Brother of Darkness (1994)

7/10

EVOL66622 October 2005

Warning: Spoilers

HK director Billy Tang delivers BROTHER OF DARKNESS - an alright CAT III entry, nothing really special but still worth a look to the hard-core HK exploit fans...

One brother is an in-and-out of prison drug abuser, gambler, womanizer...basically an all-around douche-bag. The other (adopted) brother is a real stand-up kinda guy who takes karate when he's older so that he can whip the older brother's ass. Basically the whole film is various tense situations involving the 2 brothers and their family over the years. The story is told flash-back fashion during the younger brothers murder trial for killing the older one...

The strongest thing about BROTHER OF DARKNESS is the performances. Everyone involved (Lily Chung, Ka-Kui Ho, etc...) all do a great job in their roles, and help propel you into the story and have feeling for the characters involved. There's nothing truly incredible about the film, but it is definitely worth a look if are into this sort of thing. A decent amount of sex (not too over-the-top) and the violence is a little more martial-arts cartoonish, than the heavy, serious violence of other CAT III films. Not nearly as strong as the director's "infamous" RED TO KILL, but still worth checking out. 7/10

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another category 3 flick.

czar-108 December 2001

Yep, another category 3 flick that does not fail to nauseate! The story focuses on two brothers, one good and one bad. Well, the bad one is real bad. He likes to smoke crack while singing songs about raping women, in fact he's pretty big on raping his wife in front of his parents when he comes home from jail every few months. He also likes to put cigarette buts out on his son when his family members won't give him money to buy crack, gamble, and go to brothels with. Soon enough the good brother can't take it anymore and a bloodbath ensues. The end. Very hard for some to watch. I recommend this for the seasoned horror and exploitation fan only! A modern classic? Take it for what you will.

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4/10

Mediocre Shocker

GathofBaal3 December 2002

Billy Tang is a great director, but this is nowhere near his classic Red To Kill or even Dr Lamb. Stars Cat. III regulars Lily Chung, Ka-Kui Ho and Money Lo. Gorehounds will be disappointed, while packed with soft core sex, there is no violence until the end. Ka-Kui Ho plays a sleazy criminal, who routinely terrorizes his family when not in prison. He burns his son with cigarettes, robs his mother, rapes his wife, and even attempts to rape his adopted brother's girlfriend. The brother can finally stand no more and attacks him in the bloody finale. Well directed, but very slow and uninvolving. Lacks the energy of Tang's other films. Worth a watch, but don't buy it.

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2/10

Utter crap

fertilecelluloid21 December 2005

Hugo Ng, who played a great incest-, rape-, perversion-loving father in "Daughters of Darkness" is the "Brother of Darkness" in this tedious little outing. While the "Daughter" films were filled with rape, murder, bloody dismemberment (is there any other kind?), smiley-faced misogyny and sundry nastiness, this nonsense wastes the over-the-top Mr. Ng and descends into a softcore sex filler. It is also badly directed (by the usually accomplished Billy Tang), poorly photographed, unevenly edited, and, worst of all, very short on acts of pure evil. There is a reasonably bloody climax, but the process of getting to it will force most to throw in the attention towel way before the curtain drops. Utter crap.

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1/10

quite possibly the worst movie i've ever seen.

hxc014830 September 2005

wow....it's actually quite impressive how bad this movie is. I thought i was going to watch a good, horrible "exploitation" film. The film was supposed to be disturbing and nauseating....it was neither. The film...is a 2 hour very poorly shot softcore (very soft at that) porno with random mediocre scenes of violence and/or supposed "disturbing material". There is no super violent climax, the scenes that have been described as "disturbing" are so campy and ridiculous that they just make you laugh. Now...the sex scenes show absolutely nothing....go on for 30 MINUTES AT A TIME, and repeat themselves wildly. If you really just are a fan of bad movies and can appreciate them for the sole purpose of laughing at how bad they are, this is a good one to get. Like i said, it really impresses me how god-awful some movies can be. If you really want some disturbing and intelligent well made Asian cinema there are a plethora of more accessible and better films that will actually shock and disgust. Checkout some miike or some park, or for real DISGUST, WATCH DOUGLAS BUCK'S "CUTTING MOMENTS". Anyways, you're better off getting something that is A LOT better and also a lot easier to find.

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