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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
The unsettling mood and creeping pace of the Indonesian horror movie “The Queen of Black Magic” take some getting used to. For starters, this remake of the 1981 chiller of the same name has more supporting characters, and attendant backstory, than you might expect from such an atmosphere-reliant horror movie. “The Queen of Black Magic” is also punctuated by the sort of gory violence that s more about sheer bruising impact than emotionally upsetting thrills (I hope you like millipedes and other creepy crawlies).
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The movie’s whodunit-style story is thankfully compelling enough to keep things moving along: a group of adult orphans reckon with a decades-old trauma involving their orphanage’s patriarch Mr. Bandi (Yayu A.W. Unru), and the mysterious disappearance of young Murni (Putri Ayudya) and guardian caretaker Ms. Mirah (Ruth Marini). But there’s also a variable quality to the movie’s storytelling that stops “The Queen of Black Magic” from settling
Directed by Kimo Stamboel.
Starring Ario Bayu, Hannah Al Rashid, Adhisty Zara, Ade Firman Hakim, Sheila Dara Aisha, Tanta Ginting, Salvita Decorte, Imelda Therinne, Miller Khan and Shenina Cinnamon.
SYNOPSIS:
When a group of friends reunite at the orphanage where they grew up, they discover that they may have been brought together by some sort of sinister dark sorcery.
Indonesia is currently on something of a high when it comes to horror movies. In fact, the country’s entry for the Best International Feature Film award at the upcoming Oscars is the grotesque and unsettling
Impetigore, which was released via spooky streamer Shudder. The same service is responsible for Kimo Stamboel’s blood-soaked new movie
Indonesian horror: RATU ILMU HITAM (The Queen of Black Magic)
On January 28th Shudder TV will be premiering the fascinating Indonesian horror film
Ratu Ilmu Hitam ( The Queen of Black Magic) from director Kimo Stamboel and to celebrate its release we are proud to bring you an amazing panel discussion featuring Kimo Stamboel, which
was conducted as part of the Nightstream Film Festival in October of last year, as well as full details and a trailer of
Ilmu Hitam ( The Queen of Black Magic). I for one will be loading this up as soon as it is available to stream on Shudder