Rather than a wedding, the departure point for this remake of Liliek Sudjio’s same-named 1981 Indonesian cult horror item is a reunion of sorts at an orphanage. Mr. Bandi (Yayu A.W. Unru), will any day now breathe his last, and a trio of acquiescent repatriates are coming to pay their respects to the man who raised them. Haqi (Muzakki Ramdhan), the young son of former orphan Hanif (Ario Bayu) and wife Nadya (Hannah Al Rashid), bears the brunt of much of the film’s introductory exposition: as a current resident tells him, twenty years ago, Ms. Mirah (Ruth Marini) returned alone after an outing with orphan Murni (Putri Ayudya) and alleged that the young girl was abducted by a demon. Her rantings led to banishment behind the mysterious green door, currently situated just down the hall from the children’s wing. Some say her ghost spent the ensuing decades locked in the room. As for Murni, she was never seen again. Not only does Haqi discover the door, the inquisitive tyke also find
Horror movies were a primarily US form for many years, as the genre was variably considered too juvenile, preposterous, violent, grotesque and/or tasteless in some nations. Government censors blocked their release where such material was considered inappropriate for public consumption; in certain other locations, the public simply wasn’t interested, whether the films in question were imported or homegrown.
Today, however, such cultural differences are largely gone. For myriad reasons, particularly the exported ubiquity of certain franchises online and in home formats, horror has become the most international of genres as well as the one that (due to its commerciality and usually low budget demands) many young filmmakers choose to start their careers with. So it’s not that unusual that this week brings new entries in the form from not just the US, but Argentina, Chile, Indonesia, and Iranian expats.
Joni’s Promise), thrillers (2009’s
The Forbidden Door) and superhero stories (2019’s
Gundala), but it’s in the horror sphere – mostly thanks to last year’s superior, folkloric
Impetigore – that he found international acclaim.
Now, with Anwar being spoken of as the whiz-kid of the cultishly admired Indonesian horror scene, he’s tipping the cap to those who came before.
The Queen Of Black Magic, scripted by Anwar and directed by Kimo Stamboel, known for 2017’s ultra-violent
Headshot, is a remake of a cheap but well-loved 1981 movie little known outside of its country of origin.
‘The Queen Of Black Magic’ is the latest original from horror streaming platform Shudder. Credit: Shudder
Not Rated
Indonesia is a vastly underrated region of the world when it comes to horror films. This may not be news to many hardcore horror buffs who have long appreciated what the region brings in terms of frights, but to many American moviegoers the country is often overlooked as a hotbed of Asian horror in favor of Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. That situation has been fortunately improving in recent years and 2020 even saw
Impetigore, the most recent film from Joko Anwar, submitted as the country’s submission for the Academy Awards.
While the spotlight on Indonesia as a go-to place for horror is fairly new in the U.S., the country has a long tradition in the genre. One of its cult classics is