The Devil's Skin (Taiwan 1970)

Rating: **
Review Date: 10/30/17
Cast: Ingrid Yin-Yin Hu, Li Meng

A young man rescues a fox and is subsequently enchanted by a fox spirit named Qing Mei (Ingrid Yin). Meanwhile, a vampire shows up in town and starts feeding on the locals, and a shifty Taoist priest conveniently appears, intending to cleanse the town of evil spirits and hopefully make some money in the process. Unfortunately, his efforts to get rid of the fox spirit fail, and he doesn't have a lead on the vampire, either. Eventually, the vampire assumes the body of a local innkeeper (Li Meng) and tries to seduce young Master Yang, but Qing Mei comes to his rescue. The two spirits battle over the clueless and helpless young man, until the priest shows up and delivers the final blow.

It's an attractive and colorful piece of horror cinema, but the endlessly cackling vampire becomes extremely irritating very quickly. Both Ingrid Yin and Li Meng are very pretty, and a lot of voyeuristic camera work and sex comedy revolve around them. Sadly, the story is slow, overly simplistic, and there's very little to it. Basically, two spirits and a priest show up at the beginning of the film, and a lot of pointless situation comedy ensues before the spirits are finally exorcised. Fans of Asian horror will appreciate the atmosphere and cinematography, even if the pacing is sluggish and the characters are needlessly silly.