by Linda Kay
Original Title: Gou hun jiang tou
Also Known As: Revenge of the Zombies
Directed by: Meng-Hua Ho
This review contains implied Kitty Carnage Warning!
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: A hospital is riddled with patients whose gory symptoms “defy medical explanation” and Dr. Shi Chen-Sheng (Wei-Tu Lin) tries to convince his visiting colleagues that it is the work of black magic, but they remain skeptical until things get personal.
Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): The black magician behind all the gross happenings is Kang Cong (Lieh Lo). When we first see him he has put a spell on a woman and takes her back to his palatial mansion. A Siamese cat greets them with an angry meow.
Kang picks up the Siamese and gives the kitty a pat before placing the cat on another table and taking the girl downstairs.
Several times when Kang comes home or someone comes to visit him, he takes pains to hold the cat even while performing his spells.
The cat doesn’t play any actual part in the story except in one scene when Dr. Chen-Sheng goes to the house to try to prove that Kang is behind the black magic.
Kang holds the cat while trying several methods to get the doctor to succumb, all to no avail.
As a last resort, Kang tosses the cat at the doctor, causing several long scratches across the Chen-Sheng’s arm. However the doctor refuses treatment by Kang and leaves in a hurry, preventing the man from getting any of his blood. The kitty, having finally played an active part in a scene, does not appear again.
Cat Corpses (we think!): There are some instances of what appears to be cat corpses hung up outside the homes of potential victims of Kang, as well as some weird looking animal (could be either a cat or a raccoon) pelt which an elderly good shaman uses to beat zombies about the head. In both cases the animal bodies are clearly fake.
Final Mewsings: The cat was just happy to get through this film without being used to whip zombies!
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