Ratu ilmu hitam

Another revenge plot, another past-mysteries-that-need-to-be-solved-in-order-to-stop-the-evil-guys-from-wreaking-havoc-and-end-the-suffering-of-the-seemingly-good-guys kind of Indonesian horror movie. Not that I say it's bad or mediocre among national films, that depends on who's directing it and how serious they take on the job. in this case, Kimo Stamboel did what a few directors like Joko Anwar has successfully implemented. If you had watched the latter's previous work and 2018's "Kafir" by director Azhar Kinoi Lubis, you will notice some reused elements like the journey to a some remote location, the use of black magic, the leading evil woman figure who does most of the damage, the past sins that pushes the said figure to do what they do, three dead young girls that kinda have a major role in triggering all of those ruckus, etc. So far, those are the right formula (well, not all) to produce a relatively high rated, successful Indonesian horror brand that leads to the creation of a fan base, whether around the movies itself or the directors, or maybe both. But will this trend keep going without problem in the long run? My personal problem with these kind of work of art in Indonesian cinema, is that it lacks a good quality resolve, and they're in general, being too loud to make the viewers feel uncomfortable on their seats. These days are no longer an age for jumpscare, gore, and loud noises ghost horror story/movie/film anymore, even for Hollywood standard (heck, don't even look in Holywood for great horror movies today, feast your eyes to the eastern film industry for that). A director in Joko Anwar and Kimo Stamboel's caliber need to realize this if they are still hopping for international horror movie market penetration. Take 2016's "The Wailing" for example, or this year's "Midsommar", they have a strong conclusion of the story that echoes the message that "Like the force of good, evil never dies and sometimes wins, one cannot exist without it's opposite other". Don't rely to much on people's desire to see a happy ending, don't try to live up their fantasy, twist it instead to the direction that will disturb their faith and normative sense of the world. Disrupt them on their comfortable seat, not with loud screaming or shocking sudden high volume score, do it more with plot twists and challenging mind-provoking sequence of visual and auditorial presentation of humanity's most twisted side.

One of the horror movie that was long i anticipated for its presence in 2019. For lovers of the movie genre "heart sports" like myself. The duet between Kimo Stamboel and Joko Anwar, is like pairing Guillermo del Toro with Quentin Tarantino or John Wick with Robert McCall, well my point is this is what i call "Wish come true".

At the beginning of the movie, there were surprises, like a breath of a quarter had to be immediately exhaled. then as the movie goes it feels terror that is presented as if carrying you running around the football stadium. Well, you can still breathe but struggling. Since I personally almost immune to horror movie, I try to relax a little bit, so I can enjoy this movie without set my usual high expectation. As a result the effect is pretty good, although still often laughing even though people around and my friends occasionally scared and covered their faces when watch this movie. There are some successful scenes that make me scream because i get shocked by the terror that must be experienced by the characters in this movie and I am very happy, because after all this time finally there is a Indoneisa horror movie that is able to make me scream. As for the story itself, the twist formula is pretty good, because halfway through I can only feel who the "The Queen of Black Magic" actually is, there are some plot holes, but very forgiven with the overall outline of the story which is stable and not loose the grip, where usually the story line suddenly loose in some scene was usually a classic problem at Indonesian movie in general.

In the matter of acting, I am personally amazed by the little actor Muzzaki Ramdhan who plays the youngest Haqi, his acting feels natural and flowing, even surpassing his "older siblings", personally I feel the characters of Sandi and Dina as unnecessary wasteful characters , Why? Because their presence or absence does not feel so important to the strength of the whole story, the most basic reasons may be that both Ari Irham and Zara JKT48 were drawn to capture the youth markets, because their fanbase is quite promising. The rest of the acting quality from Ario Bayu, Imelda Therinne, Hannah Al Rashid, and the "Adults" here no need to be doubted, they are quite balanced and stable to the end of movie.

For the quality of CGI itself, this is an Indonesian horror movie with the best CGI quality in my opinion for 2019, smooth, in proportion, and very important role in spreading terror tingling horror that occurred during the movie. Special makeup effects also deserve more appreciation for succeeding in giving soul to the horror of the film "Ratu ilmu Hitam". Then for the music scoring, in my opinion, was quite good, though not as good as "Impetigore" that released at the same year and both being in the same movie genre.

So the bottom line, for those who are not used to watching horror films flooded with blood might be shocked for watching it. But for those who already watch many movie in this genre, it might feel a bit generic and predictable, although judging from the reference to the quality of Indonesian horror movie in the mainstream market, "The Queen of black magic" was still count as good quality horror movie and can still cause quite a creep sensation.

I saw this only cos of Joko Anwar's name and aft having enjoyed few Indonesian horror movies - Impetigore, May the Devil take you 1 n 2, Satan's Slaves, The 3rd Eye part 1, Macabre and Killers, i was anticipating much more but somehow i got disappointed. The settings are almost similar to most Indonesian horror movies, abandoned orphanage/house in the middle of nowhere, the mumbo jumbo stuff is also similar to most Indonesian horror movies but the black vomit n demons walking as if their joints are hyperextended are getting monotonous.

One of the worst thing is the film's editing. There is no suspense or tension apart from the repetitive bugs.

The ending is very lame. I mean aft people getting seriously tortured/wounded by supernatural stuff, they still survive.

I found this movie to be very successful for what it was.

Solid story and the pacing was quite good, kept you on your feet and never got slow. There were a couple of blatant continuity issues that bothered me and I feel like it was lacking a bit in character development and depth. There were a lot of characters in this, but a lot that goes unexplained as far as their background/ intentions go.

Sometimes the special effects looked good and sometimes they really did not, a bit inconsistent on that front. Acting seemed... fine, from what I could tell as an English speaker and it certainly wasn't distracting. Felt like they were setting it up for a sequel, which I would for sure watch and also interested in watching the original.

With all that said, over all I was thoroughly entertained with a solid, quite creepy witch/supernatural/gorefest horror. Would definitely recommend to horror fans.

For me, this movie is confusing - importance and emphasis are placed in wrong characters and scenes. It also offers nothing special, everything is i-have-seen-before. But acting is mostly very good, only ironically the main witch character is so stiff.