Spooky practical jokes within a Chinese opera troupe become a reality as a mischievous ghost turns up in their midst. When their efforts to rid themselves of the wayward spirit fail, a far more evil poltergeist awakens to wreck supernatural havoc.

Chinese operatics and kung fu comedy meet popular ghost lore in Hocus Pocus, an oddball film from producer Sammo Hung that continues Hong Kong’s comedy horror trend that began with Sammo’s Encounter of the Spooky Kind in 1981 and reached its peak with the first three films in the Mr. Vampire series. Despite some well-staged theatrics and limited kung fu action, the film is mostly a snoozer that fails to generate laughs or fright by the ongoing antics of its stars within a threadbare plot.

The story can basically be boiled down to a period-Chinese version of Poltergeist. A traveling Chinese opera troupe run into trouble when it’s discovered that beneath the stage they’re performing on lies buried the bones of a murder victim whose ghost wanders restlessly in the netherworld. Lucky for the troupe, this androgynous spirit played by Chin Yuet-sang who is also the director, is only slightly mischievous. But their attempt to retrieve the bones and give the poor ghost a proper burial to release it from its earthly bounds turns into a disaster when they grab the wrong set of bones. An evil poltergeist with some serious supernatural power awakens to terrorize the troupe. The plot to Chang Cheh’s Attack of the Joyful Goddess (1984) shares a number of similarities, but is less-comical.

This premise could have been entertaining enough except that half of the film is spent not on the supernatural, but on a series of practical jokes kicked off by a quarrel among members of the troupe. A young Stephen Tung Wai leads the troublesome pack in his rivalry with the troupe’s star, played by Law Ho-kai. Of course they must resort to pretending to be ghosts and then the real ghost steps in unseen only to confuse everyone. This silly situational comedy is tedious and goes nowhere. It isn’t until the evil poltergeist shows up near the end that we get any real action and then it suddenly turns serious. Poor Alice Lau gets tossed around a kitchen like a rag doll and the rampaging spook unleashes a fury of destruction on a party. Lam Ching-ying is not the Taoist master he plays in most of his subsequent roles and as the troupe’s leader, all he has are theatrical tricks to fight with. But even without a Chinese ghostbuster on hand, the troupe rallies by arming themselves with dog’s blood and virgin male urine, the ghost-fighting equivalent of garlic and holy water used as Western vampire repellants.

The best scene in the film is actually the first. An elaborately-staged opera performance unfolds with all the spectacle and acrobatic prowess one would expect from Sammo’s stunt team when at their best. If only Chin Yuet-sang could have maintained this standard. Alas, he’s not the director Sammo was at this time and just can’t keep it together. As the main ghost in the film he’s awful. The swollen head look is terrible and all he does is run around giggling and occasionally tripping someone. To see how spooky comedies are done better without forgetting the action, watch Dreadnought or The Dead and the Deadly. The opening and ending to Hocus Pocus are entertaining, but the hour that fills the center is a graveyard of bland genre staples only scary enough to put you to sleep.

by