Encounters of the Spooky Kind

The great Sammo Hung wrote, directed, and stars in this outrageously entertaining Hong Kong cinema landmark—one of the first HK horror-comedy-action hybrids and the film that launched the hopping-vampire craze that would proliferate throughout the 1980s. He plays a fearless but naive rickshaw driver who is tricked into spending the night at a haunted temple—not knowing that the whole thing is a set up by his adulterous wife’s lover to kill him! Ghosts, zombies, and, yes, the OG hopping vampire (played by Yuen Biao) are all on hand in an eerily atmospheric showcase for Hung’s ingenious comic-action choreography.