Evil Cat

"The crazy one is here!"

Evil Cat was one of those bonkers Hong Kong horror flicks from the 1980s. It never took itself too seriously while also taking the horror elements completely seriously, even when a cat demon was involved.

Master Cheung is dying of liver cancer and residing in an assisted living home. When an excavation crew digs too deeply and ignores the blue glowing light and lightning bolts spewing from a heavy coffin sealed with a talisman, all hell is about to break out. Knowing what has been set loose, Cheung sets out to destroy a cat demon for the final time. His family of Taoists have fought the demon for 8 generations. Now it is his turn. The only problem is that his clock is ticking down and he has no male heir to pass the Mao Shan magic onto. Into his life stumbles Long who is a chauffeur for the rich Fan. When Fan becomes possessed by the cat demon and targets Long, Cheung takes the driver as a disciple to carry on the family tradition.

Lau Kar Leung, one of my favorite old school martial arts directors played the dying Master Cheung. He was also the MAD for this film. Mark Cheng was the erratic Long who waffled back and forth over whether to take on the job of being responsible for killing the demon if Cheung died. Joann Tang played Cheung’s reporter daughter Siu Chuen who thought her dad’s magic was an eccentric hobby. And Wong Jing rounded out the main cast as the lecherous and annoying Inspector "Handsome" Wu.

The movie was actually better than I thought it would be. I feared it would devolve into slapstick comedy. While there were humorous moments, the cat demon ripped its way through human bodies, tearing off arms, heads, and just about anything else it could get its claws or fangs on. Director Dennis Yu must have ordered vats of red KY jelly from Buckets O’ Blood, as the crimson liquid flowed freely and often. The stakes ended up being all too real, even when the special effects made the experience rather campy. The cat demon possessed humans giving them super strength and durability, so if you are looking for a real feline it would be a disappointment.

What I learned from Evil Cat: If you dig up a coffin with blue glowing lights and a talisman attached---DON’T OPEN IT! If you see blue lights in a dark office building---run the other way! If you have the shot to kill a creature that is about to become invincible and immortal, you take it even if the demon is inhabiting a beautiful woman. Do not let the doubting daughter tag along when she doesn’t understand what is at stake. Finally, never a tie a woman, even an annoying prostitute to a pole and leave her out in the middle of nowhere.

If you watch a lot of old kung fu films, this one would be about average. I rate these films on a curve per usual. This was a 7.25 but got bumped down due to the writer (Wong Jing) not following the rules set out and ending the film on the tropiest trope from the 80s and 90s.

5 October 2025

Trigger warnings: Numerous decapitations and dismemberments, hands through chests, lots and lots of blood, sexual scenes though no bits and pieces were showing. Gratuitous underwear shot. A really bad cat outfit.

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