Construction worker Xu Nuo (handsome Lung Ti) and his fiancé Quming (pretty and charming Lily Li) are about to get married. However, Xu's selfish and ruthless rich boss Luo Yin (a perfectly bitchy portrayal by slinky minx Ni Tien) wants Xu for herself, so she enlists the assistance of powerful necromancer Sha Jianmia (marvelously played with lip-smacking wicked relish by Feng Ku) to concoct a love potion so Luo can make Xu her main man. Director Meng Hua Ho, working from an involving and imaginative script by Kung Ni, relates the gloriously oddball story at a steady pace, grounds the fantastic premise in a believable everyday world, does a solid job of creating a pleasingly creepy atmosphere, and pulls out all the awesomely loopy stops for the delightfully off the wall climactic showdown between the forces of good and evil that offers loads of priceless cut-rate (not so) special effects. Moreover, this film not only delivers a generous sprinkling of tasty female nudity and some reasonably nasty gore, but also comes through with more than enough tongue slicing, breast milking, hideous old hag cackling, face rotting, worm wriggling, centipede eating, and laser shooting weirdness to appease fans of seriously bizarre cinema. Kudos are also in order for Yung-Yu Chen's crisp widescreen cinematography and Hui-chi Tsao's funky shivery score. A very cool and enjoyable flick.

Most people buying or renting this DVD will be a bit surprised since there is not one bit of martial arts action in this Shaw Brothers film...none. Instead, it's a totally bizarre and often funny film about the supernatural involving a kinky guy who uses black magic to do evil...if the money is good. Folks come to this scum-bag for various spells, but it seems the most common are death curses and love potions. Later in the film you learn that one of the ways this guy derives all this power is through the power of human breast milk! This occurs in a couple rather creepy scenes that will turn off all but those with weird lactic kinks! In addition, there are lots of worms and maggots and the like to make it even creepier.

The film looks cheap. The effects are cheap. The acting and script are cheap. However, it's near the end where the film really falls off the deep end into the being a truly dumb film. However, I liked this part as it really made me laugh--especially when the good black artist fought against the evil one in one of the funniest scenes I've seen in recent weeks. You just have to see it to believe it--it's THAT funny....and dumb. Really, really dumb!

By the way, you might notice how interesting the city is where this was filmed. It's Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. What neat architecture and sites.

BLACK MAGIC is a wonderful little horror film from the Shaw Brothers stable that proved they were just as adept at making horror films as they were martial arts flicks. The success and ingredients of this production would later lead on to many other infamous movies like THE BOXER'S OMEN or SEEDING OF A GHOST.

BLACK MAGIC is a densely-plotted yarn involving the nefarious adventures of a black wizard who's happy to cast all manner of spells on his victims...for a price. First to visit him is a sleazy guy (Lo Lieh, excelling in his role) who wants to spend the night with a woman who hates him. Later, the same woman decides she wants to cast a love spell on a guy who hates her in turn. Eventually the guy's friends realise what's going on and employ the services of a white wizard to combat the villain.

This is a film that has it all: sleazy rituals (including an obsession with procuring breast milk),violent death, and hints at the kind of grotesque imagery that would later follow in this series. The atmosphere of sleaze and creeping dread is spot on, as are the production values that make this just as colourful an adventure as the many kung fu flicks made by the team. Ti Lung is fine but gets relatively little screen time as the erstwhile hero; it's the women who really shine here, including the evil Ni Tien and the good-natured Lily Li. The various elements combine well and the outcome is one of the coolest of all '70s horror films.