Encounters of the Spooky Kind

Encounters of the Spooky Kind
Hong Kong film poster
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	鬼打鬼
Simplified Chinese	鬼打鬼
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin guĭdáguĭ Yue: Cantonese Jyutping gwai2 daa1 gwai2
Directed by	Sammo Hung
Written by	Sammo Hung Huang Ying
Produced by	Chan Pui-wah Raymond Chow Lau Chi-chong
Starring	Sammo Hung Wong Ha Dick Wei Lam Ching-ying Wu Ma
Cinematography	Lee Yau-tong Ng Cho-wah
Edited by	Peter Cheung
Music by	Frankie Chan
Production company	Bo Ho Films Co Ltd
Distributed by	Golden Harvest
Release date	24 December 1980 (1980-12-24)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	Hong Kong
Language	Cantonese
Box office	HK$5.675 million

Encounters of the Spooky Kind (Chinese: 鬼打鬼) is a 1980 Hong Kong martial arts comedy horror film directed by and starring Sammo Hung, who also wrote the film with Huang Ying, and produced by Hung's production company Bo Ho Film Company.^[1] Released as Spooky Encounters in the United States and also known as Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind,^[2] the latter title more blatantly mimicking the title of the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Encounters of the Spooky Kind was the progenitor of the jiangshi film genre and one of Hong Kong's first action horror comedies.^[3]

In the film, a man is targeted for killing by his wife's lover. The lover employs a witch, who unleashes jiangshi, vampires, and spirits against the husband. The attacks are countered by a rival sorcerer, who takes the husband as his disciple. The events escalate to a battle between the sorcerers.

The film was followed by a stand-alone sequel starring Hung and Lam Ching-ying, Encounters of the Spooky Kind II (also known as Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind 2) in 1990, which has no relation to Encounters of the Spooky Kind.^[4] A soft reboot directed by Dick Wei was filmed in 2016.^[5]