Killer B's on DVD: The Queen of Black Magic

Once again, Mondo Macabro gives us a taste of what they call "the wild side of world cinema" with this Indonesian scare-fest from 1979 that streets on May 27.

The wedding of a town leader's son in Indonesia is marred by what is believed to be black magic. The bride is overcome by nightmarish visions of skeletons, snakes and walking corpses and falls into a fevered state of dementia. Kohar, the groom, suspects that a woman named Murny is responsible, claiming that she loved him but he had no interest in her. What Kohar does not tell the angry mob is that he had seduced Murny, taking her virginity and promising to marry her, only to wed another. While Murny certainly has motive, she knows nothing of black magic -- but Kohar and the mob burn her house down and throw her off a cliff just the same. Her life is saved by an old hermit who encourages her to take revenge on those who tried to murder her. Since they accused her of black magic, the hermit figures "let's be all ironic and stuff" and trains Murny in the dark arts.

Murny embarks upon a path of vengeance. Whenever she feels the need for revenge waning, the hermit urges her to continue, indicating that he has a hidden agenda of his own. Meanwhile, a devout Muslim man arrives in the village, senses the evil there and counters it with prayer. His faith soon proves to be a threat to the hermit's plans, and the dark magician sets out to destroy him.

Visually, the film has its moments. There are a lot of wire effects, making objects and people levitate, and the gore can get pretty extreme. Murny's vengeance upon one villager takes the form of gigantic exploding boils (all together now: "ICK!") and her black magic training is inexplicably depicted in part by her bouncing nude on a trampoline while silhouetted against the full moon. Freaky, but striking. Easily the film's most memorable scene features one of Murny's victims who manages to rip his own head off, and the severed noggin floats around biting people.

Ultimately, though, the film becomes a bore. The characters are flat with the story following a generic revenge plot with little to make it stand out. Admittedly, my lukewarm feeling towards The Queen of Black Magic may be the result of a cultural difference, at least in part. To my best recollection the only other Indonesian film I've seen is the Terminator knock-off Lady Terminator, so I'm not familiar with conventions of Indonesian cinema. I'm not clear on when the story takes place. There are no cars or signs of modern technology, so I can't tell if this is a modern impoverished region or maybe a period piece. Maybe I'm not seeing the film in its proper context, or then again maybe it's just bad.

Extras include the original trailer, a look at the studios of Indonesian effect artist El Badrun, an essay on horror and exploitation cinema in Indonesia and previews of more Mondo Macabro DVD's.