Wonderful character development!

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Amateur movie with Big budget

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

HEX is an intriguing and influential horror film from the Shaw Brothers studio. It was directed by Kuei Chih-Hung, of THE BOXER'S OMEN infamy, and it does feel quite low key and non-exploitational for the first half, especially given the director's pedigree. The story begins as a straightforward copy of the famous French horror film LES DIABOLIQUES before branching out in some very unusual directions.The first 20 minutes or so of the film is quite slow and repetitive, but once it gets going there's no stopping it. The film lacks the star power of other Shaw Brothers productions but Chih-Hung is the real power here and his direction is stylish and efficient, with lots of creepy interludes. The story is a lot better than expected by genre standards with many twists and turns that you won't see coming. As a horror film, it's not quite as graphic or disgusting as other Hong Kong movies, but there are still plenty of memorable scares involving mouldering corpses and bodily disintegration.Things gradually get more and more outre, building to an infamous, eye-popping climax which takes female nudity to a new kind of exploitational level. It's not a particularly funny film, but there are still some comic highlights that nicely offset the humour, with Yue Tau Wan's hilarious cameo being a real highlight. In the end, HEX is just as well made as any film of Shaw's, exuding a level of quality that films from other studios just can't achieve. Many sequels and rip-offs followed, including HEX AFTER HEX and HEX VS. WITCHCRAFT.

Hex follows an uneasy menage a trois in a traditional Chinese mansion where fear, paranoia, and violence consume everyone unfortunate enough to come near. "Tanny" Tien Ni plays Madam Chan, a woman dying of consumption. Her abusive alcoholic husband, Yeung, played by Wang Jung divides his time between drinking and abusing her and the help, which shortly consists of just Yi Wah (Chen Szu Chia), a newly-arrived family friend from the country. When murder comes to mind as a way out of this claustrophobic situation, the characters stir up more evil than they can cope with.I've not seen Diabolique, which this film supposedly borrows heavily from, but I think that Hex owes a lot to the Hammer films of the 60s and 70s. Lonely house, check; interpersonal problems, check; plot twists, check check; little exposition bits done in voice-over, check check check! This film could do with 15-20 minutes being snipped out of it, and it relies on a lot of techniques that now look very hackneyed - the mirror there-but-not-there thing, the soundtrack bumps... Still, one of the final scenes - which it is no spoiler to say is a kind of exorcism - is weird, wonderful, erotic, creepy and very surprising. The penultimate scene is also genuinely quite disturbing. Tanny gives a good performance, as do the other two. For what is a pretty standard horror flick, a consistent message runs through the various twists and character developments: that fear and violence come from within as much as from without, and that vengeance is often too easily taken. Ultimately, no one can claim the moral high ground.Overall, this is a flawed but interesting horror that saves its imagination for its last 15 minutes. It has been nicely restored by Celestial Pictures for their Shaw Bros rerelease programme.

I watched this when I was a child back in 1980. Recently I got to watch it again and it brought back so many memories. The original premise of the movie is similar to Simone Signoret's Diaboliques, Les (1955) whereby the man is killed by his wife and her maid (in the original French versions, it's between the wife and the mistress). But it's paced faster to include the 2nd part of the story-line.Once the wife dies, it is revealed that the maid and the husband had been in cahoots all along to drive the wife to her grave. Then things start going bump in the night. Even in broad daylight, various people have claimed to have seen the dead wife. Thinking that the wife is pulling the same trick on them, the two adulterous villains get ready ready fight back. But they do not realize a 3rd element is at play here.The part where the scriptures are written all over the naked body of the adulterous "maid" is interesting but overly long. The dead wife manages to pull apart those ears because those are the only parts not covered with scriptures, very much borrowed from vintage Japanese movie.The ending is a cope out and extremely different from the feel of the opening shots. A real pity too. But since this is a Shaw Brothers movie, the sets are still wonderfully designed and the mood can be quite spooky. That pond is all misty and creepy. But the makeup for the film has not managed to stand the test of time.If you would like to have a taste of Chinese horror movie from the early 80's, this one is recommended.

***SPOILERS AHEAD*** Quite a strange movie, quite different than the standard kung-fu flicks that Shaw Brothers is famous for. This movie is more of a supernatural thriller, but in the end, it turns out that there is nothing supernatural at all, it was all a setup by various characters.A sick and abused wife, and her new chambermaid murder the husband. There is now a hex on the wife, and she is tormented by the ghost of her husband. Turns out the husband and chambermaid are in it together, trying to scare the sick wife to death.The story is average, acting is weak in some parts, no real scares, pretty slow moving. Still an interesting watch, and I will watch the sequels soon: Hex Vs. Withcraft, and Hex After Hex, if only to see if there really is a hex this time... I give it 6/10.