subconscious of my cranium (actually it is more weird and gross than actually scary). In fact this has to be one of the most overstated and over-hyped horror films of Hong Kong though this is not a horrible film.

Chow (Phillip Ko: The Boxer's Omen, Shaolin Intruders) interrupts black magic by inadvertently saving the life of a black magic priest who is being chased down by an angry mob. Because of this the priest says at best he will get very sick and at worst his whole family will die. Since this is a horror film we know which scenario is going to take place. A film with him just being sick would not be as fun. But it is especially hilarious that it seems that the angry mob gets off clean and that he picked up the priest far from where the incantation went awry. I am probably over-thinking this.

Chow's wife Irene has been cheating on him because of his lowly taxi driver job, taxi drivers are a deranged lot (ask Anthony Wong), and his hair (seriously one of the worst wigs I have seen, worse than a Sammo Hung haircut). She is enticed by playboy Anthony Fong Ming (Norman Chu Siu-Keung: Bastard Swordsman) who visits her job of dealing cards and showers her with money, gifts, better hair (to be fair to Phillip check out Norman's perm in Hong Kong Godfather) and affection. One night those two adulterers have a fight and she gets out of the car and goes off by herself. Never good to be alone late at night when ruffians are about. She is confronted by two young hooligans who chase her down, one rapes her and ultimately she gets killed (why she runs into an abandoned house I do not know, why there would be an abandoned house in an abandoned area Hong Kong I also do not know).

When Chow finds out she is dead, he is ultimately a suspect for about 15 seconds. Fong is another suspect and despondent Chow finds out about the affair. He gets bad ideas in his head and wants revenge at all costs for those involved and goes to the black magic priest (still dressed like a shirtless jungle native; I wonder if he goes to the store like that) to seek revenge. This requires that they dig out his wife's corpse and he is warned that his monomaniacal revenge will likely result in his demise as well. The corpse is used quite effectively and it is creepy, the most scary aspect of the film. You can see it on the cover of the DVD and poster.

Fans of horror could do worse by seeking this out. I do not think it is as unique/interesting/gratuitous as Black Magic or The Boxer's Omen out of the Shaw Brothers horror oeuvre and I would suggest seeking those out first. This film overdoes the sleazy exploitation aspect of it, elongates the nudity and the film comes off more as a voyeuristic exercise especially in the beginning which starts to drag on. The slow motion topless running scene becomes almost absurd in its length and its use of the zoom lens. But you do get the benefit of a few fight scenes decently done involving Phillip Ko (still mad about the outcome with Norman Chu) who proves once again that you should not mess with taxi drivers or Phillip Ko. You also get a variety of gross out moments, Taoist priests, scares all done better in a variety of Hong Kong films. However, when the ghost is seeded there are plenty of horror elements, while keeping the exploitation element alive, especially towards the finale that will be of interest to viewers. There you get to witness a creature that seems inspired by John Carpenter's The Thing while a segment from the soundtrack from Alien is played.

I have the R1 Image release and it has English and Spanish subtitles. It comes with the Mandarin mono dub only. The R3 IVL release comes with both the Cantonese and Mandarin dub. At the time of the Hong Kong audience would have heard the Cantonese soundtrack, but most of the transnational audience would have heard it in Mandarin. Since at the time post dubbing was the norm and multiple dialects were often used on set it does not matter as much to me. However, this is a controversial topic where some have to have the "preferred" dub. I personally would like a release from this time period to have both the Cantonese and Mandarin language, but I will take what I can get. There are plenty of the Image released Shaw Brothers trailers (not the original trailers) on this release, but no trailer for the movie.

slow to start, but oh my, what a finish!

[PKazee · 7/10 · 28 June 2014]

A grave robber is chased onto the road and accidentally run over by taxi driver, Philip Ko Fei. Ko Fei gets out of the car to check on the man, but he has disappeared, only to reappear in Ko Fei's back seat. He tells Ko Fei that he is a Taoist wizard and he used black magic to save himself from death. He also tell's Ko Fei that he (Ko Fei) is now cursed to a life of misfortune for having crossing paths with him. Sure enough, we soon discover that Ko Fei's wife is having an affair with the married Norman Chu. Roughly 20 minutes of unspectacular nude romping leads up to Chu refusing her offer of the both of them leaving their spouses for one another. She gets angry and jumps out of the car, but not before the pair have an ugly encounter with a couple of cocky young men in a red sports car. Both cars leave, and the woman then makes her way to a phone booth, where she calls her hubby's taxi dispatcher to ask that they send Ko Fei over immediately to fetch her. Before he gets there, however, the guys in the red sports car return. They abduct her and take her to an abandoned mansion, where one of them rapes her and knocks her about a bit, accidentally causing her to fall over a balcony ledge to her death. Upon arriving at the phone booth, Ko Fei receives another call from the taxi dispatcher informing him that his wife is now at the mansion, a message that seems rather curious, given that nobody at the mansion had access to a phone, and – in fact – when questioned later, the dispatcher says she made no such call to Ko Fei. Ko Fei then seeks out the Taoist wizard for help and THAT is when the film really begins to get good. It takes a LONG time to get to this point (maybe 40 minutes), but everything from this point on is great fun involving a reanimated corpse with a need to be "seeded", the demonic possession of Norman Chu's wife, and the bloody, explosive birth of the corpse's revenge-seeking evil seed!

Hong Kong horror craziness for fans of the bizarre.

[BA_Harrison · 7/10 · 12 August 2007]

A taxi driver is warned that he will experience bad luck, after his path crosses with that of a strange practitioner of black magic. Sure enough, his beautiful young wife soon embarks on an affair with a suave gambler. Shortly after, he is accused of murder when his spouse is raped and killed by two thugs. And if that wasn't enough, the poor bloke is crippled after trying to beat up his dead wife's lover.

Suitably upset, he decides to enlist the help of the strange sorcerer who first foretold his run of ill fortune, and, by using the dark powers of witchcraft, attempts to exact revenge on the man who stole his woman, and the two responsible for her death.

As 80s Hong Kong horror goes, this movie from the Shaw Brothers studio is a fairly typical example: the story is bizarre, there are plenty of moments that defy logic and it is loaded with shonky creatures and OTT gore. Throw in some gritty fight scenes, a brutal rape, and quite a bit of female nudity (including full frontal) from cute Asian women, and the result is an enjoyable slice of Eastern sleaze that never bores, and even sometimes surprises.

This is perhaps the only film where one might witness a man being sodomised with a giant match-stick, a spirit impregnate a putrefying corpse in mid-air, and a finalé in which a multi-tentacled foetus creature erupts bloodily from its 'mother' and attacks guests at a party.

Words just can't fully describe this film

[Bogey Man · 10/10 · 26 October 2002]

Yang Chuan is the man who directed this film, SEEDING OF A GHOST (1983) for the legendary Hong Kong Shaw Brothers, who produced many martial art classics and many "explicit horrors" which are so rare not many know anything about them. SEEDING is among the most insane films I've seen and this hyper rare film surpassed most likely every expections I had, and those were very high. I knew Hong Kong film makers can create things which simply cannot be found from elsewhere, and in the horror genre, they are as unique as in action and fantasy, too.

SEEDING tells the story of a cab driver (Philip Ko), whose wife has a lover whom with she spends a lot of time. One night the wife, Irene, is attacked in the street and raped and killed by some hooligans. The taxi driver husband finds her and sadly becomes number one suspect for the murder. At the very beginning and during the credits of the film, the taxi driver met a strange fellow who said he knows about and practises black magic and other "voodoo related stuff." He said to the cab driver that things may not go very well for him from now on because they have met.. Now, after the murder of his wife, the taxi driver remembers this guy and tracks him down. He finds the ominous looking man, and wants to revenge the murder of his wife. The black magic warlock agrees and he creates a horrific curse on all those who were involved in the murder. What follows is a series of over-the-top gory and insane mayhem filled with black magic, devils, tentacle monsters, worms and other things one would expect finding from Hell itself.

This film is the final nail to the coffin of the fact that the Hong Kong film makers really know how to create dark horror films, which this kind of films are called among the cult cinema specialists. Other similar "dark horrors" are (I haven't managed to track these down yet) RAPE AFTER, BLACK MAGIC and BLACK MAGIC 2 aka REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES. Many of these are produced by the Shaw Brothers and directed by man named Ho Men-Hua, and as far as I know, only RAPE AFTER isn't by Shaw and Ho, unlike many source books seem to say. I've heard this from one very reliable Asian cinema specialist who I believe of course in these difficult questions about these more-than-rare Asian films and oddities.

SEEDING OF A GHOST is dark with the capital D. There is smoke and shadows everywhere and only the beginning of the film has some genuine day light which seems peaceful and safe. But once the curse starts to affect, there's no hope for light or safety no more to the characters than the viewer! The effects are perhaps the most important elements here as they are so imaginative and detailed to the maximum effect. The monsters and creatures from the other side are as effective as in John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) for example, and the budget for SEEDING wasn't too big I think, so they are all created by great imagination and talent to spend the limited budget.

The gore filled and monster inhabited mayhem on screen is incredible. There is a "devil fetus" who explodes through the hapless mother who starts to feel pain in her belly. What comes from her stomach is equally horrific as in David Cronenberg's masterpiece The Fly (1986), and it's very close to the tentacle monster in Carpenter's The Thing, too. Especially SEEDING's finale, during which this devil fetus is born, too, is an amazing barrage of bloody and nightmarish terror which cannot be controlled by the hapless people trapped inside that fateful apartment. The devil fetus once it gets born kills its victims with nasty tentacles which impale and rip anybody hapless enough to get in touch with them. There's also some very graphic nightmare scenes before the ending, too, and one of these is also illustrated in Tom Weisser's Asian Trash Cinema Book next to SEEDING review. I mean the scene in which one of the rapists suddenly starts to vomit worms while eating his food. Also the scene in which the guy gets his spine cursed through his back in explicit detail is again something never before seen in any other horror effort. These Hong Kong directors can create something which necessarily doesn't require plenty of money, but are as (and often, more) effective and nerve shocking as those made with plenty of money but not so plenty of talent.

The dialogue and screenplay isn't too great at all, and the dialogue especially is inept. People say what they think and they say things which should not be said in any noteworthy film. Everybody always screams something like "What are you doing!" when character's stomach explodes or gets his spine ripped off by an invisible force. This kind of brainless dialogue is very usual with some Hong Kong films, and I hated to find it that much in SEEDING, too. But I came to conclusion that the film is perfect in its "dark DARK horror level" so I don't give this the lower rating it deserved because of these errors. If reviewed as a piece of cinema, this would definitely not get the 10 stars rating, but when reviewed as a piece of Hong Kong terror cinema and Asian cult cinema, then this gets easily the ten rating, because it is something I hadn't seen before and something I think isn't easily surpassed anymore. I hope I can track RAPE AFTER and others of its kind down soon and see can they surpass the insanity and impact of SEEDING OF A GHOST in any way. Have a good night's sleep!

Strange And Obscure HK Horror...

[EVOL666 · 6/10 · 22 December 2005]

SEEDING OF A GHOST is a pretty bizarre HK horror film about infidelity and revenge. Although the film is pretty decent as a whole, I didn't find it quite as gory or intense as many other reviewers.

A cab driver is out doing his thing one night and accidentally runs down a sorcerer (talk about bad luck...). The sorcerer talks about a curse on the cab drivers family and the driver ain't really buyin' it...until his wife is raped and murdered, that is. The cab driver goes back to the sorcerer to try and enlist his help in exacting a little black-magic revenge on the thugs responsible for his wife's death, and things start to go downhill from there. The sorcerer and the cabbie dig up the cabbie's dead wife to use in a ritual to bring vengeance down on those involved with her death. The resulting payback sure is a bitch...

SEEDING has some pretty decent scenes and a few gross-out moments, but not quite as many as I was expecting. The pace is pretty slow at first and the "cool parts" don't really happen until pretty close to the end. The creature that bursts from the pregnant woman towards the very end is pretty cool looking and is rightly compared to some of the creature FX used in Carpenter's THE THING. Not a bad film overall, could have used a little more gore and a little more action towards the first half of the film. Recommended for those into strange Asian horror. 6.5/10

Is there a sillier film out there?

[christopher-underwood · 5/10 · 6 November 2019]

Is there a sillier film out there? Yes, of course there is and I can remember having quite a passion for these crazy Hong Kong movies back in the video days. Viewed, up close and personal on Blu-ray not so sure. This begins in a rather childish manner with lots of shouting, gambling, baring of breast and fighting. Then it turns a bit more nasty, black magic (or the Hong Kong Chinese version of it) is introduced and gradually we go from childish pranks to complete gross out over the final 20 minutes. I had to double check at the end as to the length of the film that seems to drag, but no, just less than 90 minutes. Just seems longer. Should mention that the special effects, whilst not absolutely top notch, are perfectly adequate and if you are looking for insides outside, loads of goo and gunge, exploding toilets and bloody entrails, this is for you

Another early 80's gross-out HK horror.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 8/10 · 24 December 2005]

The plot of this sleazy HK piece of horror is fairly simple:Phillip Ko's wife is raped and murdered by a couple punks after being dropped off in the middle of nowhere by her lover named Fang.Ko hires a master of witchcraft and all hell breaks loose.With the help of the wizard Irene's would-be rapists meet a gruesome end and Fang soon gets his just deserts as well."Seeding of a Ghost" is loaded with soft core sex and some wonderfully over-the-top gore with the devil fetus on the bloody rampage.The acting is poor as are the production values,but I don't care.This Shaw Brothers-produced horror flick is entertaining and weird enough to satisfy fans of HK oddities. It's not as gruesome as "The Devil","Red Spell Spells Red" or "Calamity of Snakes",but if you like 'em sleazy and bloody you can't miss it.8 out of 10.

Crazy, gruesome HK horror flick - watch it for a wild ride

[Groverdox · 7/10 · 24 April 2021]

When some kind of male witch is disturbed in the process of robbing graves by a vengeful mob holding torches come to kill him, he runs across the road where he is immediately struck by a taxi driver. The driver sees the man under the wheel of his car, but then he teleports in the car seat behind him, apparently now safe from the mob. However, he warns the driver that now they have met, things will not go well for him: he is cursed.

The taxi driver doesn't seem to take much notice, and after all he has a beautiful woman at home, and we are treated to plentiful nudity as we are shown their romance, bathing together and apparently spraying each other with water in another scene. They really don't seem to be asking for much but to be together, but then the woman goes off the man almost immediately, and it is revealed she is cheating with another guy. However, while out with that guy, she runs into a pair of ne'er-do-wells, who eventually rape and inadvertently murder her.

Realising that he was being cuckolded and this led to his wife's death, our taxi driver hero seeks out the witch again, who puts curses on all the people who wronged him. We then get some admittedly striking, often revolting scenes of visions suffered by these characters, such as live worms pouring out of the mouth of one poor actor. They end in violent death, which while not realistically shown - one guy throws himself out of a window and hits the ground in the least realistic impact I've ever seen - are still gruesome and hard to watch.

I believe that toward the end the hero needed to enlist a "good witch" to save himself and others from the increasing madness of the bad witch he'd already contacted, but I'm not sure. Typically for a Category III flick from Hong Kong, the movie lets sense take a back seat in favour of increasingly shocking imagery, which while perhaps poor by contemporary Hollywood standards, is always creative and interesting.

I say check it out.

Insanity

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 3 May 2021]

A black magic sorcerer is just trying to dig up some bones for his latest spell when he's chased by a group of angry citizens, right into the cab of our hero, Chau. He lives through getting hit by the car, but tells the cab driver that he's about. To go through some bad luck.

And just like that, Chau's wife starts sleeping with a gambler who really doesn't care about her, even leaving her in a bad part of town where she's assaulted and killed, falling out a window to her death, her spirit calling to Chau via his CB radio.

That's when Chau decides that it's time to find that black magic dude and get some horrible, horrible revenge.

The spell that ensues is so powerful, it blows the lid off Chau's wife Irene's coffin. There's also corpse sex and a monster baby sent to destroy the two villains who dared to ruin Chau's life. And he also learns that the more magic he uses, the more his body pays the price.

Look, a ghost has sex with a reanimated corpse over a black magic altar, a tentacled demon baby runs around and a toilet blows up real good. It's not the best movie you've ever seen, but it may be the goopiest, the kind of film that tells The Thing, "Oh yeah? Hold my San Miguel."

Wild, Gory Action Punctuates Soap Opera-ish Plotting

[jfrentzen-942-204211 · 7/10 · 7 February 2024]

Angry men chase a sinister warlock through a misty cemetery. He runs into a street and under the wheels of a taxi driven by Chow, but then appears in the back seat of the speeding taxi. Irene, who deals cards at a Hong Kong casino, tries to pressure her boyfriend, Fang, into divorcing his wife so they can be together; she's married to Chow, who is diddling on the side, as well.

These characters, like the viewer, are stuck in a dull soap-opera for awhile, but SEEDING OF A GHOST shoots into high gear after Irene is raped and murdered by two young thugs. An enraged, grieving Chow blackmails the warlock into casting spells on the killers, Fang, and assorted friends and relatives.

From there, the filmmakers throw in every sick twist imaginable. Chow and the warlock exhume Irene's corpse. In the warlock's lair, and Chow is instructed to paint the decrepit body with coconut oil, "So she';ll feel better." As she comes alive, her killers start to hallucinate. One of the rapists is brought to her for some mystical necrophilia. This union culminates in a posthumous pregnancy, which is somehow transferred to the womb of Fang's expectant wife.

In the all-out, gory finale, the demon fetus liberates itself from the mother and goes on a murderous rampage. One character eats brains out of a coconut shell; there's an exploding toilet, strangulation by bra strap, gravity-defying sex, and (gulp) blood pastries. In one hideous sequence, Chow drains all of his blood into Irene's corpse as he slowly dies in agony.

SEEDING OF A GHOST is lively and competently directed, especially during two prolonged episodes in which magicians battle unsuccessful to put an end to the vendetta. Special effects credits are all top-notch, which will be of no comfort to viewers with queasy stomachs.

Last House on the Left + The Thing + The Evil Dead = Seeding of a Ghost

[squeezebox · 8/10 · 26 May 2006]

This cab driver hits a man running across the road who turns out to be a warlock who was being chased by an angry mob for robbing graves who then suddenly appears in the cabbie's back seat and then informs him that since their paths have crossed the cabbie's luck will change for the worse which turns out to be pretty prophetic because his wife first cheats on him then is raped and murdered by two thugs which so enrages him that he looks up the warlock to put a curse on the men responsible (not to mention the guy who she was screwing) so together they dig up her body and cast the spell which leads to one of the thugs puking worms and causes his toilet to explode and the boyfriend to be sodomized by his possessed wife with a giant matchstick and the second thug to have his spine grow out of his body and then causes the boyfriend's wife to become pregnant with a monster that explodes out of her at a party and proceeds to rip her doctor's face off and eat the guests. THE END.

A must see.

'And when there's no more womb in hell the devil will come inside...you!!!!'

[Weirdling_Wolf · 10/10 · 27 April 2021]

Arguably one of the more maternally malign, perversely placenta splattering, trimester truncating shockers from the Shaw Bros, those fiendishly far-out, far eastern fear-masters of outré Shock-Socky phantasmagoria! Macabre maestro, Chuan Yang's inventively insane intrauterine Body Horror classic 'Seeding of a Ghost' (1983) remains an ex-seedingly sinister, preternaturally strange, riotously wrong-headed Voodoo revenge chunkblower! This gynaecologically gruesome supernatural sickie is a sublime fetus of fiendishly fertile fright-making! After you watch the belly burstingly bonkers 'Seeding of a Ghost' and continue dabbling in black magic for corporeal gains, prepare to double down deadly as the devil always plays a rigged game, whereby ALL bets are off...with your head! Confucius say 'Sometimes two wrongs can moist definitely make a right mess...of your wife!!!!!'

More visceral horror from Shaw

[Leofwine_draca · 8/10 · 31 March 2017]

SEEDING OF A GHOST is another incredibly visceral slice of Hong Kong horror that comes to us courtesy of the Shaw Brothers studio. It's a film that might as well be called BLACK MAGIC 3 as it feels very much like the previous films in that series as opposed to something like HEX or THE BOXER'S OMEN, more contemporary fare. The film's protagonist is the excellent and under-appreciated Phillip Ko, who plays a taxi driver whose life falls apart when he accidentally interrupts a black magic spell by knocking over the wizard busy casting it.

The film then slows down a gear to depict Ko's wife, busy having an affair with co-star Norman Chu. This goes on for a while and there's plenty of sex and nudity for those who enjoy that stuff. Eventually, Ko's wife is accidentally killed after being raped by a couple of street thugs, and he brings her back from the dead for revenge. You know the score here: there's a whole bunch of icky ritual scenes with a dead body, some outlandish and pioneering special effects work, and lots of weird deaths and decaying scenes.

This film's major sources of inspiration seem to be THE THING, DEATH WISH 2, ALIEN, and THE EVIL DEAD. The FX are wacky and gross in the extreme and also very good. Ko and Chu are seasoned professionals and help to ground the movie; they play off nicely against each other too. There's a little action here and there although the main emphasis is on displaying the female form in its unclothed glory. The usual worm-spewing gross-out scenes are present. Things build to a mini monster movie climax which really does have to be seen to be believed; it's something else, that's for sure.

Seeding of a Ghost (1983)

[jonahstewartvaughan · 8/10 · 7 May 2023]

Cult Cuts Volume 21 (80s Horror Retrospective #5)

#4/4: Seeding of a Ghost (1983)

(8/10): A Shaw Brothers Production that's been one of their many dives into the Horror genre.

Shaw Brothers was a company that emerged in Hong Kong the latter part of the fifties and throughout the sixties and seventies became increasingly well known for their Martial Arts films but they also had been making comedy and also horror films as well and many of their later horror outings became well known in the horror community as they were branded with the Category III label, and here we have one of their most famous horror films.

Seeding of the Ghost is the story of a taxi driver who accidentally hits an old man with his car, later finding out that the man was a sorcerer who had hexed him.

His wife walked out on him and is brutally raped and killed by a bunch of mean spirited teenagers.

The man then begs the sorcerer to lift the hex and bring his wife back to life.

Then they begin a series of Black Magic rituals that then lead to zombie and spiritual chaos ensuing.

This film has what I have very much appreciated in the Hong Kong horror films I've seen so far, it's deep rooted in heavy cultural atmosphere and it's not structured like western horror films, it's not afraid to be a little crazy.

It has many scenes of different visions,mysteries injury or possession plaguing the families of the teens who killed his wife when all concludes in a birth scene that is, in my opinion, worth the wait.

It's not like nothing happens before the birth scene, it's just slower but the creature is like something out of a John Carpenter movie but with added, elongated tentacles.

It's crazy cool.

The gore effects are great, they're gooey, slimy and gross.

It's also got another thing that I absolutely loved about the other two Shaw Brothers horror films I've seen from the eighties, the presentation is top notch.

It's foggy, dimly lit and just feels so quality.

I can't believe that this one is still out of print, but I hope a reissue is on the horizon, tons of Shaw Brothers stuff is coming back in print so hopefully more of their horror films will come soon.

If you can track a copy down, I recommend it, but it's probably going to get a reprint so you could probably wait until then.

Highly recommended though, if you're into Asian Horror.

Wonderfully wild Hong Kong splatter epic.

[Hey_Sweden · 9/10 · 20 October 2021]

One night, a cab driver (Phillip Ko) chances to hit a sorcerer / grave robber with his cab, although the man doesn't seem to be injured at all. Later, the cabbie seeks the assistance of the sorcerer and black magic to seek revenge for wrongs that have been perpetrated against him.

"Seeding of a Ghost" doesn't really become a horror film until its second half. Until then, it's a rather sordid melodrama about the tragedies that befall Chou Tang. This involves an extramarital affair, a rape & accidental killing, and the use of a spirit in obtaining this much-desired revenge.

The film ultimately becomes so glorious that this viewer ended up grinning from ear to ear. It's a veritable smorgasbord of sex (there's abundant full frontal nudity from two of the sexy actresses), sleaze, and full-on gore. There are plenty of delicious gross-you-out moments; the makeup and creature FX department here really need to take a bow. And yet, this is all played fairly tongue in cheek. It's crazy and wacky enough to make it a very amusing sort of entertainment, that climaxes in a battle between good and evil (as priests attempt an exorcism) and a riotous birthing sequence. There are also some very lively fight sequences.

You do feel bad for Chou Tang. Not only is the man cuckolded, but he must suffer the indignity of being crippled by his nemeses. Ko delivers a fine, able performance in the role. Hussein Abu Hassan is a standout as the demonic sorcerer, who warns Chou Tang that any revenge he seeks will have to come at a tremendous personal cost to him.

Directed with brio by Kuen Yeung, this is a prime Asian example of "extreme cinema" that comes highly recommended.

Nine out of 10.

Justice for black magic user

[phanthinga · 9/10 · 20 March 2019]

In the Black magic genre from Hong Kong usually the villian always be the black magic user and the good ones are the bystander who caugh up in the middle but on a rare occasion the roles got reversed and Seeding of a Ghost is a fine example of that. Tha man character Chou Tang played by Phillip Ko probably is the best husband ever in my opinion with all the messed up stuff he went though just to revenge for his unfaithful wife and thank to him this movie end with an absolute bloody and gory bang. Totally enjoyable from start to finish with great practical effects and a lot of WTF scenes Seeding of a Ghost is a movie that worth checking out for fan of extreme asian cinema