Two doctors Ti Lung and Lam Wai-tiu take wives Tanny Tien Ni and Lily Li on vacation and there they met the horrors of black magic.Lo Lieh plays an evil sorcerer,who whips female pubic hairs and breast milk into powerful zombie potions,controls his creations via giant metal spikes pounded into their heads.Not only does he turn Li into an walking dead after luring her from the group,he casts a love spell on both Ti's wife and his colleague.This surprisingly eerie Shaw Brothers productions offers some nifty special effects and gross-out moments.I enjoyed "Black Magic" and "Black Magic Terror" and this sequel to Meng Hua Ho's horror hit is also worth looking for.7 out of 10.
12 Reviews
Singapore locations
christopher-underwood28 July 2018
It is some time since I had watched a Hong Kong film from the Shaw Brothers and this turned out to be quite a surprise. Number one was the fantastic clarity of the picture (thank you Blu-ray) but No.2 was that instead of being set in the British colony, these are Singapore locations. Mainly we see the botanical gardens but also a glimpse of Orchard Road and the cable cars going over to the island. No sight at all of Chinatown! Story is crap, acting pretty much the same but there is so much vigour here and the urge to put everything in that we get quite a concoction. I liked the nine inch nails, hammered in and wrenched out of people's skulls, the main protagonist's need to drink human milk (one of many opportunities for nudity) and the gory seeping body fissures brought on by the infamous 'black magic'. Not for everyone but rather a novelty.
Voodoo Dolls and Zombies
Uriah4320 November 2018
Voodoo Dolls and Zombies
"Dr. Shi Chen-Sheng" (Wei Tu Lin) is a physician in Singapore who becomes concerned about several cases of skin lesions and other mysterious illnesses that have no medical parallels or explanations. Convinced that it is black magic of some form he calls in a couple of medical experts by the names of "Dr. Chi Chung Peng" (Lung Ti) and his wife "Dr. Li Tsui-Ling" (Ni Tien) to see for themselves and give him their professional opinions. Meanwhile, an attractive dancer named "Hung Wa" (Terry Liu) is performing at a nightclub and after she is finished one of the patrons named "Chang Ta-Nien" (Hung Wei) approaches her and asks her out for a date. Yet even though she had promised to go out with him earlier she now decides to cancel their date and subsequently departs with another man named "Kang Cong" (Lieh Lo). Not long afterward we learn that both Hung Wa and Kang Cong are not what they appear to be. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film incorporates the old-school tradition of linking the creation of zombies to voodoo rather than a virus as found in the majority of zombie films today. And it works to a certain degree as I found the film to be quite entertaining-at least at first. Unfortunately, as the show progressed I noticed that the director (Meng Hua Ho) kept using the same voodoo techniques over and over again and it got rather redundant after a while. But even so I still found it worth the time spent to watch it and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.
Much scarier than Hollywood's tripe!
Mitora-san21 June 2002
"Bewitched Tame Head" is one of the most memorable scare films of the far east and of my native Hong Kong. It is a lot of fun, but don't be eating a full meal yet!
A doctor is investigating some strange and disturbing happening in his hospital, such as people being covered in gaping scabs all over body, parasites, worms and snakes under people's flesh and girls having abortions, only to find out that they have "aborted" undead monster fetuses. If that is not enough, there is a pretty damn wicked mage who grabs out the corpses of dead females, pound spikes into their skull and make them become the living dead, only if you remove the spike, the undead shall melt away and living girls being used as guinea pigs by the wicked mage. (DON'T WORRY, I WON'T SPOIL EVERYTHING!)
If you are sick of Hollywood's slasher flicks or want more variety in Horror/Supernatural cinema, check out the "Tamed Head series".
A doctor is investigating some strange and disturbing happening in his hospital, such as people being covered in gaping scabs all over body, parasites, worms and snakes under people's flesh and girls having abortions, only to find out that they have "aborted" undead monster fetuses. If that is not enough, there is a pretty damn wicked mage who grabs out the corpses of dead females, pound spikes into their skull and make them become the living dead, only if you remove the spike, the undead shall melt away and living girls being used as guinea pigs by the wicked mage. (DON'T WORRY, I WON'T SPOIL EVERYTHING!)
If you are sick of Hollywood's slasher flicks or want more variety in Horror/Supernatural cinema, check out the "Tamed Head series".
More supernatural Shaw Brother craziness.
BA_Harrison8 October 2017
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.
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.
Filled With Appalling Horror Imagery
jfrentzen-942-2042117 February 2024
In a Hong Kong hospital, worried doctors scratch their heads about a patient covered with pulsating ulcers, who is diagnosed as suffering from black magic. Another patient has worms crawling under his skin. It's the work of a zombie master named Fang, who hangs out in discos, drinks human milk to survive, and drives a Mercedes-Benz.
He picks up a woman at a bar, takes her to his basement dungeon, and pulls a long spike out of the top of her head with a pair of tongs. The spike enables his zombie spell, so right away she keels over, turns into a hag, and expires.
Fang captures one of the doctor's wives, demanding, "I shall drink your milk every day, understand?" The rest of the movie's dubbed dialogs is just as wild. Using his victim's pubic hair, he creates a potion to make her produce milk. Meantime, the doctors sit around talking about how they don't believe in magic.
Eventually, they set a trap for Fang but it backfires. Only one man is left to confront the magician, as well as an army of zombies that includes some of his friends, who have been "spiked." Much of the film's horror imagery is appalling: One woman becomes pregnant overnight and aborts a monstrous fetus; someone who tries to double-cross Fang starts pulling out clumps of his hair and quickly melts into a fleshy blob.
He picks up a woman at a bar, takes her to his basement dungeon, and pulls a long spike out of the top of her head with a pair of tongs. The spike enables his zombie spell, so right away she keels over, turns into a hag, and expires.
Fang captures one of the doctor's wives, demanding, "I shall drink your milk every day, understand?" The rest of the movie's dubbed dialogs is just as wild. Using his victim's pubic hair, he creates a potion to make her produce milk. Meantime, the doctors sit around talking about how they don't believe in magic.
Eventually, they set a trap for Fang but it backfires. Only one man is left to confront the magician, as well as an army of zombies that includes some of his friends, who have been "spiked." Much of the film's horror imagery is appalling: One woman becomes pregnant overnight and aborts a monstrous fetus; someone who tries to double-cross Fang starts pulling out clumps of his hair and quickly melts into a fleshy blob.
Good but Not Great
dbborroughs20 August 2004
I had heard that this film and its in name only prequel were suppose to be some of the best of the of the Hong Kong Horror films. I very much liked the first film in a goofy gory sort of way, while this one just didn't grab me. I mean that almost literally since after about the first five or ten minutes I became distracted, not a good sign, and began to do other things while this un-spooled.
Certainly its better than many horror films from the period, but at the same time, its just not as good as its reputation suggests. I suggest you try it, its not bad, just not the be all and end all, but if possible have the first film with it as a double feature.
7 out of 10.
(I will try it again at some point simply because it maybe a case of being over-sold before going in.)
Certainly its better than many horror films from the period, but at the same time, its just not as good as its reputation suggests. I suggest you try it, its not bad, just not the be all and end all, but if possible have the first film with it as a double feature.
7 out of 10.
(I will try it again at some point simply because it maybe a case of being over-sold before going in.)
Dumb but far better than the first "Black Magic" film---plus you gotta love them nails in the zombies' heads!!
planktonrules10 December 2010
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.
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.
Great Shaw brothers horror!
sinistre111129 September 2000
Lo Lieh is perfect as the wickedly sleazy black magician, with his undead slaves, activated by a single long nail to the skull. This film (also known as BLACK MAGIC 2) has great wooden acting (excluding the aforementioned), elaborate gross-outs (see other comment), and plenty of genuine chills. It's also got a great soundtrack; a song in an early nightclub scene was sampled by the Beastie Boys for "Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun" on PAUL'S BOUTIQUE! Don't know if all the other Shaw brothers 70s productions are this good, but now I have to see them all!
excellent Hong Kong Phooey Zombie gore party!!
velladraco9 September 2001
Warning: Spoilers
Hooo, Boy!!! I had to wait a bit for this one but it was, indeed, worth the wait. Being a fan of B and sub-B Movies does contribute to one's insanity...So please take that into consideration when I say that I loved this film.! Revenge of the Zombies could serve as a model for all that is good and right about the Hong-Kong film Machine. Plenty of campy acting, bad translation,bad dubbing, mediocre to awful special affects,and at least one wholey original twist on the Zombie bit. The next two lines may or may not qualify as a "spoiler"--depending on how picky you are.
70+ year old Black Mage has remained 'young looking'(he claims 30 - I say 45-50) by drinking human milk every day of his life - we later get an example of how he arranges this. The cool twist is that he controls the vitality of his zombies with a big metal spike in their heads!! I, personally do not consider this a spoiler as it is mentioned in the title (literal translation is "Bewitch Tame Head"). Go ahaed! Rent it! You know you want to! Better yet, make it a double feature with the sub-B Warehouse flick from Japan "EMERGENCY!!!-Living Dead in Tokyo Bay!!".This one's harder to find but worth the search if you like the cheapo warehouse -type movies. EnJoy!!
500 Club Diva - Your Diva from the Dive-a
70+ year old Black Mage has remained 'young looking'(he claims 30 - I say 45-50) by drinking human milk every day of his life - we later get an example of how he arranges this. The cool twist is that he controls the vitality of his zombies with a big metal spike in their heads!! I, personally do not consider this a spoiler as it is mentioned in the title (literal translation is "Bewitch Tame Head"). Go ahaed! Rent it! You know you want to! Better yet, make it a double feature with the sub-B Warehouse flick from Japan "EMERGENCY!!!-Living Dead in Tokyo Bay!!".This one's harder to find but worth the search if you like the cheapo warehouse -type movies. EnJoy!!
500 Club Diva - Your Diva from the Dive-a
Insane combination of gross out horror and crazed action
Leofwine_draca2 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
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!
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!
Extreme Chinese gore-horror sickness!
zwolf5 April 2000
Incredible Chinese horror sickie about an evil warlock who casts nasty spells and creates an army of living dead by driving magic nails into dead people's skulls. If the nails are removed, the zombies rot into viscous messes. All kinds of ultra-vileness, such as worms slithering from wounds, eyeball-eating, a man pushing a spike through his face, the caesarean birth of a lump of putrescent tissue, pulsating sores, and more pretty good barf-inducing scenes. Weird and great, along the lines of The Devil. Stars Ti Lung and Lo Lieh, so you know there's a little martial arts action, such as a fight on a skylift. Rarely seen, so take any chance to see it you can - kill if you have to!
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
