Shaolin vs. Evil Dead (2004) User Reviews (15)

Would have been better as "Gordon Liu and Zombies vs. Irritating Children"

[wierzbowskisteedman · 3/10 · 10 December 2005]

Minor spoiler. But really, don't bother with this.

To start, I have to point out that this film contains various factors that, once added up, SHOULD result in a masterpiece:

Shaolin Monks (including Gordon Liu, which is better), an attractive Asian lady and zombies.

The thing is, no film should contain irritating children, inappropriate slapstick humour and HOPPING ZOMBIES. This film had so much potential and blew it; the early fight scene in the tea house suggests the film has promise; but for every five seconds of Gordon Liu smacking a zombie up, you have a minute of his blood-boilingly irritating child sidekick running around screaming. It's all downhill from there, wasting twenty minutes on an ill handled romance, and all the fight scenes seem to steer clear of actual blood and guts, and just consist of Liu sticking what appear to be his dry cleaning receipts on the foreheads of zombies. Plus, an irritating MALE kid GIVING BIRTH to an equally irritating MALE kid covered in shaving foam is NOT OKAY.

By the time the end arrives, you've been sat waiting for a massive kung fu zombie fight for so long you feel like beating up a pensioner if the last ten minutes don't deliver. They don't. The big bad zombie leader warrior thing looks like a Chinese rip off of Bruce Campbell's Evil Ash (which it is), and to add insult to injury, the film ends abruptly, but not only that, over the credits outtakes play from what appears to be the massive kung fu zombie fight you were waiting for!!! Why?? Was the film unfinished or something?

This film should be avoided, by kung fu fans, by George Romero fans, by Gordon Liu fans, even Army of Darkness fans, which seemed to be the type of style it was aiming for. Oh, and a note to American dubbers; Feug Shui is NOT pronounced "Fung Shooey" and Buddhist monks don't not say "Jesus!" when they get angry!

Mixed mix...

[poe426 · 4/10 · 5 August 2007]

If, like myself, you grew up in darkened theaters watching kung fu classics like THE Chinese PROFESSIONALS (which starred Wang Yu as a one-armed "boxer" and featured a long-haired, fanged fellow known as "the Kung Fu Beast"), or even if you were just fortunate enough to catch some of these monsterpieces of cable television over the years, you'll find in SHAOLIN VS. THE EVIL DEAD some familiar types. For starters, there are the infamous "hopping vampires" of Chinese lore. Throw in a venerable shaman and two sidekicks (so to speak) and you've got all the ingredients for some supernatural kung fu fun. (My favorite part has to be the scene where the boy, uh, "gives birth" to his supernatural son in the outdoor outhouse...) The only real gripe I have with this one is the abrupt ending: the movie ends, quite literally, in the middle of a scene. The clips that run during the closing credits suggest a series of movies have been made... but at no other time during the proceedings are we even aware of this. Other than that, a fun film.

The most abrupt ending in movie history.

[stormruston · 5/10 · 19 November 2007]

This movie ended so abruptly I rewinded the DVD, thinking it had skipped. Nope that was the end. I got a laugh out of that.

This movie was not bad, ending aside. Think "Power Rangers" quality acting and marshal arts, add in zombies and better sets and you have this movie. The main character reminded me of Yul Bryner but without much in the way of acting skills, his side kicks were amusing. The "bad guy" was over the top, making him enjoyable to watch and adding needed spark to this movie effort.

I have to say I was kept both entertained and amused so I can recommend this movie if you do not mind endings that are so abrupt you might think the camera just stopped working mid frame!

blooouuuddd-section of a gore film

[eminkarakus · 27 August 2005]

Everybody Is Zombie Fighting! It's Kill Bill meets The Evil Dead in this rousing martial arts horror auctioneer starring the one and only "Master Killer" himself, Gordon Liu (Kill Bill 1, Kill Bill 2, Master Killer) Taoists priests Park (Liu) and Hak (Terry Fan from The Story Of Ricky and Iron Fist) have been competing with each other for leadership of their school by using various sorcerers. But when their battle accidentally awakens the King of the Vampires, who as laid dormant for a thousand years. Pak and Hak must unite and use the 5 Elements Formation to stop the demon and his army of darkness. Will their powers be enough to defeat this invincible immortal? Filled with hopping vampires, exploding zombies, and dazzling fights, Shaolin vs. Evil Dead is a nonstop special-effect kung fu gore fest!

Deceptive Packaging.

[Steyrvolt · 2/10 · 22 July 2005]

Shaolin Vs. Evil Dead is a horribly drab film about a monk who goes around putting souls at rest. There is also an ex-student of his who goes around capturing the souls into purgatory.

WARNING: It's filmed like an old TV special (maybe it was straight to video) and despite what the box says, there is very little fighting in the film.

Nearly everything that the DVD says in the plot synopsis only happens IN THE CREDITS of the film in a TINY screen on the top left. So you won't be seeing the five-element formation... hahaha and also it's not a gore-fest as it claims to be. In fact... I don't recall any blood. There were some worms... and some hopping vampires (sweet... that's why I gave this film higher than a 1) Avoid this film at all costs, unless you wanna get drunk and laugh at the horrendous dubbing with friends. (I watched the first hour subbed but it was so horrid that we switched to dubbed for the end... and no I wasn't under the influence of alcohol when watching it.)

Hilariously Awful

[TorgoTron · 2/10 · 9 March 2006]

Ah, where to begin.... As another reviewer stated, this movie has a lot of promise. I mean, Kung Fu vs. Zombies, how could you go wrong? Suffice to say, this movie goes very, VERY wrong but in a completely different direction than I had anticipated.

I thought I was in for your standard cheesy kung fu flick with some zombie action thrown in. What I got was an incoherent (but admittedly well-shot and choreographed) mishmash of scenes that seem to have no real connection to one another, ambling along until it just.... ends. It's hard to sum everything up, but here we go.

Gordon Liu is REEALLY hamming it up as a Taoist priest who seems to spend his time walking around town followed by a pack of hopping (yes, HOPPING, like a bunny rabbit) vampires under his control. He's accompanied by his bumbling (but well-meaning) assistant and the token annoying kid. They're periodically attacked by "zombies," who really just kind of grab you and shake you around, not eat your brains or anything. Liu's "occupation" as it were seems to be to bring the souls of the zombies to reincarnation.

However, there's also an evil priest in town who just wants to destroy the zombies. Dressed in sparkly black attire and with an anime "bad guy" haircut, I think they wanted to say "menacing" but this dude comes off more as just a shade of "fruity." Such a fine line.... Anyway, periodically Gordon Liu and the Evil Priest meet up every once in a while, gesticulating kung-fu action moves and casting "spells" at each other with names like "ten storms attack master go!!" and whatnot. All in all, the fight scenes have the tone of bottom-of-the-barrel anime such as Dragonball Z or Pokemon.

Anyway, before the credits roll you will see (SPLOILERS, but if you really care you need to be sterilized):

** Gordon Liu using the "urine of a virgin" in order to protect himself from zombies (who knew?)

** The evil priest demanding all the "virgin boys" of a village in order to turn them into his brainwashed slaves

** The annoying kid (who's a boy) accidentally "eat" a spirit, become "pregnant" and then "give birth" (don't ask how) to another pasty-faced kid in an outhouse

All this and more! Seriously though, it was the best laugh I've had in a long time. The only reason it gets a 2 and not a 1 is because, for some reason, all of the camera-work, choreography and technical details are remarkably good. Never before has such a well-shot movie coincided with such a COMPLETE lack of anything resembling continuity. It's as if they took a Hong Kong filming crew, and told them "zombies! Kung Fu! just wing it..." The result? Shaolin vs. Evil Dead.

A bit of a let-down but...

[wellthatswhatithinkanyway · 5/10 · 10 April 2006]

STAR RATING: ***** The Works **** Just Misses the Mark *** That Little Bit In Between ** Lagging Behind * The Pits

Unsurprisingly, there's little in the way of a discernible plot to this slice of Hong Kong cinema- unfortunately there's also a distinct lack of exciting martial arts action too. Luckily, the unintentional comedy works wonders, such as the hilarious dubbing, a scene in which Gordon Liu asks a boy to urinate on the floor because he needs to use "virgin's pee", a scene in which he instructs his soldiers by using a rhyme that sounds like a high-school cheerleaders chant and a small child chasing after another boy calling him 'mummy' and covered in what is seemingly spunk. ***

Kung fu silliness

[continuumx · 4/10 · 25 February 2023]

The movie starts with a kung fu priest and his two disciples escorting some hopping vampires back to their home village for burial. Then goofy things start happening. Lots and lots of goofy things. They stop at an inn for the night which happens to be haunted and crawling with zombies. It's not connected with what they are doing. There are just zombies there because reasons. Apparently, this whole area is just crawling with zombies. His rival, emo hair guy and his hot assistant show up to show up the priest or something. The priest's kid disciple is forced to swallow an egg which sets up a nonsensical sideplot that runs throughout the movie and has nothing to do with anything. It's also the starts of a pointless romance subplot that goes nowhere. The priest delivers the hopping vampires to their home village and buries them around 1/3rd of the way through. After that, the movie loses its tenuous grip on the plot. There's a chess game with kung fu kids for some reason. At one point, the priest does some sort of scrying spell which causes the camera to zoom into outer space. Then the Sun explodes. I don't know what that was about. There's a boss zombie. The synopsis says he is the vampire king and the priest and emo guy awaken him somehow but I would have never gotten that from the movie. The movie doesn't have an ending. It just freezes in the middle of a scene and a narrator tells the audience what happens next. There is a montage of cool looking stuff that wasn't in the movie. Maybe that's the 5 elements formation the blurb mentioned?

There's enough kung fu silliness in this to make it somewhat entertaining including the world's most overly elaborate way of sticking 3 sticks of incense into the ground. It's just really disjointed and none of it really goes anywhere. It doesn't have an ending.

Goofy

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 4 May 2021]

Man, if the Italians found out about this movie*, it would have been a La Casa film for sure. As it is, it references Evil Dead while ripping off the look of the Mr. Vampire films while placing Gordon Liu into a battle between the shaolin monks and the living dead.

Mr. Liu was already a major star before Tarantino tapped him to appear in the Kill Bill films in two roles (Johnny Mo, the leader of the Crazy 88s and Master Pai Mei). His first break happened when he played San "Iron Arms" Te in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. Sadly, the star had a stroke that gave him a speaking slut and confined him to a wheelchair in 2011. It's a pretty rough story about his second wife's family taking much of his money, but luckily today he has entrusted his estate to his friend, actress Amy Fan.

Here, he's Pak, also known as Brother White, teaming with Siu-Wong Fan (who was, of course, the title character in Riki-Oh: The Story of Riki) as Hak, or Brother Black. They're up against a vampire king and evil Yat. You know, most of the reviews I've read of this hated it, but it has a child eating a magical egg and pooping out a magical shaving cream-covered full-sized kid who keeps calling the other little boy his mommy. Also, it just ends because they wanted to set up a sequel that took three more years to come out.

*It was released as Evil Dead 4 in Pakistan.

Not the cult classic it wants to be, but fun and easy to watch

[rickcde · 6/10 · 9 September 2005]

Throw a low-budget movie together with some Chinese vampires, likable kung-fu master, psychedelic special-effects, a good-looking babe and some funny sidekicks and what do you get? If you're lucky, you end up with a classic like Mr. Vampire. If you're not lucky, you end up with Shaolin vs. Evil Dead.

It isn't that the movie is a low-budget piece of garbage that is totally convoluted and incomprehensible (far from it) the problem is that it suffers from the medium budget mediocrity of most straight to video or made for TV fantasy movies. Although it contains all of the aforementioned fun ingredients (kung-fu, zombies, babe etc.), it just doesn't contain enough of these elements in enough exciting or outlandish ways to be considered anything close to a cult classic. (So don't expect anything as funny as a Stephen Chow movie or as over the top as the real Evil Dead movies: both of those are in a class all their own.)

With that being said, I can say that I was fairly entertained for 90 minutes (it's always a treat to see Gordon Liu) and it makes for good Saturday Matinée popcorn movie fare: moving fast, and keeping up the comic book imagery. It is a fairly sincere attempt by the small cast and offers good character development if there ever is a part two.

And yes, the cut to the credits is ridiculously abrupt for no apparent reason. (Couldn't they have at least finished the current scene?) but other than this goof (which seems to be making many enemies of the film) it *does* come pretty close to delivering what it promises on the cover. It is after all named "Shaolin vs. Evil Dead".

turned out to be excellent

[lordgrungeta · 8/10 · 22 May 2007]

ill agree with most out there if you base this movies rating purely on the first installment, yes you may end up being sorely disappointed. but if you wait it out and I'm sure some of you have then your now aware that those scenes at the end of s vs e weren't test shots as others have lead you to believe but were in fact........OK before i go on ill let you know that the rest of the review is quite a spoiler so for any who want to wait and see the sequel please don't read on.......now as i was saying those "test shots" as they were poorly stated were in fact final scene shots well some anyways from the sequel shaolin vs evil dead 2: ultimate power, which BTW is out for sale in china now, not 100%sure when it will be available domestically but it is out there so please don't base your reviews on what others have said before me because they are entirely wrong the sequel was bought and paid for in 2005 why others have called these scenes in the closing credits "test shots" i know not and just to let you all know I'm not passing on info from other sites i read well about the movie itself and its quality I'm not anyways i just finished watching it so by all means keep your eyes open and look out quite a good movie after all even with all the throw backs to the vampire comedy movies of the Chinese cinema's past

good movie, but not what you expect

[ericjs-2 · 7/10 · 22 July 2006]

Actually I enjoyed this movie. This film is no gorefest, it's quite mild. Apparently when they imported they decided to market it as a cross between martial arts schlock and horror schlock, which would certainly be enjoyable in its own way, but that's not what it is, so it's not surprising many were disappointed.

I found it enjoyable for the authentic cultural touches...combatting evil and undead with a Taoist slant rather than crosses is quite interesting.

The abrupt ending with what must be scenes from part II rolled in a small box next to the credits was certainly clumsy and disconcerting though.

I'll give it 7 out of 10 for effort...

[isfahani · 28 February 2006]

But the person here who merely copied over the PR blurb as a review should have it's pointy 'lil head checked :P

I wasn't expecting MR VAMPIRE 2004, and that's a good thing. This wasn't as nearly as good as it should have, even given the low budget treatment. Gordon Liu can only do so much to help this film. In comparison to any of the original Hopping Zombie films of the past, this doesn't hold a Joss stick - but if you are used to subtitled ATV or TVB series then this could be right up your alley.

Also, FYI: this is PART ONE of a two part series, even though little information to this effect has been found. Thus, there have been lots of reviews that mention the 'abrupt ending' as a turnoff...understandable.

The Credits??????

[Masta_Ruthless · 7/10 · 10 March 2007]

Okay here is a movie where you wonder, what was the producer and director thinking. Gordon Liu is a superb actor, and Terry Fan is nothing short of great himself. I was going with the flow of this movie for the fact of the conditions the actors had to work in. The action was okay and the special effects where pretty decent. Even though this movie wasn't Grade A, I felt that it was okay..............................................

...........................That is until I saw the ending credits!!!!! What in the blue hell were the people thinking about. The 3min credit scene had action better than the whole movie, I mean awesome special effects and fighting. To find out that they were only test shots was a serious kick to the balls of every kung fu movie fan out there. I give this movie a 7. The credits gets a 9.1. If you get this movie and watch it, please by all means anticipate the ending credits.

Entertaining and captivating, good movie

[dasa108 · 7/10 · 28 November 2021]

This film has all the elements that can attract us: zombies, vampires, magic, amazing fights and a script that gives no respite. One of the protagonists has the ability to represent his son when he is older. There is no room for unbelief; when you think you've seen it all the Chinese grab a movie and with the same plot they do something inconceivable. Highly recommended film.