Notable as the last movie Chang Cheh made with the full "Venom Clan", 1982's House of Traps will hold some interest for die-hard fans of the oldschool kung fu genre. On the other hand, more casual viewers may have a hard time sitting through this film's numerous exposition scenes and may find themselves reaching for the fast-forward button.

House of Traps, as a whole, feels like Chang (who was on the tail end of his career with Shaw Brothers at this point) was on auto-pilot, though the story does at least try to inject a little originality into the standard "revolutionaries versus the Emperor" storyline so many of these types of movies employed. Here, a disgruntled prince is trying to overthrow the current ruler, and is stealing royal artifacts, which are stored in the eponymous house. So, a team of thieves is tasked with infiltrating both the prince's gang and the deadly house.

The main problem here is that it takes so long for this movie to go anywhere. There's a lot of talking and belaboring of plot points via the introduction of numerous characters. No one ends up getting really fleshed out; in fact, most of them seem to come and go without adding any weight to the story. Chang (who also co-wrote the screenplay) seems to have wanted to give House of Traps more of a dramatic flavor than your standard kung fu movie, but the result is a misfire, as the movie ultimately lacks a central focus and clarity in its storytelling.

So what we are left with is the action, which is good, but nothing great. None of the actors seem to be extending themselves at all, and the choreography is, at most times, average at best. Chang does spice things up with a bit of the old patented Shaw Brothers ketchup blood violence, but this falls limp. Even the movie's main gimmick is not all that exciting, with only three traps that are employed several times, to the point of the employment becoming a bit tiresome, rather than fearsome.

RATING: 6