There are some very excellent things about this film, and some very annoying things. Let me start with the annoying things. The title of the film in the opening credits is actually "The 9 Venoms." (Why do they say that?) Also the stars of the movie are given in the opening credits in Chinese characters only (no English credits), so its difficult to know which Venoms are actually in the movie and which are not. The box does not help. It too lists only "The Venoms" (maybe they can't read Chinese either?) I count at least two Venoms here, Chiang Sheng and Lu Feng, and a large ensemble of Venom-looking guys who actually can pass. Lu Feng has only a cameo as the Prince of Hell. The film features a heavy dose of the supernatural, and all supernatural kung fu films of this period have the tackiest of special effects. The film is in full screen, and if there was ever a film that needed to be presented in glorious "ShawScope" or widescreen, it is this one. The "scanning" is unforgiveable (there is little if any "panning") and key fighters in key battles just drift out of frame and back into frame. The voice talent is not the Shaw Brothers dub core we've come to expect. THAT audio must have been lost or something, or unsalvageable, because this audio track has "modern" dubbing with unfamiliar voices. If that was'nt a distraction enough, the characters are now "Joey...Gary...Roland." (Do you really want to hear that?)

Now for the good things. If you can look beyond the above distractions, there is some excellent Venom-style fighting here. Forget for a moment that these guys are not the REAL Venoms. They LOOK like Venoms, and have that period slicked-down hairstyle we like in our Venom movies. The film is directed by long-standing Venom director Chang Cheh, and the fights are up to his standards. The fights include that signature "Venom strike" blow sound when they strike each other, and, I'm sorry, but when you hear long awesome fights with that strike sound, it can become hypnotic, and you forget all about the film's other shortcomings.