The Fake Ghost Catchers Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

The Fake Ghost Catchers Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 18, 2025

Note: This version of this film is available on Blu-ray as part of the Shawscope Volume Four collection from Arrow Video.

Things seem to have calmed down a little from the gauntlet I experienced toward the end of 2024 where it seemed I was getting a Shaw Brothers title (or several) in my review queue virtually daily. Arrow has been curating its immense Shawscope collections for a few years now, and they're helping to alleviate any perceived deficit in high definition presentations of the venerable studio's output with this fourth volume which aggregates sixteen more films from the Shaw Brothers canon (some of them previously released in other territories, though Arrow advertises new 2025 restorations for all of the films in the set). Arrow has packaged all of these volumes consistently, and this latest volume shares the same basic dimensions as its shelf mates (if you even have shelf space for such large boxes), and it also includes the wealth of bonus material that the previous releases from Arrow have offered.

For "rabid completists" who may want to peruse the immense prior volumes in this series from Arrow, please click on the following links:

Shawscope Volume One Blu-ray review

Shawscope Volume Two Blu-ray review

Shawscope Volume Three Blu-ray review

In our recent The Taste of Violence Blu-ray review, I mused whether Tarsem Singh may have seen that little remembered French film and drawn inspiration for his opening vignette in The Fall from a somewhat similar tableau vivant which opens the Robert Hossein opus. In somewhat the same way, some may wonder if the venerable Peter Jackson may have stumbled across The Fake Ghost Catchers at some point, since even the very title of that film might be used as a description of sorts for Jackson's The Frighteners.

The broad outlines of both films are in fact surprisingly similar, with, yes, "fake ghost catchers" duping scared victims of supposed hauntings, but who then (of course) end up having to deal with real specters. This is a much less glossy and glittering special effects laden enterprise than the Jackson film (probably again "of course"), and it's also more prone to goofy adolescent humor and schtick than the Jackson film, though The Frighteners obviously offers a lot of physical comedy along the way. There's also a more "palace intrigue" aspect to this plot that is probably more in line with countless wuxia entries from the Shaw Brothers.

If Western fans may understandably feel some kind of tether between this film and the Jackson film, as Ian Jane's notes on the film in Arrow's insert booklet point out, this was actually a direct response from Shaw Brothers to the overwhelming success of competitor Golden Harvest's Encounters of the Spooky Kind (note that the link points to a South Korean Blu-ray, since there's evidently no Region A release as of the writing of this review). So it might be jokingly suggested that Jackson may have seen that film as well.

The Fake Ghost Catchers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Fake Ghost Catchers is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Arrow's almost overwhelming insert booklet lumps all the films together on its informational page about the transfers, as follows:

All sixteen films in this boxset are presented in their original aspect ratios (all 2.35:1 except for Bewitched, Hex After Hex and Seeding of a Ghost in 1.85:1) with their original Mandarin and/or Cantonese and/or English monaural soundtracks. Every effort has been made to present these films in their original and complete versions using the best materials available.

All sixteen films have been newly restored by Arrow Films in 2025, in collaboration with L'Immagine Ritrovata, Hong Kong Film Archive and Celestial Pictures. The original 35mm negatives for these films were scanned at L'Immagine Ritrovata Asia and restored in 2K resolution at L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna. Super Inframan, Oily Maniac, Battle Wizard, Black Magic, Black Magic Part 2, Hex, Hex Vs. Witchcraft, Hex After Hex and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star were graded at R3store Studios, London. Bewitched, Bat Without Wings, Bloody Parrot, The Fake Ghost Catchers, Demon of the Lute, Seeding of a Ghost and Portrait in Crystal were restored at Dragon DI, Wales. These restorations have used the entire film negative without resorting to the practice of "frame-cutting" resulting in the loss of film frames at each negative splice point.

The mono mixes were remastered from the original sound negatives at L'Immagine Ritrovata. Additional sound remastering was completed by Þorsteinn Gíslason. The audio synch will often seem loose against the picture, due to the fact that the dialogue and sound effects were recorded entirely during post-production, as per the production standards of the period.

All film materials supplied for these restorations were made available from the Hong Kong Film Archive via Celestial Pictures.

The American cut of Super Inframan, titled Infra-Man, is remastered using a composite of the newly restored Hong Kong version and selected excerpts from a 35mm US exhibition print. This print also featured a rare quadrophonic sound mix ("Stereo-Infra-Sound") that is featured here, for the first time on home video. The print, as well as 16mm TV spots and a 7" record with two radio spots, was scanned by Film-Tech Cinema Systems in Richardson, Texas. Special thanks to Lee Demarbre for granting us access to the 35mm print, and to Jarrod Varney for supplying the TV and radio spots.

The original camera negative for Bewitched is conformed to a censored version missing select scenes in the first two reels. When the film was originally remastered in high-definition by Celestial Pictures in 2007, these additional scenes were scanned from a lower-quality element as the negatives for them could not be located. When preparing for this new restoration, this element could not be located anymore either, so the scenes have been incorporated from the earlier HD master instead.

The original trailers were restored by Arrow Films from the original 35mm materials held at the Hong Kong Film Archive. Special thanks to King-Wei Chu and Denis-Carl Robidaux for donating and scanning additional trailers for Bat Without Wings and Bloody Parrot.

There can be some really appealing fine detail on display at times in this presentation, probably sometimes inadvertently so, as in the clear appearance of the webbed netting underlayment and "seam" of the so-called postiche sideburn seen in screenshot 4. Those moments can contrast with some significantly less clear moments especially in wider framings (see screenshot 8), though on the whole everything from midrange to close-up tends to offer secure detailing. The palette is quite vividly suffused most of the time and grain resolves without any issues.

The Fake Ghost Catchers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Fake Ghost Catchers offers Mandarin and Cantonese audio options, both presented in LPCM Mono. This is one film where I'd have a hard time offering any comments about substantial differences between them, with both offering more or less the same amplitude and reproduction of (often "borrowed" from other sources) music and sound effects. The score has several cues that sound like they have vintage synths, with some wavering high end that may have been part of a patch. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Fake Ghost Catchers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements associated with this film.

The Fake Ghost Catchers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Whether this film is compared to the Sammo Hung outing or the Peter Jackson enterprise, it may come off as "second best", but it's often quite enjoyable and features a good if somewhat inconsistent mix of horror and comedy. Technical merits are generally solid for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.