Director: Kimo Stamboel
Year: 2020
Country: Indonesia
Alternate Titles: Ratu Ilmu Hitam
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Traveling out to the country, a man and his family reunite with former friends at the orphanage he grew up in to wish their ailing owner the best, but when a series of dark events and accidents befall them realize that a vengeful spirit is haunting the area with black magic and must figure out the secret behind their rampage.
Review:
This one has quite a lot to like about it. The main aspect to be had here is the strong setup that offers quite an enjoyable amount of action to come. Constructed as the former group coming together to pay respects to their ailing owner while serving as the substitute reunion between everyone and their families, the familiarities and greeting give way logically to the revelation of the ghost who haunts the building. This revelation and set up about the group being at the orphanage give the viewer a glimpse into the friendly nature of the group and how they’re all genuinely friends with everyone while still planting the seeds of what’s to come later on.
This setup then allows the burgeoning supernatural terror to be all the more chilling and creepy. Not only are the stories told a great starting point to get the initial backstory laid out, the launching into things from the discovery of the bodies in the forest nearby offers some utterly terrifying scenes here. The revelation about the bus filled with dead bodies and the swarm of insects left inside offers a wholly impressive set-piece that turns into the fun attacks on the house later on. The seemingly relaxed manner that they start falling under the spells being cast on everyone there creates a disturbing quality as the intensity is increased over time.
The barbaric quality of the spells featured in this one has a lot to do with the enjoyment into the final half. As the group is slowly whittled down through the graphic sequences throughout the orphanage, the slowly-dawning realization of the true assailant becomes clear. After seeing their friends rip their throats open, vomit up bugs and staple their lips together from black magic influence, the true extent of what’s going on comes about as a complete surprise when everything is given as to the motivation and reasoning which is truly appropriate and offers a great deal of sympathy for the main villain. This trope of what she becomes in the pursuit of revenge is a fine one and works quite well here.
The one slip-up is the scattershot finale which is both enjoyable and slightly problematic. The good parts come from the continuance of the over-the-top action and retribution being carried out over the various participants, keeping up the stellar effects work and torment that are quite chilling and innovative. Given a satisfactory wrap-up and victory over the evil figure attacking them, there's quite a lot to like here. However, a few flaws come about in some unnecessary exposition that didn't need to be there, either focusing on the actions against the children or the owner of the orphanage's past getting spelled out in full. These events are more than enough to know what's going on simply stating them, so these few elements are a bit disconcerting to have happened.
Overview: *****/5
Dark, brutal, and immensely enjoyable, the film shows just about everything you could want from a modern supernatural genre effort with very few negative qualities. Fans of the creative crew’s previous works, Asian horror fanatics in general, or viewers looking for this kind of brutal genre effort will be quite enthused and entertained with this one.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
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