a film I better appreciate, and the reasons why I feel this way about the infamous 1981 Indonesian picture is below:
A review I am happy to do a-new. Besides me finally seeing the full 86 minute version (via an HD YouTube upload just put up from a Letterboxd mutual) rather than a truncated 81 minute cut that was long ago on Prime, that old review had a mistake or two. This needed to be fixed so that’s why I revisited this infamous Indonesian horror picture they actually tried to make for a Western market. Once you hear the details, you’ll be incredulous this was the direction they went.
This stars a white girl and an Indonesian man. That lead actress (Ilona Agathe Bastian) was literally a random German woman who was spotted on vacation in Indonesia; she was asked to extend her vacation and star in this picture. She agreed, but after that who knows what happened with her; she for certain never made any other films. I wonder if she knew the details of the plot before she agreed! The film apparently accurately represents the legends of the Leyak and penanggalan—which has some incredibly odd details.
Ilona plays Cathy, an anthropologist who wishes to learn black magic to write a book. A witch who has a Yoda-like voice (at least in the English dub), fingernails inches long and cackles CONSTANTLY-I don’t know if that is part of the lore-teaches her, but bad things happen to Cathy. To mention the most infamous aspect: a few times, Cathy’s head, organs, and entrails detaches from her body under control of the witch! One time, it… devours an unborn baby. Even if it wasn’t presented in a tasteless way, that does not mean it wasn’t gross. That said, I’ll give credit for Ms. Bastian for going along w/ all this insanity.
Oh, and with the passage of time I can laugh that this has something in common with a truly awful movie-1980’s Gamera: Super Monster. There, any effect that had even a bit of complexity was done on tape rather than film, which blatantly looks different between the two. The same applies here; a lot of it was practically done on film, from wire effects to animation added in during the OOT finale, but when the head and everything else go flying… that effect is only daffier by how blurry the taped portion looks.
The film is hilariously weird; not to insult the culture of an entire region (that lore is not just Indonesian) but it’s all so strange. Yet, the plot is never not captivating viewing the Grand Guignol moments in this mondo experience, most of which will not be spoiled here. Yes, there's more than just flying heads; to give but one example, people transform into different animals. An electronic score that I genuinely loved meant that overall, I was happy to revisit this film-this time in complete form-& be befuddled at times yet was still happy to give another chance to a movie featuring unique lore—and appreciating it more.
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