A group of guys venture into the woods to find a cursed black egg when they are jumped by some undead Ninjas who kill them and steal the egg. Twenty years later, two rival teams of adventurers head back into the wild to find the egg, ignoring the warnings of the locals. When one of the explorers accidentally takes a piss on a skull, it awakens an evil shaman who wants to use the egg to take over the world.
Spirited Killer 3: Ghost Wars is a step up from its predecessors in just about every way. I’m not going on record and saying it’s good or anything, but at least some of the humor works this time out. It helps that it’s more of a flat-out spoof than a horror-comedy. The scenes where the two warring teams of adventurers half-heartedly fight each other while eating, drinking, and even bathing are good for a chuckle. Their constant wisecracks and little asides during the swordfights and Kung Fu battles are noticeably less successful, however.
Make no mistake. All this is still pretty hit-and-miss. It’s just that it’s slightly more consistent than the other films in the series. There are concepts that aren’t fully explored or, worse, go nowhere. (Like the “ass demon” who fights the heroes while wearing a diaper.) There are also more than a few comedy bits that fail to garner any laughs. (Like when one of the guys gives fighting tips to a ghost Ninja during a battle.)
In fact, for the first hour or so, the film is pretty low on horror content. It isn’t until a sweet little old grandma turns into a zombie do things switch over into full horror-comedy mode. While she does gleefully chow down on some people’s guts, she unfortunately also participates in a few unfunny fast motion chase scenes. Despite its faults, Spirted Killer 3: Ghost Wars has more spirit than the other entries in the franchise, and for that alone, I can’t give it any less than **. Not bad for a movie that’s essentially one long Easter egg hunt.
Director/star Panna Rittikrai later went on to direct Ong-Bak 2 and 3.
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