This unofficial sequel (or ‘rip-off’) to ‘Mr. Vampire’ was released in Hong Kong cinemas shortly before ‘Mr Vampire 2’, and despite trying its best to pay homage to the restless dead, only pisses into the open grave of the official series.

Fine, Chin Siu Ho is present, as are Wu Ma and Pauline Wong, who all appeared in the earlier movies. They play different roles, though, and Wu Ma is a mere cameo appearance, which is a shame. Chung Faat plays the main Taoist priest, which is a similar role to the one he played in ‘Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind’, and so his inclusion is fairly relevant. The main man Lam Ching Ying is not here, though, which is a mixed blessing – on one hand, it’s hard to feel as if you are watching a Mr. Vampire film without him, but on the other hand, he doesn’t have to hang his head in shame like Chin and Pauline should do for making this inferior imitation.

As for the spooks, Pauline Wong plays a (strangely fresh looking) reanimated corpse rather than the ghostly minx that she did in the real thing. Her character is actually better than the vampire of the film, and she has the best scenes in the film as she imitates Chin Siu Ho’s every movement in an amusing scene typical of HK horror comedy. However, it is a little weird that her death, her near revival to life, and the mourning expressed by her lover is handled in such a comedic way. One scene played for laughs, has him dancing with her reanimated but soulless corpse. It’s odd to see this as comedy, the same concept could be really effective if played for shocks, and anyway, isn’t this close to necrophilia?

The vampire in this movie is probably the feeblest vamp in HK horror history, despite being played by Huang Ha, who tried to latch onto Chin Siu Ho’s neck in Mr. Vampire. In this movie, he barely attacks until near the end of the movie, he doesn’t hop, his make-up is inconsistent, and he doesn’t seem to pose any real threat.

In case you hadn’t figured it out, New Mr. Vampire is rubbish. Taoist tricks are thin on the ground, the monsters aren’t scary, and the comedy is rarely funny, despite trying so very hard to be funnier than the original movie. If you really must see all the Mr Vampire movies, then go ahead and buy this, but it isn’t really worth bothering, as it’s even worse than the awful ‘Mr. Vampire 2’.