One of the all-time foundational fixtures in horror is the vampire. That means over a century’s worth of bloodsuckers in film, in various styles and mythology, from across the globe.
As prominent as this movie monster is, with dozens of adaptations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula alone, there’s an overwhelming selection of vampire fare that makes it easy for many worthwhile gems to fall through the cracks. This week’s streaming picks are dedicated to underseen vampire horror movies worth seeking out.
As always, here’s where you can stream them this week.
For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.
Mr. Vampire – The Criterion Channel – Plex, the Roku Channel
This supernatural genre-bender from director Ricky Lau stands far apart from standard vampire fare thanks to its comedy, martial arts, and jiangshi. Taoist priest Master Kau (Lam Ching-ying) guards the realm of the living by maintaining control...
As prominent as this movie monster is, with dozens of adaptations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula alone, there’s an overwhelming selection of vampire fare that makes it easy for many worthwhile gems to fall through the cracks. This week’s streaming picks are dedicated to underseen vampire horror movies worth seeking out.
As always, here’s where you can stream them this week.
For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.
Mr. Vampire – The Criterion Channel – Plex, the Roku Channel
This supernatural genre-bender from director Ricky Lau stands far apart from standard vampire fare thanks to its comedy, martial arts, and jiangshi. Taoist priest Master Kau (Lam Ching-ying) guards the realm of the living by maintaining control...
- 4/23/2024
- by Meagan Navarro
- bloody-disgusting.com
Few American filmmakers of the last 40 years await a major rediscovery like Hal Hartley, whose traces in modern movies are either too-minor or entirely unknown. Thus it’s cause for celebration that the Criterion Channel are soon launching a major retrospective: 13 features (which constitutes all but My America) and 17 shorts, a sui generis style and persistent vision running across 30 years. Expect your Halloween party to be aswim in Henry Fool costumes.
Speaking of: there’s a one-month headstart on seasonal programming with the 13-film “High School Horror”––most notable perhaps being a streaming premiere for the uncut version of Suspiria, plus the rare opportunity to see a Robert Rodriguez movie on the Criterion Channel––and a retrospective of Hong Kong vampire movies. A retrospective of ’70s car movies offer chills and thrills of a different sort
Six films by Allan Dwan and 12 “gaslight noirs” round out the main September series; The Eight Mountains,...
Speaking of: there’s a one-month headstart on seasonal programming with the 13-film “High School Horror”––most notable perhaps being a streaming premiere for the uncut version of Suspiria, plus the rare opportunity to see a Robert Rodriguez movie on the Criterion Channel––and a retrospective of Hong Kong vampire movies. A retrospective of ’70s car movies offer chills and thrills of a different sort
Six films by Allan Dwan and 12 “gaslight noirs” round out the main September series; The Eight Mountains,...
- 8/21/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Though I’m sure there are only approximately 2 people reading this who haven’t seen the original Mr Vampire, we have to set some context before we delve into Eureka’s two disc set of its sequels.
1985’s Mr Vampire (also on Blu-ray from Eureka) stars Lam Ching-Ying as a Taoist priest who, along with his students (Ricky Hui and Chin Siu-ho) has to fight off supernatural threats like a ghost that wants to seduce one of the students and the undead grandfather of Ting-Ting (Moon Lee), who they were supposed to rebury, but allowed to turn and escape. It’s great fun, narratively nonsense a lot of the time, but also somewhat rooted in real traditions and Chinese culture (the unique hopping vampires). For my money it earns its reputation as a classic, which brings us to this set.
The Films
Mr Vampire II
This film has almost nothing to do with Mr Vampire.
1985’s Mr Vampire (also on Blu-ray from Eureka) stars Lam Ching-Ying as a Taoist priest who, along with his students (Ricky Hui and Chin Siu-ho) has to fight off supernatural threats like a ghost that wants to seduce one of the students and the undead grandfather of Ting-Ting (Moon Lee), who they were supposed to rebury, but allowed to turn and escape. It’s great fun, narratively nonsense a lot of the time, but also somewhat rooted in real traditions and Chinese culture (the unique hopping vampires). For my money it earns its reputation as a classic, which brings us to this set.
The Films
Mr Vampire II
This film has almost nothing to do with Mr Vampire.
- 5/22/2023
- by Sam Inglis
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Eureka Entertainment are set to release Hopping Mad: The Mr Vampire Sequels, four more vampire-hopping films featuring a bevy of Hong Kong legends. Presented as part of the Eureka Classics range in their UK debuts on Blu-ray from stunning new restorations.
After the huge success of Mr. Vampire, Hong Kong audiences were desperate for more vampire-hopping action and the films’ producers were more than happy to oblige. A steady stream of jiangshi content was produced over the following years, and presented here are 4 of these classic titles from stunning new restorations.
In Mr Vampire II (aka Vampire Family) an archaeologist and his students unwittingly set free a family of hopping vampires who wreak havoc in 1980s Hong Kong. Mr Vampire III returns to a period setting and sees Lam Ching-ying’s Taoist priest battle an evil witch (a brilliant performance by veteran actress Pauline Yuk-Wan Wong). Mr Vampire IV (aka...
After the huge success of Mr. Vampire, Hong Kong audiences were desperate for more vampire-hopping action and the films’ producers were more than happy to oblige. A steady stream of jiangshi content was produced over the following years, and presented here are 4 of these classic titles from stunning new restorations.
In Mr Vampire II (aka Vampire Family) an archaeologist and his students unwittingly set free a family of hopping vampires who wreak havoc in 1980s Hong Kong. Mr Vampire III returns to a period setting and sees Lam Ching-ying’s Taoist priest battle an evil witch (a brilliant performance by veteran actress Pauline Yuk-Wan Wong). Mr Vampire IV (aka...
- 3/3/2023
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
(Welcome to Year of the Vampire, a series examining the greatest, strangest, and sometimes overlooked vampire movies of all time in honor of "Nosferatu," which turns 100 this year.)
Let's get this right out of the way: "Doctor Sleep" is most certainly a vampire movie. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences classifies it that way, and it's there in-between the lines of dialogue, and in the blueprint of Stephen King's book, the sequel to "The Shining." The film adaptation, written and directed by Mike Flanagan, introduces us to a tribe of psychic vampires with glowing eyes called the True Knot, though Flanagan noticeably avoids the word "vampire," just as he did in his Netflix miniseries "Midnight Mass," and just as Guillermo del Toro did in his directorial debut "Cronos."
King's "Doctor Sleep" novel, however, equates the True Knot — led by Rose the Hat — to vampires several times. In one passage,...
Let's get this right out of the way: "Doctor Sleep" is most certainly a vampire movie. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences classifies it that way, and it's there in-between the lines of dialogue, and in the blueprint of Stephen King's book, the sequel to "The Shining." The film adaptation, written and directed by Mike Flanagan, introduces us to a tribe of psychic vampires with glowing eyes called the True Knot, though Flanagan noticeably avoids the word "vampire," just as he did in his Netflix miniseries "Midnight Mass," and just as Guillermo del Toro did in his directorial debut "Cronos."
King's "Doctor Sleep" novel, however, equates the True Knot — led by Rose the Hat — to vampires several times. In one passage,...
- 9/10/2022
- by Joshua Meyer
- Slash Film
"If you meet a vampire, don't breathe." This is the sage advice that Master Kau, the Taoist priest played by Lam Ching-ying, gives to his bumbling apprentices, Man-choi (Ricky Hui) and Chau-sang (Chin Siu-ho), in the 1985 Hong Kong action comedy "Mr. Vampire."
Forget everything you know about bloodsuckers; the undead specimens in "Mr. Vampire" are breath-suckers. They have a very deliberate way of hopping with their arms stretched out in front of them, legs also stiff and straight from rigor mortis. In Chinese, these zombie-like revenants are known as the jiangshi; in Japanese, it's kyonshi, while in English, they're sometimes referred to as "Chinese hopping vampires."
Stirred up by the disinterment of a parent who was buried with bad feng shui, the jiangshi of "Mr. Vampire" are a comedic answer to the unsettled ghosts of subsequent Asian horror films like "Ringu" and "The Eye." They're the reanimated corpses of people...
Forget everything you know about bloodsuckers; the undead specimens in "Mr. Vampire" are breath-suckers. They have a very deliberate way of hopping with their arms stretched out in front of them, legs also stiff and straight from rigor mortis. In Chinese, these zombie-like revenants are known as the jiangshi; in Japanese, it's kyonshi, while in English, they're sometimes referred to as "Chinese hopping vampires."
Stirred up by the disinterment of a parent who was buried with bad feng shui, the jiangshi of "Mr. Vampire" are a comedic answer to the unsettled ghosts of subsequent Asian horror films like "Ringu" and "The Eye." They're the reanimated corpses of people...
- 8/27/2022
- by Joshua Meyer
- Slash Film
This entertaining kung-fu action comedy was released as Spooky Encounters in the United States but it is also known as Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind.
on Amazon
Bold Cheung (Sammo Hung) is a pedicab driver. He is a good fighter and a brave guy, but not particularly bright and often bamboozled by his peers. We see him at the beginning of the film, showing off his bravery and how his friends trick him into a spooky prank. However, while he fools around, his wife and his boss Master Tam (Huang Ha) are having an affair behind his back and when Master Tam feels at risk of being discovered, he decides to get rid of Bold Cheung at once! To do so, he hires a master of witchcraft to help him. Taoist priest and necromancer Chin Hoi (Peter Chan Lung) is going to control corpses on remote...
on Amazon
Bold Cheung (Sammo Hung) is a pedicab driver. He is a good fighter and a brave guy, but not particularly bright and often bamboozled by his peers. We see him at the beginning of the film, showing off his bravery and how his friends trick him into a spooky prank. However, while he fools around, his wife and his boss Master Tam (Huang Ha) are having an affair behind his back and when Master Tam feels at risk of being discovered, he decides to get rid of Bold Cheung at once! To do so, he hires a master of witchcraft to help him. Taoist priest and necromancer Chin Hoi (Peter Chan Lung) is going to control corpses on remote...
- 1/28/2022
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Guest reviewer Lee Broughton returns with an assessment of Sammo Hung’s groundbreaking Hong Kong hit wherein comedy, horror and martial arts elements are brought together in a wholly successful way. This show has it all: kung fu action, duelling mystics, hopping vampires, hungry zombies, haunted mirrors and a sympathetic everyman whose danger-fraught narrative trajectory is littered with moments that are genuinely funny. Excellent production values complete this near perfect picture.
Encounter of the Spooky Kind
Region B Blu-ray
Eureka Entertainment
1980 / Color / 2.35 / 103 min. / Encounters of the Spooky Kind, Spooky Encounters, Gui da Gui / Street Date, 21 June 2021 / £17.99
Starring: Sammo Hung, Fat Chung, Lung Chan, Huang Ha, Suet-Mei Leung, Ching-Ying Lam, Biao Yuen.
Cinematography: Yu-Tang Li
Film Editor: Peter Cheung
Written by Sammo Hung, Ying Wong
Produced by Raymond Chow
Directed by Sammo Hung
“Fat Guts” Cheung (Sammo Hung) is a rickshaw driver in rural China. The “Fat Guts” moniker came about...
Encounter of the Spooky Kind
Region B Blu-ray
Eureka Entertainment
1980 / Color / 2.35 / 103 min. / Encounters of the Spooky Kind, Spooky Encounters, Gui da Gui / Street Date, 21 June 2021 / £17.99
Starring: Sammo Hung, Fat Chung, Lung Chan, Huang Ha, Suet-Mei Leung, Ching-Ying Lam, Biao Yuen.
Cinematography: Yu-Tang Li
Film Editor: Peter Cheung
Written by Sammo Hung, Ying Wong
Produced by Raymond Chow
Directed by Sammo Hung
“Fat Guts” Cheung (Sammo Hung) is a rickshaw driver in rural China. The “Fat Guts” moniker came about...
- 8/17/2021
- by Lee Broughton
- Trailers from Hell
Hong Kong New Wave directress Ann Hui’s sophomore work – after a foray into “Giallo” territory with “The Secret” – is an unusual mix of comedy, horror and Cantonese Opera. “Unusual” at the time of the release but not for longer, as her film, together with Sammo Hung’s “Encounters of the Spooky Kind” of the same year, started off and contributed to define a genre that proved extremely successful and dominated the box office for many years, peaking with “Mr. Vampire” and the huge legacy that spawned from it. “The Spooky Bunch” was screened in 1981 at the Berlin International Film Festival
A rickety, travelling Cantonese Opera group is employed by the wealthy patriarch Ma to perform for him on the island of Cheung Chau. He has a special request though; the support actress Ah Chi (Josephine Siao) must perform in the leading role this time. All this is organised for a precise reason.
A rickety, travelling Cantonese Opera group is employed by the wealthy patriarch Ma to perform for him on the island of Cheung Chau. He has a special request though; the support actress Ah Chi (Josephine Siao) must perform in the leading role this time. All this is organised for a precise reason.
- 5/27/2021
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
In the fifteenth episode of Amp, Panos Kotzathanasis, Adriana Rosati and Don Aneli discuss Ricky Lau’s Mr. Vampire
Combining horror, comedy and martial artsCombining cartoonish action with brutalityThe scene with the coffee, the “prostitute” one, the despicability of the officers and the cunningness of the merchantsThe prison sceneThe role of the femme fatale – her musical introduction and the fight in the finaleMaster Cou’s character and Lan Ching-ying performanceThe success of the film and the franchise that spawned...
Combining horror, comedy and martial artsCombining cartoonish action with brutalityThe scene with the coffee, the “prostitute” one, the despicability of the officers and the cunningness of the merchantsThe prison sceneThe role of the femme fatale – her musical introduction and the fight in the finaleMaster Cou’s character and Lan Ching-ying performanceThe success of the film and the franchise that spawned...
- 5/15/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Ricky Lau will forever be known as the director who started the popular Hong Kong hopping jiangshi (stiff corpse) horror comedy movie series of the late 1980s starting with his “Mr. Vampire” which spawned a few sequels and numerous parodies. Consequently, he also turned leading man Lam Ching Ying who plays the Taoist exorcist into a household name. Fast forward to 2021, he’s back with his Mainland version of the same Qing Dynasty robe wearing; outstretched arms jumping undead but with a difference so he can get pass the strict Chinese censorship which doesn’t allow screen portrayal of vampires, ghosts or any feudalistic ideology.
To get around this, Lau replaces his hopping corpses with a group of opium smuggling bandits who wear fake teeth, fake long finger nails and to help them hop, they now have springs under their shoes. Furthermore, they only appear briefly at the beginning of...
To get around this, Lau replaces his hopping corpses with a group of opium smuggling bandits who wear fake teeth, fake long finger nails and to help them hop, they now have springs under their shoes. Furthermore, they only appear briefly at the beginning of...
- 4/29/2021
- by David Chew
- AsianMoviePulse
Eureka’s June 2021 line-up was announced today and will feature an immersive crime thriller from Johnnie To and a ground-breaking action-horror comedy from legendary director Sammo Hung.
Encounter Of The Spooky Kind (Blu-ray)
A defining film in Hong Kong genre cinema, Encounter of the Spooky Kind blended kung fu, special effects, and Chinese folklore to invent a whole new sub-genre of Asian cinema, the Jiangshi film, which only a few years later would spawn the iconic and hugely successful Mr. Vampire.
Limited Edition Slipcase, Poster and Booklet
More Info
Ptu
(Blu-ray) Ptu (Blu-ray)
An atmospheric noir thriller from director Johnnie To, Ptu is set against a Hong Kong that never sleeps, and follows a stolen police gun that triggers a suspenseful and unpredictable chain of events.
Limited Edition Slipcase and Booklet
More Info...
Encounter Of The Spooky Kind (Blu-ray)
A defining film in Hong Kong genre cinema, Encounter of the Spooky Kind blended kung fu, special effects, and Chinese folklore to invent a whole new sub-genre of Asian cinema, the Jiangshi film, which only a few years later would spawn the iconic and hugely successful Mr. Vampire.
Limited Edition Slipcase, Poster and Booklet
More Info
Ptu
(Blu-ray) Ptu (Blu-ray)
An atmospheric noir thriller from director Johnnie To, Ptu is set against a Hong Kong that never sleeps, and follows a stolen police gun that triggers a suspenseful and unpredictable chain of events.
Limited Edition Slipcase and Booklet
More Info...
- 3/25/2021
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
When A Chinese Ghost Story premiered in 1987, it was already part of a unique category – the fusion of horror, comedy, and Kung Fu. Asian horror films are known as jiangshi, which is the name of a specific spooky hopping ghost found in Chinese folklore that proliferates these films.
Part zombie, part vampire, jiangshi are corpses that are usually reanimated by demons or Daoist sorcerers. They hop along mindlessly with their arms outstretched like sleepwalkers, and feed on the life essence – or qi – of the living. Often a jiangshi is blind but can smell breath. This makes for great comic hijinks as hapless characters struggle to hold their breath while gruesome jiangshi shove their rotting noses close to their mouths trying to pick up the scent.
Comedy is a common horror film device. It releases tension and leaves the audience unguarded for the next jump scare. The addition of Kung Fu...
Part zombie, part vampire, jiangshi are corpses that are usually reanimated by demons or Daoist sorcerers. They hop along mindlessly with their arms outstretched like sleepwalkers, and feed on the life essence – or qi – of the living. Often a jiangshi is blind but can smell breath. This makes for great comic hijinks as hapless characters struggle to hold their breath while gruesome jiangshi shove their rotting noses close to their mouths trying to pick up the scent.
Comedy is a common horror film device. It releases tension and leaves the audience unguarded for the next jump scare. The addition of Kung Fu...
- 10/25/2020
- by Mike Cecchini
- Den of Geek
Guest reviewer Lee Broughton returns with an assessment of Ricky Lau’s Hong Kong comedy horror show-cum-mystical martial arts romp. Introduced to the vampire mythos are some novel ideas, like scary-looking vampires that get around by hopping on two legs. Effective horror scenarios include expertly choreographed martial arts routines. However, the score on the genre mash-up front is “two out of three ain’t bad:” the brand of broad comedy that Mr. Vampire peddles is hit and miss when it comes to generating genuine laughs.
Mr. Vampire
CineSavant Guest Review
Region B Blu-ray
Eureka Entertainment
1985 / Color / 1.85 / 96 min. / Geung see sin sang / Street Date, 20 July 2020 / £19.99
Starring: Ching-Ying Lam, Ricky Hui, Siu-Ho Chin, Moon Lee, Billy Lau, Ha Huang, Wah Yuen, Siu-Fu Wong, Anthony Chan.
Cinematography: Peter Ngor
Film Editor: Peter Cheung
Production Designer: Sai Kan Lam
Original Music: Melody Bank
Written by Ricky Lau, Cheuk-Hon Szeto, Barry Wong & Ying Wong
Produced...
Mr. Vampire
CineSavant Guest Review
Region B Blu-ray
Eureka Entertainment
1985 / Color / 1.85 / 96 min. / Geung see sin sang / Street Date, 20 July 2020 / £19.99
Starring: Ching-Ying Lam, Ricky Hui, Siu-Ho Chin, Moon Lee, Billy Lau, Ha Huang, Wah Yuen, Siu-Fu Wong, Anthony Chan.
Cinematography: Peter Ngor
Film Editor: Peter Cheung
Production Designer: Sai Kan Lam
Original Music: Melody Bank
Written by Ricky Lau, Cheuk-Hon Szeto, Barry Wong & Ying Wong
Produced...
- 9/1/2020
- by Lee Broughton
- Trailers from Hell
Eureka Entertainment has announced their July 2020 line up today: a trio of classic 1930s horror films starring the iconic Bela Lugosi; and a new 2K restoration of an influential and genre bending horror-comedy. The latter, Ricky Lau’s 1985 chit “Mr. Vampire,” is one of the most genre-defining horror-comedies imaginable. Since its original release, this sensational Hong Kong blockbuster hit spawned at least four sequels and countless spin-offs and imitations of jiang-shi (“hopping vampire”) movies. Limited edition O-Card and Booklet details for “Mr. Vampire” are available below.
Synopsis
One of the most genre-defining (not to mention genre-defying!) horror-comedies imaginable, and one of the key Hong Kong blockbuster hits of the 1980s, the popularity and influence of Mr. Vampirecannot be overstated. Spawning at least four sequels and countless spin-offs and imitations, this Hong Kong horror-comedy to end them all was an understandable crowd-pleasing sensation, and triggered a wave of jiangshi (“hopping vampire”) movies.
Synopsis
One of the most genre-defining (not to mention genre-defying!) horror-comedies imaginable, and one of the key Hong Kong blockbuster hits of the 1980s, the popularity and influence of Mr. Vampirecannot be overstated. Spawning at least four sequels and countless spin-offs and imitations, this Hong Kong horror-comedy to end them all was an understandable crowd-pleasing sensation, and triggered a wave of jiangshi (“hopping vampire”) movies.
- 5/10/2020
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
Yan Pak Wing studied film at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and the University of Melbourne. On the occasion of his debut film, Vampire Cleaning Department in Art Film Fest Kosice, we speak to him about his career, his choices in the movie, the current status of Hk cinema, and many more topics.
Tell us a bit about the path that led you to Vampire Cleanup Department. How did the cooperation with Chiu Sin-hang came to be?
As I remember when I was a little boy, I watched a Hong Kong movie called “Mr.Vampire” with my family. I was totally influenced by this film, and started asking how can this production contain a lot of entertaining elements, scary romance and comedy within 90mins? I think, at that point, I fell in love with Vampire movies. So, when I graduated from film school ( the Hong Kong Academy for...
Tell us a bit about the path that led you to Vampire Cleanup Department. How did the cooperation with Chiu Sin-hang came to be?
As I remember when I was a little boy, I watched a Hong Kong movie called “Mr.Vampire” with my family. I was totally influenced by this film, and started asking how can this production contain a lot of entertaining elements, scary romance and comedy within 90mins? I think, at that point, I fell in love with Vampire movies. So, when I graduated from film school ( the Hong Kong Academy for...
- 6/6/2019
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Ever since it lurched onto the silver screen in 1932, the zombie has become one of the most prominent horror figures in the genre. As they are responsible for numerous adaptations, retooling and reboots over the years, the popularity of the genre has waned over the years here in America which is pretty much barely an issue in Asia. With plenty of incredibly enjoyable titles in their long history that simply don’t get the publicity in America due to way too much coming out here already, it’s time to offer a spotlight on some of these under-appreciated and overlooked gems from Asia.
1. Zombie in a Haunted House
There’s not much to say about this one, as it is incredibly rare and might even be lost, so information about it is quite hard to come-by. However, that is not to say the film isn’t worth bringing up as...
1. Zombie in a Haunted House
There’s not much to say about this one, as it is incredibly rare and might even be lost, so information about it is quite hard to come-by. However, that is not to say the film isn’t worth bringing up as...
- 3/24/2019
- by Don Anelli
- AsianMoviePulse
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