You might be surprised by the "Black Magic" films, as they have no martial arts in them yet they were made by the famous Shaw Brothers' Studio. Instead they are gross films about the occult. However, despite the gross scenes, most of it is really pretty tame. What IS gross are the scenes where the octogenarian black magician is shown drinking human breast milk to stay youthful! Yuck! And, speaking of that, this and the previous film in the series both have a lot of nudity--so it's probably not a good film to watch with your mother.

As for the first film (1975),it was a thoroughly stupid and low-budget film. While this one is also stupid and low-budget, it manages to work much better--with a more believable bad guy, better special effects and some really, really spooky scenes. It's still not an especially good film, but considering how bad the first one was, it could only improve!! Not worth seeking out unless you could use a laugh or have a bizarre fetish about breast milk.

An insane tale of black magic from Hong Kong and the surrounding countries, a tale of Far Eastern mysticism, explicit gruesomeness and a power struggle between good and evil all mixed into one low budget but appealing package. A sequel to 1975's BLACK MAGIC, a sure-fire horror hit from the Shaw Borthers studio, REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES is everything a trash fan could wish for. An incident-packed adventure which skips from scene to scene with barely time for a breather, the emphasis is on physical, visceral horror in the tradition of THE EXORCIST and all of its excess.

The basic storyline concerns the evil adventures of a black magician (played admirably well - and hissably nastily - by former kung fu idol Lo Lieh) as he tortures, murders and destroys the surrounding population. Whether he's hammering six-inch nails into the heads of the captive zombies in his basement, making beautiful young girls drink foul-smelling magic potions containing their own hair, or causing all manner of horrible pustules, writhing worms, and boils to appear on the bodies of helpless victims at the local hospital, you can be sure he's up to no good.

The protagonists are a gang of young doctors investigating the mysterious diseases at the hospital. Only one guy believes in black magic, so to convince the others he unwisely asks Lo Lieh to cast a love spell on the wife of his friend. Things keep getting worse from there, gradually getting out of hand to the point where only one man - Ti Lung - remains unaffected by the black magic curse and has the power to confront the villain in his lair. REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES is an explicit thrill-ride of a horror film offering many of the crazy and bizarre "body horror" elements so common in the East. Two of my favourite scenes are when a victim of a curse literally disintegrates in the street (first his skin falls off, then his fingernails, then he dissolves into a gooey mess) and when a wise old magician feeds our hero his own eyeballs to help him on his quest. Where else would you see such demented antics?

Most of the screen time is taken up with magic, mostly of the evil variety, with director Ho Meng Hua imagining all kinds of devious tricks and spells from his anti-hero to play with. The music is especially effective in conjuring up a dark atmosphere of the supernatural whilst the camera-work - although sometimes rough - captures the essence of the spirit world very well, with plenty of spooky darkness and interesting angles. The acting is generally of a good standard, complimented by some amusing dubbing. There's even a bit of kung fu action (including a hilariously cheesy fight atop a cable car) and some killer cardboard crocodiles for those who like that kind of thing (and I count myself among those few). This is one of those films that gets better and better as they go along, with the finale consisting of a full-on onslaught of the living dead, complete with a fiery inferno and a memorable showdown between the two leads. The end result is a weird and wonderful - and I use those two words to their fullest meanings - concoction of gross-out horror, crazed action, and bubbling gore. Fantastic!

A hospital is full of patients suffering from mysterious and very icky ailments. A doctor believes that spells might be the cause and tries to convince his wife and colleagues, putting them all in danger from the black magician responsible.

Black Magic 2 starts as it means to go on: in full-on bonkers mode, with a group of topless cuties taking a dip in a river only to be attacked by a unconvincing model crocodile that eats one of the girls. A white magician lures the reptile to its death and cuts it open. Cue the opening credits…

The rest of the film is equally as insane, with plenty of those Hong Kong black magic movie staples, mucus, maggots and worms, plus zombies with metal spikes in their heads, potions made from burnt pubic hair, breast-milk drinking, and eye-ball eating. There's also a hilariously bad fight in and on a cable car (complete with really dreadful back projection),lots more gratuitous female nudity, and a fiery finale in the evil magician's home.

It's by no means a great film—the plot is virtually non-existent—but Black Magic 2 dishes up more than enough weird nonsense to keep fans of cult oddities entertained.