Arte do Demônio 2

In Bangkok, five former high school friends are informed that the father of their friend Ta committed suicide. Ta is the son of Prowaet, who got married with their English teacher Panor and together they had a son, Nong. The student of medicine Kim and her boyfriend Por that studies in law school, the student of engineering Ko and Noot that is studying English to move to Australia with her gay friend Tair decide to reunite and travel to the country for the ceremony of cremation. While traveling by train, Kim recalls an incident two years ago in their last year in school, when they had been abused by their couch and lover of Panor when they found their affair. The students, seeking revenge, asked the Cambodian voodooist Pawn to cast a black magic against the couch, who mysteriously died after fishing. Once in the village, they spend the night with Ta and his stepmother Panor in their isolated house in the jungle nearby a river, when creepy things happen and their horror begin.

"Long Khong" is a creepy, gruesome and gore tale of witchcraft and insanity. The story is really scary, and has some nasty and cruel scenes: the worst is the sequence when the teenager is tortured with hot water and burned by a torch. The story follows the pattern of the good Asian horror movies, with secrets and revelations being disclosed in the last moments, like the last parts of a puzzle. This macabre type of voodoo with corpses is unusual in Western movies. The screenplay is very well tight, with great lines, and I liked the wise thought of Kim: "The future is what we want to be; the past defines us". The direction is very precise, the special effects are impressive and the cast has great performances. The lead actress is extremely gorgeous, and unfortunately I do not know her name. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Arte do Demônio" ("The Art of the Devil")

Really didn't know what to expect having watched this after Art of the Devil which was rather mediocre. This one however was far better. It still had the black magic and curses like the first movie but this was a far superior product. It took me a little while to figure out what was going on but it all tied neatly together at the end with a pretty awesome plot twist at the end. And I've said it before but I'll say it again THAT is what makes the difference between a good scary movie and an average one 7.5/10

A beautiful teacher Miss Panor has six students.They decide to play a cruel prank on Ms.Panor and her reputation is ruined.The teacher then turns to black magic to exact gruesome revenge."Art of the Devil 2" is a gore-soaked horror film which was directed by a team of seven filmmakers known as the Ronin Team.The direction is solid,the cast is pretty good,but the storyline is hardly dynamic.When the gore appears it is unrelenting and disgusting.Miss Panor is an great villain and truly remorseless killer.The gore is rather hard to stomach for example toenails are torn out,teeth are plucked,live geckos burst out of a boy's back,one hapless girl gouges her own eyes out and the skin on man's legs is burned by a blow-torch.Overall,I enjoyed "Art of the Devil 2" more than its predecessor.Give it a look.

In Art of the Devil 2, which is not a sequel in any traditional sense of the word, the Seven Ronin team of directors delve into another exploration of Thai witchcraft, which apparently shares little with its Western counterpart. In this movie, as in the first, the object is revenge, the tools are those of black magic, and the price is sanity. The witchcraft of these movies is messy, deadly, and the cost to the practitioner is as great as to the victim. Six students visit the remote home of a former teacher, who is also the stepmother of one of the youths. Death and blood follow as the young people learn that their actions, as a group and as individuals, have marked them for vengeance. Art of the Devil 2 is related to the first only by the theme of Thai curses, which are by far more imaginative than anything brought to the American screen. There are weaknesses, such as the quality of the translation track and the cheap effect, but the movie succeeds by imagining a world in which dangerous curses can kill from a distance, where witches can appear and disappear at will, in which the dead dance silently just out of sight of everyone but you, and in which the cost of revenge is the soul of the wronged. This is not gentle stuff; cannibalism, corpse mutilation and bloody rituals are abundant, but on the whole the picture succeeds in doing something not seen from American directors in many years.

IMDb reviewers strikes again by the degrading quality of ratings movies. This movie is miles better than almost all critically acclaimed Western horrors in the last few years. Staying true to the Asian root, the movie explores the theme of curses and it's working. When a cursed is placed, two holes are created is the basic idea here i.e when you place a curse on someone, you get equally influenced by the curse because it links you and the one you cursed for eternity.

The plot is great with a very nice twist at the end. You end up not sympathising the protagonists at the end, but some might differ. Characters are complex unlike most Western horror (which are awfully full of shallow rehashed characters). The scares works as well, with lots of supernatural jumpscares mixed in with gore and torture images, although they are rather creepy than scary. The performance are decent. While the movie could've done better by filling in a plothole or two, it doesn't take away from the overall excitement of it. Highly recommend it, 9/10.