Centipede Horror

This film begins in Hong Kong with a young woman named "Kay" (Lai Fun Chan) asking her brother "Kai-Lum Pak" (Kiu Wai Miu) for permission to go to Southeast Asia with one of her friends. Although their mother has strictly forbidden such a trip Kai-Lum agrees since she will only be gone for a week. In exchange for not telling their mother Kay agrees to wear a magic amulet which is supposed to ward off evil spirits. Once there Kay and her friend stop for some refreshments at a local street vendor (played by Hussein Abu Hassan) who immediately recognizes the amulet. That night it is revealed that the street vendor is also an evil sorcerer of great power who places an evil curse upon Kay which takes effect the minute she removes the amulet. Not long afterward, Kay is hospitalized after being attacked by a multitude of centipedes. Learning of her plight Kai-Lum immediately takes the next airplane to Southeast Asia and arrives just prior to her death. Eventually he learns of the evil curse that had been placed upon her because of something that their grandfather had done many years earlier and that he is now the next victim. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film started out routinely enough but after about 40 minutes or so got really bizarre with a couple of wizards doing their best to fight the evil sorcerer and save Kai-Lum and his girlfriend "Yeuk-Chee" (Margaret A. Lee). On that note, it reminded me of a similar film called "Black Magic" which came out about seven years earlier and also featured mystic sorcerers fighting a battle to the death as well. In any event, I suppose this low-budget, Chinese horror film wasn't too bad and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Reading the other comments for this film here on IMDb, one might be forgiven for being a bit confused.

Some people claim that this is one of the vilest pieces of filth ever committed to celluloid and only the sick and depraved would be able to (or want to) sit through it in its entirety. This couldn't be further from the truth.

Other comments describe scenes of torture, abortions, real animal killings, castration, decapitation, mutilation, and humiliation. God only knows what film they were watching, but it sure wasn't Keith Li's Centipede Horror.

However, select 'prolific authors' in the comment filter, and you get a much more accurate account of the film (thank you EVOL666 and HumanoidOfFlesh for your always reliable contributions).

Centipede Horror is actually a fairly hum-drum serving of HK supernatural horror that is enlivened occasionally by some silly black magic mumbo-jumbo and a spot of creepy-crawly nastiness for all those afraid of many-legged mini-beasts.

The film begins with a young woman and her friend travelling to SE Asia where they are bitten by poisonous centipedes, which ultimately cause their deaths. The brother of one of the girls decides to investigate his sibling's strange demise, and discovers that his sister was the victim of a spell, placed on her by a magician seeking revenge for a terrible act perpetrated by their long-dead grandfather. And now he's after the brother too! The first 40 minutes of this film is almost coma inducing, and only the most committed of horror fans will make it past this point. Those that do will then be treated to an entertaining 'exorcism' involving a naked woman with a green stomach, two ghost children, and some yucky bugs.

From this point on, things thankfully get more interesting, until the effective finalé which features loads of scuttling critters and a wonderful closing moment which is guaranteed to make you gag: a woman graphically throws up several large centipedes!!!

After having sat through this film, I find the inordinate amount of reviews touting this film as the end all of "disturbing" films rather strange. I did think the reviews had something unrealistic to them, almost theatrical. My only explanation is that someone with a lot of time and/or friends decided to play an elaborate joke on the unsuspecting IMDb reader and filled the commentaries with unrealistic histrionic reviews on how "frightening" the movie is. Yet, again, the reviews are very sparsely distributed in the year 2006. I just don't know what to think. What I can tell you is this: This film is not frightening, it is not disturbing, it isn't even remotely disgusting save for some lame scenes with bugs being puked out. Big deal, really. The majority of the film is just a guy running around from one "wizard" to the next to try and find out what evil wrongdoing his grandfather had done, which is assumed was the cause for the spell that killed his sister.

Seriously, the majority of reviews here must be some kind of joke. There simply is no other explanation. This film is too obscure to have somehow gotten into the hands of the kind of people who would unsuspectingly expect a Disney movie and then get "disturbed" by this of all movies. For cryin' out loud. If you are still not convinced, see ray1979, EVOL666, and ComixComix comments as well for a more realistic picture.

That said, I give the film a four, simply because it is decent for what it is: slightly cheesy, typically melodramatic Hong Kong "horror" fare.

I write this comment almost 12 days after watching this movie and still there is a sense of discomfort about this movie, when I think of the way it ended. Very frankly "Centipede Horror" freaked me out. Seen a lot of Din Long Lee (Hong Kong Police Madame 3) vehicles, but this one, Dang!!!! really put me off. First of all the movie is paced so slowly that it kinds of puts off track and then last 30 minutes just blows you off, with a last few scenes taking the cake. This in no way can be described as a family picture, rather, it is a movie for psychos whose time might be better spent getting their noggins looked at. With decent acting from all of them. I give this one nevertheless a 0/10 just for sheer bad vibes...

Steer clear.

I'd heard some really bad things about this film before going into it; but decided to see it anyway simply because it sounded like it could be good; and since Centipedes are one of the most horrific creatures alive, the film had quite a good chance. The people that have seen this film seem to be divided into two camps; some say it's disgusting and disturbing, while others say it's boring - almost like they've seen two different films! Unfortunately, I saw the boring one. The plot focuses on a wizard who decides to take revenge against a young girl who is wearing a necklace that apparently belonged to some old adversary. He takes revenge by having her cough up a load of centipedes, and after her death; her brother decides to investigate. I'm not all that well versed in Asian cinema, but I gather this is a part of some vomiting sub-genre; and that's a sub-genre I can't see myself seeing much more of. The only real disturbing scenes in the film are the ones that involve people vomiting centipedes; and once you've seen it, you don't really need to see it again. The plot is frankly dull, meaning the film has little in the way of interest or value. Centipede Horror is a rather rare film, and as such I would advise most people to do what they would do with actual centipedes; stay well away.