Rating: **
Review Date: 11/19/17
Director: Wu Ma
Cast: Lam Ching Ying, Wu Ma, Ngai Sing (Collin Chou)
"God will forgive you, but I won't!"
Normally, you can count on Wu Ma and Lam Ching Ying to deliver the goods when it comes to supernatural thrillers, but "Exorcist Master" is a serious misfire. A Catholic church in a Chinese village is condemned as being haunted when the resident priest is impaled on a falling cross. Years later, a group of pilgrims led by Wu Ma arrive and decide to re-open the church. Taoist priest Lam Ching Ying objects, but no one is on his side. It turns out that the town's prominent citizens are up to no good and want to somehow take advantage of the church. Meanwhile, a corpse herder is also on his way to town, using fake vampires as drug mules. Naturally, with the church re-opening, the original vampire reawakens and pretty soon the fake vampires become all too real. The only way to stop the mixture of Western and Chinese vampires is for Wu Ma and Lam Ching Ying to combine their faiths instead of fighting against each other.
The film looks great and has that typical 1990's Hong Kong cinematography that I love so much. Unfortunately, the action is sparse, the pacing is sluggish, and the humor is intolerable. Ngai Sing gets in some good hits and falls, but is mostly a bumbling sidekick that's played for laughs. Pretty disappointing in all regards.