Actor/director Samo Hung took the moribund kung fu film of the late '70s into new and exciting territory with this-call it ghoul fu. The recipe: mix kung fu, B-movie horror and Three Stooges poke-in-the-eye slapstick, and turn the cuisinart to high speed. Hung plays "Courageous Cheung," the village chump. He's the only person in town unaware that his wife is having an affair with a local bigwig, Master Tam. Taking a cue from a recent practical joke played on Cheung-the old spend-the-night-in-a-haunted-house gag-Tam hires a greedy taoist fat si (priest/magician) to call up a few zombies to scare Cheung to death. The taoist's fat si brother objects to this evil use of his skills, and so the battle of the magicians begins, with Cheung's life in the winner's hands. Hung's film has the earthy feel of Chinese folklore, the kind of tale told around a campfire after too much rice wine. It's full of rowdy humor, surprisingly creepy scares, and some wildly inventive action. And don't let Hung's portly build fool you; he's a monumentally agile martial artist. --Tod Booth