The Trail (DVD) (Hong Kong Version) DVD Region 6, All

The plot begins as a young man is murdered whilst trying to protect his wife from the advances of a sleazy landlord, being drowned in an aquarium for his troubles. Trying to cover up his crime, the killer leaves the corpse with two priests, Captain (played by the wonderful Hong Kong character actor Kent Cheng, star of numerous category III classics such as Run and Kill and who recently returned to the screen in Run Papa Run and his sidekick Ying (Ricky Hui, also in cult favourite Mr. Vampire), who guide the recently dead to their places of rest in the usual hopping corpse style. It transpires that the two are actually part of a gang of incompetent opium smugglers, and their bumbling results in the corpse being lost in the depths of a swamp. However, it soon arises as a vengeful zombie, who sets about murdering the smugglers and all who cross its vengeful path, leaving it up to the rascally priests to try to stop its rampage.

Amusingly, the first thing that some viewers will note about The Trail is the music playing over the opening credits, which just happens to be a bad keyboard rendition of Ennio Morricone's score for The Thing released the same year. Fortunately, this blatant plagiarism is soon forgotten as Yu's excellent visual style kicks in with some ominous opening shots that nicely establish the film's supernatural theme. The film as a whole is filled with creepy locations, including a shadowy cobweb strewn forest and a crumbling temple, all of which are exploited to their full potential for maximum scares. Yu shoots these with a shrewd eye for their isolation, evoking a strong John Carpenter influence, which works well to generate an unsettling, otherworldly atmosphere. This is nicely fused with the director's own more kinetic Hong Kong style, and without relying too much on the tried and tested methods of green neon and dry ice, he manages to imbue almost every frame with a truly sinister feel. As a result, the proceedings are generally chilling throughout in a pleasingly old fashioned manner.

Compared with many of its genre peers from the time, the film is remarkably coherent, and although it does contain a fair amount of wacky weirdness, the plot progresses in a vaguely logical fashion, with the narrative basically following the deeds of the zombie. There is a nice attention to detail involving Taoist rituals regarding the dead and traditional magic, and these function quite nicely as part of the plot rather than being simply thrown in as an excuse for set pieces, as is so often the case.

The film as a whole is gruesome without being overtly gory, and there are only a few splashes of blood, mainly during the opening and closes stages. There are a handful of special effects scenes scattered throughout, including some excellent slimy makeup for the zombie. Yu relies more upon imaginative stalking scenes than sudden frights to keep the viewers on the edge of their seats, and in this he succeeds, as the film is entertaining and engaging, managing to hold the interest through its relatively short running time. This is helped by the fact that he does include a fair amount of action, including a handful of martial arts scenes, though the film as a whole is far more deliberately paced than most of his later efforts.

Thankfully, the usual broad streak of odd slapstick humour, which mars and dilutes the effectiveness of so many genre efforts from Hong Kong, is kept to a minimum. There are a few gag scenes, though these are generally amicable, mainly due to the considerable charisma of Cheng and Hui, who turn in very likeable performances as the priests. As a result, the film can be taken reasonably seriously and as a genuine genre entry, more so than other efforts of the period. The only unnecessary scenes comes in the form of a rather bizarre tacked on ending which appears to be an attempt to spoof The Exorcist and which seems to belong in another film entirely.

These scenes notwithstanding, The Trail is an excellent example of Hong Kong horror, which compares favourably to the vast majority of more modern genre efforts, despite being more than 30 years old. Drenched with creepy atmospherics, and benefiting hugely from the director's visual distinctive visual style, this is a film which deserves to be rediscovered, not only by those curious to see Yu's early works, but by horror fans in general.

by James Mudge - BeyondHollywood.com