A trip to the orphanage where they were raised leads to a night of terror
for three men and their families.
Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Kimo Stamboel
Starring: Ario Bayu, Hannah Al Rashid, Adhisty Zara, Ari Irham, Muzakki
Ramdhan
In the past few years Indonesia has seen a resurgence in its genre movie
scene. Western attention was initially brought to the nation by Welsh ex-pat
filmmaker Gareth Evans, whose Raid films showcased the talent
of the Indonesian film industry. Since then, and with the aid of horror
streaming service Shudder, native Indonesian filmmakers have picked up the
baton from Evans, with movies like Kimo Stamboel's
Headshot and Joko Anwar's
Impetigore
finding a global audience.
Stamboel and Anwar combine as director and writer respectively for
The Queen of Black Magic, a slick remake of Liliek Sudjio's 1981 camp horror of the same name.
Long gone is the cheesiness of Indonesian horror movies of the 1980s,
replaced by production values and special effects that rival anything to
come out of the Blumhouse stable.
The plot sees three men - Hanif (Ario Bayu), Anton (Tanta Ginting) and Jefri (Miller Khan) - return to the orphanage where they were
raised upon hearing the man who looked after them, Mr Bandi (Yayu A.W. Unru), is on his deathbed. With their wives and kids in tow, they are greeted
by Maman (Ade Firman Hakim) and Siti (Sheila Dara Aisha) the
married couple who now run the orphanage, having been raised there
themselves.
On the journey, Hanif ran over a deer (can we call a moratorium on this
cliché?), but he later gets a bad feeling and returns to the site of the
incident. There he finds a wounded young girl and - yikes! - a bus filled
with dead kids. Of course, he can't get any cellphone coverage in the remote
area, and when he returns to the orphanage - wouldn't you know it? - the
landline has been cut off. As the night progresses, Hanif and co. find
themselves trapped in the orphanage, and one by one they become possessed,
Evil Dead style.
Stamboel walks a tightrope between schlock and seriousness, but the two
disparate tones never quite coalesce. The effects are highly impressive for
a non-Hollywood production, but the gore sequences are as derivative as they
come, with women coughing up centipedes and hacking away at their flesh
while under the influence of some malignant force. In what is now an ironic
touch, one hypochondriac character is mocked for wearing a face-mask,
constantly sanitising her hands and fist-bumping instead of shaking
hands.
The Queen of Black Magic runs for 100 minutes, but it feels
considerably longer as it so often gets bogged down in plot details. It's a
hackneyed plot about a wronged woman getting revenge from beyond the grave,
but Stamboel and Anwar stretch it out to snapping point with a few too many
scenes explaining the backstory. The movie is also overloaded with
characters, making it difficult to keep track of who is currently possessed,
and you might need a notebook and pen to keep track of the various names
thrown about.
If Stamboel and Anwar wish to demonstrate that they can compete with
mainstream Hollywood despite their limited resources, then you have to take
your hat off to them for producing such a polished film. But personally I'd
happily take a more rough around the edges horror movie that demonstrated
some personality over this glossy but rather soulless production.
