What makes it different from others?

A lot of fun.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Taking a job as a security guard, a man working in a cursed department store finds that a series of strange events plaguing the area after his arrival is tied to a deadly curse on him and must resort to increasingly mystical means in order to save himself and his family.This one was quite the enjoyable and creepy effort. One of the film's greatest attributes is the fact that there's quite a lot of rather creepy and rather inventive methods here to drive home the general storyline involved here. There's a great deal of work here in the first half where it's a steady stream of rather chilling incidents throughout here, from the mention of the worker carving up the boss that allows for his entry into the company, the exceptionally creepy elevator ride into the basement which floods with water and opens up to a darkened basement with a creepy relic below only to all mysteriously vanish on the ride up with no trace it was ever there and the bizarre incident of the one worker choking on a chicken bone in his cornmeal. All of these are rather fun scenes that get by alongside the striking imagery used to denote the demonic presence in the building, ranging from bright ornate colors against the drab surfaces to the fog continually filtering through the room which really gives this one a rather creepy atmosphere. Connecting all of this to the possession angle and all he needs to do in order to banish the spirits out makes this one quite promising leading into the striking finale which is where this one really gets frantic and thrilling. From the creepy encounter in the car on the road away from the store to the various black magic rituals that the shaman undertakes in battling the spirits and finally to the big encounter in the hospital parking lot with the ghosts while his wife is there giving birth under the guise of protecting her from the final stages of the possession, this is frantic and thrilling supernatural-influenced action which ends this on a rather positive note. Although these here are quite enjoyable, there are a few issues to be had with this one. The main issue is the fact that there's never once any believable reason why anything happens here. A lot of the story is based on the mysticism and folklore of the country which doesn't make for a coherent narrative to follow along in here as failing to understand why anything is happening is a crucial matter of this one. This extends to a few of the plotpoints in here as not only is there no reason for why he needs to be at the place to begin with, a fact brought up by the characters themselves and never answered, but a lot of the actions within here make no sense and there's a distressing lack of explanations for much of what goes on here. The only other minor point here is the dull periods in the middle which consist of him just going around looking for answers and there's not a whole lot of action going on here with this one being a little too dragged out with all the different elements going on to really hamper the pacing. Otherwise, there's not much else wrong here.Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.

Unemployed man who's wife is expecting takes a job as a security guard in what turns out to be a haunted building. Warned that he is susceptible to the ghostly goings on he takes precautions to keep himself safe until weird things begin happening around his wife. Dark Twisted Hong Kong Horror film is one of the dark films that arrived in the late 70's and early 80's and broke all the rules in both China and the West. There is a great deal unpleasant about the film, and I mean that in a good way. The ending in particular had my jaw hanging open. There is a reason that cinephiles minds were blown by the strange things coming out of the East, they are in your face and in your gut. Worth a look for horror fans. Between 6 and 7 out of 10

"The Imp" was made by Hong Kong film-maker Dennis Yu,who also directed nasty "I Spit on Your Grave" rip-off "Flesh and the Bloody Terror"/"Beasts"(1980).The film is extremely creepy and offers some wonderful visuals.There is a distinct air of claustrophobia and impending doom over the entire film.The final scene is extremely disturbing."The Imp" is filled with truly chilling and ominous atmosphere,so fans of atmospheric horror won't be disappointed.There is almost no gore,but the zombies/evil spirits are very creepy.Highly recommended.

Hong Kong film maker Dennis Yu directed this often acclaimed horror film in 1981. The Imp tells the story of an unemployed man, whose wife is pregnant and about to give birth any day. He manages to find job as nightwatch in some huge market, and he soon makes friends with his fellow nightwathers. Soon, strange things start to happen as some of his colleagues die horribly and weird smoke and noises come from the elevator shaft. This all is iced by protagonist's wife's strange behaviour as she is about to give birth to her child. This all sounds pretty chilling, and I'm glad to be able to say the film delivers, at least to some extent.I'm mostly impressed by the film's visuals and use of mostly green smoke as an element depicting the forthcoming terror. Cinematography is also great as empty passages are very ominous as our men travel there at night without knowing about the horrors that live underneath. The music is also surprisingly effective and it is used pretty wisely, and also in scenes one wouldn't expect that kind of music i.e. it plays quietly on background during seemingly peaceful and calm parts in the film. It really tells that even though the characters don't know it, there is something very evil in the air throughout the film. The ending is more than chilling and the final scene seemed first even gratuitously gruelling, but then I realized that it is more gruelling in mental level than physical level. The viewer is left to wonder whether the character managed to win the evil spirit/ghost or not. I understand all the positive comments this film has received during all these years, and this only makes me wonder how effective are the most praised ghost horrors from Hong Kong like Rape After, a sadly rare film I haven't managed to track down.Main problems in Dennis Yu's film are that occasionally it takes itself too seriously and becomes little unintentionally comical to watch. Also, as usual, there are some things that should have been explained more carefully, like how the priest knew exactly everything that will happen and so on. There are many scenes that don't seem to make sense if one isn't familiar with Asian traditional symbolism like what does it mean when the kitchen stove is broken. Stoves are being connected to the outcome of pregnancies, and that is one of the main points in the story as the newly born baby may be little different, if things go as wrong as possible and as the evil spirit has planned.The effects are also nice and interesting, as there's one graphically depicted surgery, many slow moving zombies and some other scenes of terror and horror. Some scenes give genuine "shocks" as zombies appear suddenly behind characters and so on, so the viewing experience should be pretty intense, as it was in my case.After all, I liked this more than, let's say Ching Siu Tung's Witch From Nepal (1985), which is another Hong Kong horror story from the eighties. Dennis Yu has also made films like rarely seen Beasts (1980) and Evil Cat (1986). The Imp has been remade also in Hong Kong but I don't know what's that remake like. The original has some great and memorable visuals added with great soundtrack, and overall this is noteworthy horror film for fans of Eastern cinema, but still not a masterpiece nor particularly immortal film in horror genre. 7/10