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Devil Fetus
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - 88 Films Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (20th August 2025). |
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The Film
 During the local Hungry Ghosts Festival, Suk-jing (The Fishing Adventure's Lu Bei-Bei) is drawn to a strange jade vase at auction and buys it. Living with her mother-in-law Madame Jeng (The Avenging Eagle's Ou-Yang Sha-Fei), brother-in-law Ji-Cheng (Hex After Hex's Lau Dan), his wife (It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World's Leung San), and their young children while her husband Ji-Wan is away in Japan on business, Suk-jing is left vulnerable to the demonic forces possessing the vase which assume the form of a demon to make love to her. When Ji-Wan returns suddenly and catches them, he smashes the vase and is immediately disfigured, throwing himself out the window. Days later, pregnant Suk-jing also dies in a mysterious accident. The Daoist priest (Island of Fire's Chin Yung-Hsiang) conducting her funeral detects that that the inhabitant of her womb is a demon and subdues it by sealing the coffin and adorning her shrine with protective amulets. Years later, the Jeng's elder son Ken (Crazy Blood's Eddie Chen) returns from Japan where he has been competing in Kendo to discover that his parents have taken in their late auntie's lovely goddaughter Jo-Jo (Carry On Hotel's Shirley Lui Sau-Ling). When Jo-Jo and younger Jeng brother Wai (Kendo Kids' Hsu Meng-Kuang) stop by the original family home to pick up their grandmother for her birthday party, a curious Jo-Jo knocks over the amulets on Suk-jing's shrine. Wai puts them back but for one of them that takes on a life of its own and follows back to the new Jeng home where it is eaten by the family dog. The family dog turning violent and biting is just one of the mysterious happenings in the house as Wai too becomes possessed and attacks Jo-Jo, the demon intent on propagating itself once more unless grandmother and the priest can find a way to expel the demon without harming Wai. An early example of the gross-out end of Hong Kong's pre-Category III eighties horror films – this one produced by Lo Wei (Fist of Fury) and distributed by Golden Harvest at the same time Shaw Brothers were phasing out wuxia for horror films with strong sex and gore – Devil Fetus has gained a reputation of being strong stuff but it is actually quite tame compared to the likes of Centipede Horror or Corpse Mania. The film features the usual animal violence – that it got through the BBFC suggests that perhaps some of it however unpleasant could be construed as having been simulated – sexual assault, worms, old school optical effects – from hand-drawn laser effects to stop motion and puppetry – and a score that sounds half-vintage library tracks and synth noodlings that seem more early Giorgio Moroder than Tangerine Dream but with a level of restraint that seems as if cinematographer/director Lau Hung-Chuen thought the underdeveloped characters and relationships could better support the rest; and it is not until the last twenty-odd minutes that the scope photography gets truly stylish with some ghastly faces emerging from deep shadows into Bava-esque green gel lighting and some contrasting violet lighting in a stalking scene that seems at least partially inspired by the antique shop sequence of Blood and Black Lace followed by an effects-heavy The Evil Dead-esque Kendo vs demon confrontation set in a flatly-lit basement. On the basis of its title alone, Devil Fetus promises outrageous Hong Kong gore horror and only sort of delivers, but it is indicative of the stubbornness of Lo Wei in adapting to the market. 
Video
Released on cropped laserdisc and VHS by Ocean Shores in Hong Kong – copies of which found their way to American video stores along with the likes of Brutal Sorcery due to the presence of exhibition print dual Chinese and English subtitles – Devil Fetus got its first widescreen release in the last decade when Fortune Star remastered it for DVD and Joy Sales put it out in an anamorphic transfer; however, that version turned out to be a softer cut of the film with substitutions to the dog attack and rape of the maid as well as snipping short some other bits and was also mastered in PAL. The high definition studio-supplied master made its debut earlier this year in the U.S. on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome in a two-disc set with Her Vengeance, and 88 Films' 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen Blu-ray utilizes the same color-corrected master complete with Vinegar Syndrome's logo at the end. For the most part, the transfer is clean with nicely-saturated colors with red popping in the set decoration and bloodshed – including a scene in which a head literally pops (which might have "inspired" a similar sequence in Luigi Cozzi's Paganini Horror – but optical effects of course look coarser and it appears that original camera negative might have been the softer version as the restored shots and brief extensions look slightly faded with light scratches in comparison to the surrounding footage. 
Audio
Audio options include the original post-dubbed Cantonese LPCM 2.0 mono track and the English dub – which appears to have been dubbed by English-speaking Chinese actors rather than the westerners who usually found work in Hong Kong cinema doing dubbing work – as English subtitles for the Cantonese track are helpful even with the English track. The tracks both sound very clean with faint hiss in the silences when the library score is not slathered on. The optional English subtitles feature some inconsistencies in naming but also reveal some differences between the two tracks (the demon is attributed to Tibet on the Cantonese track and Mongolia on the English). 
Extras
The film is accompanied by an audio commentary by film historian David West who provides more background on Chinese customs like the Hungry Ghost Festival and its origins, incense burning, the importing of Kendo from Japan into Taiwan, and Daoist funerals versus Buddhist and Catholic ones. While he cites obvious influences like The Exorcist and The Evil Dead, he also notes the influences of other Chinese horror films going back to the pre-war era and more recent ones by Kuei Chih-Hung (The Boxer's Omen), a jobbing director who became something of a specialist in the genre during the early eighties at Shaw Brothers, as well as the director/cinematographer's own experience before this on Duel to the Death and the popularity of Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain on Hong Kong special effects and the resurgence of wire work. West also shares this reviewer's trepidation with respect to pets and other animals when they show up in a Hong Kong horror film. The disc also includes excerpts from the alternate version (0:28) which was presumably for other Asian territories but it appears as though these two shots might have been in the negative and the harder shots in the feature presentation inserted because the shot in the feature of the maid's blouse being ripped open looks more faded and scratchy than the covered take here. Keep in mind these are alternate shots as some of the other censorship of alternate version were straight cuts rather than substitutions. The remaining extras are a theatrical trailer (2:47) and stills gallery. 
Packaging
Not supplied for review were the O-ring slipcover, collectible postcard, and forty-page perfectbound book with writing by Zoe Rose Smith, Andrew Heskins, and C.J. Lines included in the first pressing.
Overall
On the basis of its title alone, Devil Fetus promises outrageous Hong Kong gore horror and only sort of delivers, but it is indicative of the stubbornness of Lo Wei in adapting to the market.
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