HK Cinema - 1975
With a few exceptions horror films had not been a major staple of HK films. There had been a few in the past such as the 1937 Phantom of the Opera theme film called Song at Midnight.

In 1974 Hammer Film collaborated with Shaw to produce The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires with Peter Cushing and David Chiang. The vampires here were the western kind as opposed to the later hopping vampires. At about the same time the American film the Exorcist became a huge international hit. So HK decided to start producing horror films.

The HK horror films tended to be shocking, strange and very gory for the most part. One of the first was produced by Shaw Brothers called Black Magic. In it a black magician needs to feed upon human milk to stay alive. He satiates his needs in particularly gruesome ways. Many of the HK horror films that followed often took place in the seemingly mysterious South East Asia and revolved around horrible curses. Some of these over the next number of years were Black Magic II, Red Spell Spells Red, Holy Virgin vs the Evil Dead, Witch with the Flying Head and Seeding of a Ghost.

Another type of horror film dealt with animals or insects that are used in devilish ways. One of the first was Killer Snakes in which a scorned lover trains snakes to invade the privates of women. Lewd Lizard has a similar theme. In Centipede Horror there are some ghastly scenes with centipedes crawling out of the sores in a persons body or being thrown up. A strong stomach is helpful.

The above information was gathered from Mondo Macabro by Peter Tombs