The film industry of Hong Kong has long been associated with genre cinema. While the territory boasts a long and proud history of aesthetic experimentation and art cinema, and of incredible diversity in its crowdpleasing hits, the cinema of Hong Kong is frequently seen as essentially defined by its association with various forms of action. For a vast majority of Western audiences, Hong Kong cinema is kung fu, epitomised by the perfection of Bruce Lee or the controlled chaos of Jackie Chan; for a different audience, John Woo's pioneering ‘Heroic Bloodshed’ bullet ballets symbolise the greatest achievements of Hong Kong film-makers. Horror has emerged as another of these iconic, kinetic modes of Hong Kong film-making, capturing the attention of global audiences and honouring a centuries-old tradition of ghost stories of the macabre and bizarre.

According to several domestic critics, the horror film reached its commercial and artistic peak in the 1980s, partially as a response from filmmakers and audiences to the decline of the dominance of kung fu (Teo 1989: 41). Phrased in more poetic terms by the critic Sek Kei, kung fu was the ‘flesh and blood’ of Hong Kong cinema in the 1970s, while horror films ‘have occupied its soul in the eighties’ (Ibid.: 13). If this moment represents the peak for Hong Kong horror, the golden age was short-lived: for one journalist, the cycle sputtered out by the mid-1990s (O’Brien 2003: 5). This popular view of Hong Kong horror – as a brief and bright flame that lasted barely longer than a decade – discounts both the rich history of horror in Hong Kong, dating back as long as films have been made in the territory, as well as an enduring legacy that continues to inspire film-makers and thrill audiences today.

The 2013 film Rigor Mortis (directed by Juno Mak) was seen by many as a catalyst for a re-examination of Hong Kong horror's unique appeal. Premiering at the Venice Film Festival to an appreciative audience, the film represented both the old and the new, nostalgically incorporating references to Hong Kong horror's greatest achievements while acknowledging the shifting global market for East Asian cult cinema.