In 1974, Shaw Brothers collaborated with Hammer on The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires. That ignited a desire not only to make martial arts films, but also supernatural ones. And man, as the studio goes on, these movies grow more deranged in the very best of ways.

Ho Meng-Hua (The Mighty Peking Man, Oily Maniac) directed this, and it only hints at how far Hong Kong horror would go. Lang Chia Chieh (Lo Lieh) wants to be with Mrs. Zhou (Tanny Tien Ni), but she’s in love with Xu Nuo (Ti Lung), who only wants to be with the love of his life, Wang Chu Ying (Lili Li Li-li). To win her, Lang Chia Chieh goes to the magician Shan Chen Mi (Ku Feng) and has him cast a spell on Mrs. Zhou. It works, if only for a night, and she soon learns that she, too, can turn to the spirit world to win over the lover she wants.

These magic spells are incredibly organic and gross. Like, you need to cut off someone’s finger and leave it under your intended person’s bed until it turns into a pile of maggots. Or to kill someone, you put worms directly under their skin.

There’s a lot of soap opera in this, but every time you think it’s getting slow, someone gets half-naked or makes a possessed rice ball with blood and breast milk, so you can never say it’s bad. It’s just the first course for how completely out there these movies will get.

The Arrow Video release of this film, part of the Shaw Scope Volume 4 set, has a high definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation, newly restored in 2K from the original negatives by Arrow Films. It has commentary by critic James Mudge. You can get this set from MVD.