Out of the many fears inflicted upon the horror movie watching community there are only a couple that really truly get to me, and The Queen of Black Magic has the two main worst ones -- bugs and self-mutilation -- crammed up her diabolical lady sleeves. Quite literally, as the flick revels in making its characters self-mutilate because they have centipedes up their fucking sleeves. See how this movie has me using foul language in a movie review? That's how emphatic I am about how truly grossed out this movie made me. And I loved every goddamn minute.
Slowly, shit unravels. Well slowly at first, and then real fucking fast all at once. There are, as there always are in these movies, most terrible secrets buried beneath the floorboards (or in this case the cement), and the vengeance of the done-wrong is coming for all parties involved. And Stamboel's film feels in its way like a substantial summation, an all-but-the-kitchen-sink re-telling, of creaky old tales that came before, in the same way that Poltergeist reimagined the Haunted House story for the Suburban Generation -- The Queen of Black Magic is riding on a wave of real good Indonesian Horror and it feels like a statement piece. A "here's everything we got coming at you, packaged up big and loud and scary."
And it is all of those things! It's a hoot and a holler and it made all of my nerve-endings twitch. I was scratching at the balls of my feet and literally covering my eyes. Closing the windows. Pulling the blankets up over my damned fool head. It's not really anything you haven't seen before, but it's everything you have seen before strapped ass-first onto a top-notch rollercoaster from hell and you're coming along for the horror. The creepy-crawlies have got your number and are knocking on the door with this one, my friends.
The Queen of Black Magic, like most of the films I've reviewed over the past few days, is still streaming online as part the Nightstream Festival -- you can check the list here! Everything is still available through the 14th, so quick run and hurry, see what you can before they vanish. This one will be on Shudder at some point in the near future -- I don't have an exact date but I'll make sure to share when it's available cuz man is this movie some fun.
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