Centipede Horror (1982)

Dir. Kieth Li

Love. Death. Mystery. Vengeance. The sins of our ancestors. These are the ingredients of compelling melodrama. But what about spirits, wizard battles, exorcism, astral projected reanimated chicken skeletons, and centipedes? Lots and lots of centipedes? It all goes hand in hand in the world of Hong Kong Category III Exploitation, where bugs and black magic reign supreme.

Wai-Lum is called to Southeast Asia (that’s as specific as the movie got regarding location) after his sister falls ill and eventually dies, with doctors having no idea why, saying only that her condition was indicative of radiation poisoning. Of course the audience knows already that she was attacked by a horde of carnivorous centipedes after encountering a man who can only be described as “clearly the movie’s villain”. Investigating with Yeuk-Chee, an old college friend and love interest, Wai-Lum eventually discovers that his family is the subject of revenge for a wizard crossed by his grandfather long ago, and that if he’s not careful, he’ll suffer the same creepy-crawly fate as his sister. 

Centipede Horror doesn’t have the frequency of insect attacks of something like Slugs (1988), or Ticks (1993), or even The Nest (1988), but what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in actual living centipedes actually crawling all over people, and in one unfortunate but determined actress’s case, actually coming out of her mouth. This film easily rates over the top of the gross out scale for entomophobes for good reason, but while the eponymous centipedes are the star attraction, they’re really just a tool for the film’s true evil, black magic. Black magic, a staple of Hong Kong horror in the 70s and 80s, does the heavy lifting here in terms of entertainment value. One ritual at the film’s halfway mark sees a priest exorcising a young woman with the help of the enslaved spirits of two dead children. Without spoiling, it also involves chicken blood stamps, scorpions, an attack “from two ways”, and lots of writhing and screaming. 

There are two black magic battles in the back half of the film, one coinciding with the final climactic centipede attack, and they are sights to behold. It’s in these sections that the cinematography and editing come alive, bringing a sense of urgency and kinetic energy to the proceedings. Performances are committed, particularly that of the film’s villain, who gets to ham it up as he concocts and caries out his evil schemes, but Margaret Lee as Yeuk-Chee gets in on the fun as well when she gets possessed in the third act. Plot and character are secondary though (Wai-Lum is a particularly passive lead, idling through the plot via coincidence, almost hilariously unaware of the dangers around him, having no agency in his own fate), but provide serviceable enough bones on which to hang bugs and black magic. It’s a light watch, but a fun one.