Long khong

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

This film essentially begins with a young high school student named "Ta" (Namo Tongkumnerd) having a serious problem with his stepmother "Aajaan Panor" (Napakpapha Nakprasitte) who physically and verbally abuses him at every opportunity. Although he doesn't disclose much to his friends, they all have a mutual problem with the high school coach who bullies them mercilessly. So, when a rumor begins that both Aajaan--who is a teacher at their high school--and the coach are having an affair, they decide to video the two of them in the act in order to turn the tables on them. What they don't count on is the coach becoming aware of their spying and in a fit of rage forcing them to watch as he sexually abuses one of the female students. Horrified at this turn of events--and fearful of their future safety--they visit a local practitioner of black magic who reluctantly puts a deadly curse upon him. Not long afterward, the coach dies an extremely gory and brutal death. At the same time, the video of him and Aajaan goes public which not only humiliates her but forces her to go into seclusion into the countryside. Eventually, time passes and two years later, all six of the high school students reunite and go to the countryside to visit Ta and his family. What they don't realize is that Aajaan has suspected at least one of them for releasing the video and has some powerful black magic of her own in store for them when they arrive. Now rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this movie had several good things going for it which includes some beautiful jungle scenery, decent horror for the most part and an extremely gorgeous actress in Napakpapha Nakprasitte. One obvious fault, however, was the extremely sophomoric English dubbing which would have been perfect for a cartoon--but definitely not for a horror film of this sort. To that extent, I would have much preferred listening to it in Thai and having barely passable English subtitles instead. It was really that bad. Again though, it did have some good qualities and--all things being equal--I have rated this film accordingly. Average.

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.

I've been intrigued by Thai Voodoo for the longest time, not that I would want to be on the receiving end of it, but it makes you wonder the amount of clout and (real?) ability of these medicine men who put hexes and curses on your behalf, for a small fee. And it always seem that what they do to you, from simple artifacts like a voodoo doll, can inflict so much pain onto your real self with just a simple needle poked on a right position on the straw doll.

Art of the Devil 2 is not a sequel, in that it has no relation to the first (which I am now intrigued to watch as it stars Chai-Lai Angel Supaksorn Chaimongkol), although they deal with the same supernatural forces in Thai lore. It tells a story of a physically attractive model teacher, Ms Panor (Napakpapha Nakprasitte), and her group of students, one of whom she is a stepmother to. However, as with all misunderstandings, it stems off with what the eyes see and the ears here, and the mind believing. With black magic in the works, things are never what it seems, as the group of students revisit their teacher a few years after a tragic and shameful incident happened in school. Why, you'll never understand, but we need something to have them all put together to get something going.

This movie has plenty of gory moments which offers some good scares, given the disgusting things that happen to the victims of the hex. If torture scenes in Syrianna and Hard Candy made you squirm in your seat, then your stomach is up for more churning, given the previous two films did it more psychologically and with off-camera scenes, whereas here you're not spared the visual details, leaving none to the imagination, even if certain shots might look cheap and unrealistic. The gore grips you right from the start, giving you a hint that if you can't stand what you've just seen in the first few minutes, you won't be better off for the rest of the movie.

In an environment where almost everyone is not as innocent as they seem, keeping secrets close to their hearts, and the usage of black magic to achieve their individual desires and objectives commonplace, it perhaps served as a reminder not to dabble in the black arts, either as a practitioner or an end user, as there are always warnings of ill fate that befall upon them.

Unlike the Sixth Sense with its slick execution, script and delivery, Art of the Devil 2 had a rather satisfactory ending, but with the final stroke of the pen in creating the finale, it presented itself with a major loophole that seemed to have glossed over what transpired earlier, which is a big no-no in trying to force audiences to accept the "new truth".

However, if your intention is to get some scares, then this movie still delivers, if you'd be forgiving to the ending.

The horror was pretty basic, but for a 2005 film this might be pretty shocking back then. What amaze me the most is the writing and how (what the kids says these days) "woke" it is even by 2020 standards that there are no heroes nor villains in life.