‘We’re going to a place that doesn’t even exist on the maps…’
What with all the buzz around Blumhouse Productions and their various horror successes, the original output of horror streaming service Shudder has perhaps slipped under the radar, despite some genuinely great stuff in their roster (Host, Random Acts of Violence and Terrified to name but three). More so than Blumhouse, Shudder seems determined to showcase a more diverse palette in terms of horror movies, with productions from Argentina, South Korea, and in the case of The Queen of Black Magic, Indonesia. And it is all the better for it…
The plot here is fairly straightforward. A group of former residents at an orphanage return after receiving a mysterious invitation. It soon becomes clear that this dark place holds more than just secrets.
The first 40 minutes are pretty standard tension building fare. We meet the characters, all of whom are broadly drawn yet well acted. But when the mayhem starts about halfway through, it really doesn’t let up until the bone-chilling conclusion. There is something for everyone here. For every type of fear. Director Kimo Stamboel treats us to gruesome body horror, buckets of gore, supernatural chaos and some genuinely haunting imagery all building to a crescendo that brings to mind Hereditary just in terms of how demented the whole thing quickly becomes. The final scenes have a pandemonium to them that ensures that nobody will forget this movie in a hurry.
Indonesia is not a country famed for its horror films, not in the west anyway, and yet I enjoyed The Queen of Black Magic at least as much as any J-horror or South Korean movie of the last decade. A truly nasty and unsettling cinematic experience.