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These days, you can apparently push a Cinderella only so far before she’ll summon dark forces to destroy her entire wicked step-family, one by one. That at least is the basic idea behind “The Book of Sijjin & Illiyyin,” officially a sequel to director Hadrah Daeng Ratu and screenwriter Lele Laila’s “Sijjin” from last year — which, in turn, was based on the 2014 Egyptian hit “Siccin,” which generated seven followups of its own. But “Sijjin & Illiyyin” is a stand-alone original: neither a remake or direct narrative postscript to any of the above-noted films. Its ideas are comfortably familiar though, from the abused underdog who wreaks bitter occult vengeance on her persecutors to the various forms of ickiness deployed in that pursuit.

So it seems one of the less explicable decisions at this year’s Fantasia Festival that Ratu won the jury’s best director prize for a movie that...

Originally released in 2013, the Turkish horror effort “Siccin” provided one of the strongest throwbacks to old-school Hong Kong-inspired black magic cinema. It inspired a massive franchise, along with countless imitations around the world, not just original properties, but even a remake in Indonesia a decade after the original. Now, director Hadrah Daeng Ratu follows up that remake with a wholly impressive sequel, “The Book of Sijjin and Illiyyin,” currently screening at the Fantasia International Film Festival.

The Book of Sijjin and Illiyyin is screening at Fantasia International Film Festival

The story follows Yuli (Yunita Siregar), once a sincere and kind woman, whose life has been shattered, losing her home, abandoned by her parents, falsely accused of infidelity, and treated like a maid for decades by Ambar’s (Djenar Maesa Ayu) family. Overwhelmed by bitterness and humiliation, Yuli turns to a shaman for help, seeking vengeance through black magic.

The targets...