It appears after having a strong year of releasing incredible exclusive content in 2020, Shudder has no plans of slowing down. Impetigore, one of last year’s most loved horror films, opened the eyes of a lot of American horror fans to Indonesian horror. Joko Anwar, the director, and writer of Impetigore, is continuing down his horror path by writing The Queen of Black Magic, a new re-telling of the 1981 Indonesian film, Ratu Ilmu Hitam. The new film is directed by Indonesian director Kimo Stamboel (Macabre, Killers).
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The Queen of Black Magic follows three men as they take their families to the orphanage where they grew up, to pay respects to the man that raised them. Upon arriving, secrets start to reveal themselves about their childhoods, and an evil presence is determined to impose its vengeance upon them.
If you’re familiar with Indonesian horror, you can pretty much count on some spooky storytelling. It’s no exception with this film. The story does keep things a little more linear than Anwar’s other screenplays, but I’m guessing that has more to do with trying to follow the original film to an extent. What you get is a good ol’ fashioned spirit revenge-focused film. Nothing too outside the box, but nothing boring, either. There were a couple of character-arc twists that added something extra, so kudos there. I just wish we would have gotten a little more of the folklore feeling in Anwar’s other work.
The performances in The Queen of Black Magic are sincere and well-delivered. I’ve seen several of these actors in other great Indonesian films (Impetigore, The Night Comes for Us) and their performances remain consistent. Ario Bayu and Hannah Al Rashid were both standouts. I loved their chemistry and the passion they put into their roles. I felt the care they had for their families and their efforts to protect them. Those emotions are evident regardless of what language they’re in.
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Although I really enjoyed the setting, camera work, and other technical aspects of the film, it was an extremely mixed bag of great makeup effects and distractingly weak CG effects. I understand the inability to use real venomous centipedes, caterpillars, and other creepy crawlies that can kill you, but if so many of the film’s intense moments are going to bank on things like this, the budget must go into more effective CG. Conversely, the gore makeup jobs on the actors after a lot of these moments looked fantastic, quickly dissipating some of the sting from the distractingly silly CG. It’s a good cover-up strategy if you don’t have the budget for top-notch CG, and Stamboel made it work for the most part. There were also a few moments where darker lighting helped the CG, making it fully effective and terrifying. I just wish that consistency played out through the whole film. It took me out of those moments.
Overall, The Queen of Black Magic wasn’t a perfect film, but I thought it was absolutely worth the watch. It delivered well on the creep factor I wanted, and expected, going into the film, and will be enough to sufficiently wet the lips of bloodthirsty horror fans. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve seen that Joko Anwar has had a hand in, and I really hope VOD/streaming services continue to bring horror from other countries into the houses of Americans. Both Kimo Stamoel’s The Queen of Black Magic and the 1981 original film are now streaming on Shudder.
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