the audience applauded

Powerful

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This is the Thai answer to all those black magic horror films made in Hong Kong during the 1970s and '80s. The plot is virtually the same, involving a jilted lover and her efforts to punish the man who abandoned her by resorting to black magic (the same plot was used in 1981's BEWITCHED). However, while those films have gone down as gruesome classics of horror cinema, ART OF THE DEVIL is a somewhat lacklustre retelling of the same story.The problems lie in the technical details. This is a poorly edited film and the director doesn't seem to want to make the events that play out very clear. It's also overlong, with the second half of the movie introducing an unbelievable plot twist as the villainess goes after more innocent folk – this time her lover's ex-wife! It's little more than an excuse for more gruesome deaths but the novelty quickly wears off.The cast isn't particularly good for a film of this calibre. There's plenty of overacting – especially from the villainess - and little subtlety, aside from the actor playing the investigative reporter. There ARE some good gruesome bits, one involving the old joke with a victim having an evil presence under his skin, and his efforts to cut it out. Of course there are also moments of bad taste, as is the norm for this genre of production. A guy vomits up eels in one unpleasant scene while the nastiest bit involves the rotting corpse of a baby being used in a ritual. Such moments come few and far between however, and this is a case of style over substance. In the end it's a disappointment, feeling like a half-hearted attempt to emulate the classics of old.

Despite certain other "reviews", this movie is NOT Taiwanese, it is Thai, Thailand and Taiwan are a long way apart, certainly in distance if not in culture.If you expect to see any Thai movies that are based on Western precepts, then you will be decidedly disappointed.Belief in ghosts, black magic is normal in Thailand, ridiculous scenarios (to us Westerners) seem perfectly logical to Thais.It is a movie with its faults like many movies, it is not by any means perfect.But these sort of movies should be viewed with a bit of a different perspective to the multi million Spielberg Hollywood trash, generally, most Thai movies seem to be either slapstick ranting and screaming, whereas once in a while you will find a more reasonable stance, at least you can watch this without cringing.If you watch these movies, you really need to expect to have all logic turned on its head regarding what you are generally used to.Not my cup of tea, but better than so many from here.

Twisted Thai witchcraft flick with an emphasis on using evil to seek revenge and to gain riches. Jittima(..the alluring beauty, Supakson Chaimongkoi) is a lover scorned, a pregnant victim who seduced a wealthy architect, Pratan(Tin Settachoke) who threw money at her to keep her away from his family(..that, while also arranging for her to be ravaged by his business chums). With the help of a secretly practicing witchdoctor, Jittima uses black magic to systematically eliminate Pratan's entire family. When she is hit by a car(..while spellbound at the site of Pratan's family, together as ghostly apparitions looking at her), Jittima loses her child, becoming even more volatile than ever before. Adding extra sting to her torment, another family(..whose mother's children were Pratan's)receives Pratan's luxurious estate and inheritance, with Jittima orchestrating a plan to besiege them, using the dark arts to gain access to the fortune she feels is rightfully hers. By capturing(..literally)the heart of Ruj(Isara Ochakul), Jittima will infiltrate the family, marrying him and progressively use witchcraft to destroy them with her eyes on the prize she's so longed for.The film focuses on this family's teenage daughter, Nan(Arisa Wills)and the effects on her watching each member falling prey to supernatural forces beyond her control. This is the emotional arch of the film, a family worsening at the hands of a pathological, cold-blooded female with a deadly agenda, gaining trust by those she is in fact exterminating. Interesting enough, the witchdoctor is just as guilty for he willingly participates in performing the rituals which cause such destruction, whose spells cause really horrific acts to innocent people(..many of the acts cause hallucinatory effects which force victims to see created horrors, resulting in certain death). There's no doubt that Jittima(..known as Boom to the family she's annihilating)is pure evil and to watch so closely her own handiwork, the architect of destruction she is, is really what makes the film so chilling. The violence that ensues can get quite disturbing such as the sight of an army of eels smothering Nan's brother Neng(Nirut Sutchart), Ruj's vomiting razor blades, Nan's mom constantly coughing up blood, her insides hemorrhaging, or reporter, Danai(Somchai Satuthum), a threat to the entire concocted scheme, suffering a piece of broken glass crawling underneath his skin, having to slice his body in order to get it out..you see the effects of just how dangerous black magic can be. I think it's the way Jittima carries them out, like a Black Widow slowly poisoning her husbands with arsenic, a cold and calculating series of attacks, that provides the film's most unpleasant tone. The inhumanity of it all, and the whole fact that no one suspects her(..the cynicism of this kind of power, seen earlier when Nan was forced by a friend, a true believer, into visiting a spiritualist, is established)is what drives the story, culminating in a showdown between Nan and Jittima, with Danai, a believer in the forces of good and evil, lending a helping hand, trying to uncover the one responsible for causing the black magic. One unnecessary decision, which mars the film, is the bouncing back and forth, to past and present, as Jittima discusses her reasons for what has transpired to a bound and distraught Nan. With more focus on linear story-telling, this could've been less aggravating. Still, the film shows the genesis of the monster that would become Boom until the very confusing climax when Jittima makes a very odd decision regarding her own fate, in turn shattering all that she has strived for. Another really bizarre sub-plot has this mysterious ghost girl hanging around Nan's kid brother..this ghost child is connected with Jittima, and it's quite a revelation, to say the least.

It seems that Thailand is trying to jump head-first into the horror scene that has long been dominated in Asia by the Japanese. They have a long way to go to surpass some of the more notable "underground" horror films from Japan - but with some solid entries, and some more interesting looking films on the way - the Thai's may yet make their mark on Asia's horror scene...ART OF THE DEVIL is about a girl who gets pregnant by a rich businessman and then blackmails him for money after he offers to pay her off to keep quiet about the child. When he refuses to pay up any longer, the girl seeks the help of a sorcerer to seek revenge on the businessman and his family...Very reminiscent of some of the early 80's HK gore films in terms of black-magic subject matter, and eel-puking revenge - ART OF THE DEVIL isn't exactly a unique film. Hong Kong directors have been making these types of films since the early 80's, but ART OF THE DEVIL does it with better production values and with a more coherent and interesting storyline. I was supremely disappointed that there was no nudity in this film, as some of the leading ladies were quite smokin'...but overall, ART OF THE DEVIL is a worthy entry in the Asian horror realm. 7/10