If, like myself, you grew up in darkened theaters watching kung fu classics like THE Chinese PROFESSIONALS (which starred Wang Yu as a one-armed "boxer" and featured a long-haired, fanged fellow known as "the Kung Fu Beast"), or even if you were just fortunate enough to catch some of these monsterpieces of cable television over the years, you'll find in SHAOLIN VS. THE EVIL DEAD some familiar types. For starters, there are the infamous "hopping vampires" of Chinese lore. Throw in a venerable shaman and two sidekicks (so to speak) and you've got all the ingredients for some supernatural kung fu fun. (My favorite part has to be the scene where the boy, uh, "gives birth" to his supernatural son in the outdoor outhouse...) The only real gripe I have with this one is the abrupt ending: the movie ends, quite literally, in the middle of a scene. The clips that run during the closing credits suggest a series of movies have been made... but at no other time during the proceedings are we even aware of this. Other than that, a fun film.
Review of Shao Lin jiang shi
