CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Leofwine_draca THE SEVENTH CURSE is an unusual little film from Hong Kong, set in Thailand for the most part and featuring plenty of action and very little plot. It's a dark horror/fantasy that has its basis in the queasy Hong Kong horrors like BLACK MAGIC and HEX, as the central character discovers that he's been put under a 'blood spell' which spells imminent death unless he can kill the evil wizard who put him under it.This is the most popular of the Chinese film series featuring the character of 'Wisely', a pipe-smoking professor who fights evil in his spare time. Chow Yun-Fat essays the role here, but as this was before he really hit the big time, he doesn't have a great deal of screen time, although he does make the most of when he appears and that bit at the climax is a hoot.Chin Siu-Ho is a rather stolid lead, and the storyline gets saddled with an ultra-irritating Maggie Cheung as a reporter who tags along for the ride. But the supporting cast is much better: Joyce Godenzi (EASTERN CONDORS) shows up alongside Sibelle Hu, Kara Hui, Yasuaki Kurata, and best of all one of my favourite Hong Kong stars, Dick Wei, who ISN'T cast as the bad guy for a change! Seeing Wei rip up the screen on the side of good is a real treat, and makes this a film impossible to dislike.Elsewhere, THE SEVENTH CURSE is a film fuelled by effects-enhanced mayhem, featuring all manner of bizarre creations. There's the usual army of black-clad cult members, some acrobatic Buddhist monks, a couple of living skeleton monsters, and creatures that look like the alien from ALIEN in both baby and adult form. The effects are rubbery but fun, and there's plenty of artery-spraying gore for the horror fans to enjoy. Alongside ALIEN, a big inspiration here seems to be RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, as THE SEVENTH CURSE has the same kind of madcap, action-heavy exotic adventure. It may not be high art, but it is a lot of fun.

david-sarkies The Seventh Curse is an early Chow Yun Fat movie and is described as being a Hong Kong Indiana Jones. The major difference is that Indiana Jones never received an R rating in Australia (R = restricted to viewers over 18 years of age. Recently I discovered that the R rating in the United States is not the same as the R rating here in Australia. Chasing Amy received an MA in Australia and an R America but I digress).The movie is about an anthropologist, Dr Chester, who stumbles across an attractive woman bathing in a pool in the middle of the jungle in Thailand. He is warned by the expedition leader that she belongs to a tribe run by a witchdoctor, but he ignores his warnings and goes and looks at the tribe. He discovers that the woman is going to be sacrificed to a demon (actually an ancestor, but basically a demon) so he throws caution to the wind and rescues her. Unfortunately they are caught and everybody in his expedition is killed. He escapes but has been inflicted with a curse which causes eruptions on his body. This curse is saited but after a year it begins to happen again so he must return to Thailand and find an antidote.There isn't much in this movie to discuss because it is little more than an adventure movie. The version I watched was dubbed, which is bad because the sound track has to be redone meaning that the sounds effects tend to be worse. I prefer subtitled films. The movie deserved its R rating because it had people being ripped apart by demons, spinal cords being sucked out and generally a lot of grossness. What I found weird (and a little annoying) was that they blacked out the rude bits in the movies. I really don't understand why they did that. If the actress didn't want her rude bits shown then they could have filmed it differently. It just really seemed unusual that they would do such a thing.This was a reasonable movie. It had lots of action and lots of mooks getting beaten up and gunned down. It had demons ripping people to pieces and it had the typical Indiana Jones type of stuff with deadly idols, ancient traps, and evil witchdoctors. Not something that stands out. The thing is that they ended it on a moral note as this woman who was deformed was not able to have her deformities removed so they said, "beauty is on the inside, not on the outside." This statement I sort of hold true and I shall explain below.The one thing that we become preoccupied with is the fact that we want a "good looking girlfriend." There is nothing really wrong with that, but what can one describe as being good looking. Well, I think Plato describes it the best in the Symposium. There are levels, starting with the physical and ending with the absolute. One may go for physical beauty but soon discover that this is simply an empty shell with nothing inside, so we go up to the intellectual, the moral, and finally the absolute. What is the absolute? Well Plato claims that it is not possible to exist in this shadow world, but the truth is that you know when you encounter the absolute, because you just know. No, it is not the one true love, because I know of a number of women whose beauty to me is absolute yet I would not marry any of them.

BA_Harrison Loaded with dazzling kung fu, silly monsters, stunts, and cheesy gore, and even managing to throw in the occasional naked oriental chick, The Seventh Curse is sheer entertainment from start to finish.Chin Siu Ho plays Yuan Chen, a brave adventurer who rescues a beautiful Thai woman about to be sacrificed by the evil (and squeaky voiced) Aquala (played by Cat III fave, Elvis Tsui), leader of a bloodthirsty 'worm tribe'. Unfortunately, as a result of his bravery, he becomes the victim of a curse, which causes a series of arteries to burst from his body. With the seventh 'burst', he will die. However, this fate is postponed (for one year) by Betsy, the woman he has saved (who feeds him part of her breast!).When, 12 months later, the curse inevitably kicks back in, Yuan Chen must once again head to the jungles of Thailand in search of the cure for his predicament: magical grains of ash from the eyes of a giant statue of Buddha. Unfortunately, this statue is smack bang in the middle of 'worm tribe' country!Helping Yuan in his quest is a spunky reporter (a young Maggie Cheung), a Thai warrior (Dick Wei), and an expert in witchcraft (Chow Yun Fat). And he needs all the help he can get, since he not only has to battle the 'worm tribe' and its leader, but also a gang of kung fu monks, blood ghosts (vicious little buggers created from the blood of 100 children), and 'old ancestor', a skeletal zombie that can morph into a bat winged monster.The fight scenes are fast, furious and typically 80s in style (meaning that quite a few people crash through glass); the gore is frequent, OTT and very messy; and the monsters are cheap and cheerful rubber creations that are impossible not to find entertaining—meaning that The Seventh Curse is an unmissable treat for any fan of weird Asian cinema.

gerrytwo In this collection of three horror stories, Chow Yun Fat is one of two storytellers at a dinner party, recounting his experiences. The last story, dealing with a gruesome creature that attacks him and the group he is with, has some scarey moments. This story goes over the top as the creature is killed in an explosive splatter of blood and flesh. The first story of the three involves a police siege at a hospital. It has a few tense moments but ends up going nowhere. The frame work of the stories, a party that goes on between episodes, is strange. People laughing and having a good time as either Chow or his associate discuss death, horrible creatures and gruesome events. This Golden Harvest production does nothing to enhance Chow Yun Fat's reputation. Not to end this review on a negative note, the special effects are well done.