Customer Reviews

Mystics In Bali

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you have any interest in extreme cinema, you really have to seek this out. The UK Mondo Macarbro DVD seems to have disappeared without a trace, so thank goodness that this re-issue has surfaced with a better print, although it apparently leaves off a short documentary extra that the Region 2 disc had. But if you do see "Mystics in Bali" at all, you'll be in for a bizarre treat.

An American tourist named Cathy decides to investigate the art of black magic known as "leyak", and she gets her Balinese boyfriend to introduce her to a powerful leyak witch, in the hope of becoming an apprentice. The witch takes Cathy on, and over the course of a few nights teaches her some weird and wonderful magic, but unfortunately for Cathy, the price for such knowledge is becoming a slave to the witch's lust for fresh blood...What follows is one of the oddest spectacles you are ever likely to see in horror cinema. The witch controls Cathy by casting magic on her that causes Cathy's head to lift from her shoulders, pulling her spinal cord and internal organs out along with it! The whole head then flies off in search of blood, and in it's first hunt, succeeds in sucking an unborn baby out from a woman in labour, feeding on it from between her legs. The impact of seeing this on screen is hard to put into words. Despite some pretty low budget effects, the fact that such a thing is represented on screen at all is pretty fantastic.

Now this is probably down to the relatively low exposure of us westerners to obscure ethnic world mythology, as I have read that the main device in the film (a floating, blood-sucking head) is a staple of supernatural folklore in Indonesia. There is a previous film about it from the late 1970's called "Witch With Flying Head", although this does not seem to exist anywhere in English. I have seen it, and the spectacle of the head is just as impressive, plus it gets a lot more screen time, although the film was made in Hong Kong and sets the action in a more fantastical period setting, so such things seem easier to accept among the general mythical atmosphere. But with a western heroine and the modern setting that we have here (it's set in the contemporary 1980's and Cathy and her boyfriend wear t-shirts and swimming clothes), it's pretty startling.

The impact of the film certainly does not come from any technical or artistic excellence, that's for sure. The dubbing is atrocious, and I suspect the English dub was made up based on what the foreign language team felt needed to be made clear in the script at any time. Even so, it's still hard to keep track of the action. There's no sense of pacing at all. Events just pile into each other like a car crash. Scenes switch from one day (or night) to the next without any warning. Sometimes the only way you are supposed to know that time has passed is by checking what the characters are wearing. Neither of the two leads can act (Cathy is wooden and catatonic most of the time, although this does allow her to play an effective evil flying head), however the actress playing the leyak witch throws herself into the part with enthusiasm. Actually, the film certainly manages to build up a mood of hysteria, with a great soundtrack that shakes and rattles at you throughout the many scenes of supernatural mayhem, and underscores each moment of Cathy's head splitting from her body with a ominous drone. There are lots of other effects in the film, including flying fireballs, lightning shooting from fingers and transformations of people into pigs and snakes, and they all rattle off the screen at an alarming rate, leaving you hardly able to take in what you have just seen before the scene changes to something else.

In any other film this disregard for basic cinematic ettiquette would have rendered the final result unwatchable, but with it's the whole flying head thing , "Mystics in Bali" is just too memorably freaky to be ignored or forgotten.

Here is an interesting film that seems to defy being categorized.

It is called an Asian horror film because it takes place in Indonesia, but it is not one of those horror films like THE GRUDGE (I, II and III), THE RING, or THE EYE that have some believable sequences filmed with imagination and-- dare I say it?-- originality. Despite its location, it is not really just another Asian horror film. This one is about a Leyak, a creature in Indonesia and Mayalsia that is able to separate its head and entrails from the rest of its body and go after people. Like the Kuntilanak (shown in the far-better films called KUNTILANAK and KUNTILANAK II), the Leyak is a creature that intelligent people from, or living in, the above-mentioned countries actually believe to be real. Supposedly, these creatures have been seen by credible witnesses. These things, like the Queen of the South Seas (shown in an awful film from Indonesia called LADY TERMINATOR), are not mythological beings like vampires and werewolves that come originally from Europe and are not, as far as I know, witnessed in everyday life.

The acting in MYSTICS IN BALI, unlike in the film KUNTILANAK II, is so bad -- or badly dubbed into English -- that it is hardly worth mentioning, even though I just have. The German non-actress in the lead, supposedly recruited by the Indonesian filmmakers from a beach in Bali, doesn't even try to act. She just spouts her lines as if she were rehearsing a high school play. Apparently, verisimilitude is not a requirement for these films. When the girl's head, and trailing entrails, finally leave her body, no acting is required. Nor, apparently, are semi-believable special effects. Her image changes color and texture just before the separation is made, so we can tell what is going to happen. It is not shocking, as the Amazon reviewer claims, or frightening. It is just different from other horror films. More subtle means might have been employed to suggest this separation of her body and entrails from the torso, the way the mothman being is subtly shown in far, far superior THE MOTHMAN PROPHESIES.

Check out this film if you are merely curious enough to see something different from other creature films that you have seen. Better yet, read about these creatures and talk to some people from Indonesia and Malaysia before speculating on whether or not these might exist in the real world. Remember the famous line which Hamlet speaks to Horatio at the beginning of the classic Shakespeare drama and decide for yourself.

If you cannot decide, don't be dismayed. I still cannot.

mondo macabro continues their outporing of excellent films deserving wider view.
bizarre and shockingly original visual devices fill this movie. attempting to detail
it's narrative shortcomings undermines what is at heart a film steeped in
entertainment at all costs, budget be damned. gamelan filmaking, intricate and magical, yet
loads funnier than black magic. somewhat in the realm of the 'something weird' run of
trashy gold that must be seen to be believed.

The acting and the plot was good, but the voice dubbing took all of the scariness and suspense out of the movie. I gave it three stars because over all its a descent movie, if you want to see a better movie about the dark arts you should watch the serpent and the rainbow, or black magic. Those movies have good acting and no cheesiness.

Treat yourself to an artistically Bizarre and Beautiful movie with an exceptional music score. Truly amazing!

This is some crazy, insane stuff! You must see it to believe it! I highly recommend this bizarre piece of Asian Cinema! The film is beautifully taken from a Hi-Def source, what more can you ask for?

I realize this movie is considered the holy grail of Asian cult cinema, but this holy grail is filled with cheap Boone's Strawberry Hill. I'm a huge fan of really bad movies, so in theory, I should have enjoyed this film.... But, I found myself fast forwarding through the last half of the movie. Yes, it is a unique c-flick horror....I don't really care. I can sweep bad acting under the rug at times, but geez, I wished the whole island was swept under the curse of black magic or whatever. In fact, the extras on the DVD revealed the main lead actress was actually a German tourist picked off the beach in Bali. I guess there were some redeeming qualities, like the foam/rubber floating head and innards(held by a string) attacking villages (or village idiots). At one point, this chick's floating head thing runs into a window pane, and actually spins around. Oops! I can hear Ed Wood in the distance, bless his soul,all the way from the grave proclaiming, "Perfect, Next Scene!"....or the animated lighting bolts during the fight scenes that reminded me of the 1978 Kiss movie "Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park". Wait.... maybe Kiss stole this from "mystics in Bali"! I see a lawsuit. Ha! The controversy ensues....But, when you're comparing movies to that, it's 'nuff said. Seriously, if you've waited 26 years to see this, you're life is not worth living. People that rate this highly are just trying to impress you somehow with their obscure movie taste. But, by now, you know how I think it tastes. If you eat a bowl of warm mayonnaise for breakfast...you'll love it! Bon appetit.

Hello cult movie fans! Christopher William Koenig once again brings you 'Exploitation Madness' in which I devote DVD reviews to movies that are so wild and wooly you might get the urge to check them out. At least, I hope you get the urge to check them out, otherwise my writing about them has been all for naught. Well, it's not the first time, I'll say. In any case, let us travel to Indonesia where the movies are wild and the situations on-screen are far more bizarre...


MYSTICS IN BALI (1981; Indonesian Bahasa Title: "Mistik")

American college student Cathy Kean (Ilona Agathe Bastian) is doing some research on local Black Magic in Bali, particularly the `Leak' magic which is said to be the most primitive and most powerful Black Magic in the world. She becomes romantically involved with Mahendra (Yos Santo), who promises to help Cathy getting in touch with a Leak master. Late at night, Cathy and Mahendra meet up with the Leak Queen (Sofia W.D.), an old hag who cannot stop laughing at the most inappropriate moments. The Leak Queen agrees to teach Cathy the ways of the Black Magic, much to Mahendra's worry. Meeting with his Muslim priest uncle Machesse (W.D. Mochtar), Mahendra tells him everything about this Leak Queen and Machesse advises him to keep watch over Cathy. Eventually, Cathy becomes a slave of the Leak Queen and is turned into the dreaded Penanggalan: a flying vampire head with the internal organs hanging from the neck. Once in Penanggalan form, Cathy is sent to suck the blood of pregnant women in order for the Leak Queen to become more powerful. It's up to Mahendra and Machesse to stop this evil power before it's too late.

"Mystics in Bali" is a strange little horror tale that was picked up for international distribution by Gope T. Samtani's company Rapi Films. During the early 1980s, Indonesian horror was taking off with various productions that upped the ante in visual excess and gore. In the case of this film, the original producer had found a "novel" by Putra Mada which they felt was based off real Black Magic rituals. The project was handed over to director H. Tujit Djalil for a special reason: Djalil had experience in the West assisting and/or supervising films that had specific effects scenes, something the producers wanted in this film. The production was to be filmed on location in Bali, yet the Balinese government didn't want to cause a stir: apparently a film about local Black Magic would have disturbed the populace. Eventually, once the film was completed, "Mystics in Bali" would do well in the Indonesian marketplace. While the original Indonesian release ran around 118 minutes under the title "Mistik", Gope T. Samtani apparently had the picture edited down to a standard 90 minute running time for its English dubbed release as "Mystics in Bali". However, it was barely picked up for international distribution when screened at various film festivals, most likely due to being too strange for distributors to consider marketing. As the years have gone by, "Mystics in Bali" has received a major cult following to those who enjoy their horror films extremely off-kilter. My first viewing of "Mystics in Bali" came when Mondo Macabro finally released this on American DVD in 2007; beforehand it was only available on Region 2 PAL DVD from the same company, but from a less-than-stellar transfer. Because of not having access to a Region 2 DVD player, I did contemplate buying a bootleg VHS. But once when Mondo Macabro announced it was to be released in the US with a brand new transfer, I had no problems waiting for it. Once released and purchased, my first viewing was met with a slight disappointment. Personally, I found "Mystics in Bali" to be a so-so experience on first viewing and not living up to my expectations. But then, my mind changed when I watched it again recently and I have to say it's a wild movie that went past my head. It's certainly belongs to the group of 'really out there' horror films and it's now a film that I reckon with. Even so, that doesn't mean the film is perfect to say the least.

One critic on a film forum mentioned how 80s Indonesian horror and action films play as if there was never a script. I can say that I do agree with them for "Mystics in Bali" comes off as if it was finally written halfway in the game. Don't get me wrong: it does have a story to tell. Yet the main problem is the narrative is so choppy things just fly by without a mention of when they occurred, jumping from one scene to another without any indications whatsoever. And when the film ends, it just...well, ends with no forwarding conclusion or end lines...it just ends! Mind boggling, I tell ya'! Part of this also goes to the film's editing: it's choppy with very minimal sense of establishing shots to let us know the following scene is taking place the next day or not! However, considering the original Indonesian release was much longer than the English dubbed version, there was most likely some material left out of its English release, which would possibly explain the jumpy continuity shifts in the story. While H. Tujit Djalil is able to stage the action and the effects very well, he does very little with the 2.35:1 CinemaScope cinematography: there are some effectively framed compositions here and there, but then there are a few jerky camera movements on display as well. The acting is also hard to judge as the only version available is the English dub, but so far performances seem to be a tad marginal: Ilona Agathe Bastian is extremely deadpan here and is excited only when she becomes the Penanggalan; at one point she was advertised as being an Australian actress, but director Djalil recently revealed that she was a German tourist who was convinced to act in this film for extra vacation days! The only exception are the performances from W.D. Mochtar and Sofia W.D. as both came from experienced theatre and seem to really be in their roles, despite the awful English dub job given on these two. The downside is W.D. Mochtar comes off as underused - at least in this version - and you wish he had more scenes, yet Sofia W.D. is really out there as the Leak Queen, always laughing uncontrollably and overstating her movements like no tomorrow.

Despite the technical issues in editing and English dubbing, don't let these detractions make you not want to see the film. Even with its problems, "Mystics in Bali" still comes off as a very entertaining piece of horror cinema from Indonesia. While H. Tujit Djalil's direction might be questionable in some spots, nonetheless he is very interested in showing off the Black Magic rituals in excellent and bizarre form. Also, "Mystics in Bali" displays something that few South Asian horror films dwelled in: the Penanggalan myth. A bizarre creation, the Penanggalan is an evil witch that is able to remove its head, complete with the body organs hanging from the neck, to fly about and feed on the blood of pregnant women! Now that's an idea for a horror movie! Because of this creature being introduced to the film, this allows Indonesian make-up effects artist El Badrun to deliver what he can to make it look effective. In the end, Badrun's effects are effective in some spots while in others it's just plain obvious how fake they are. There are moments of sheer make-up lunacy, such as when the Leak Queen suddenly transforms into a pig-like human with droopy breasts (not kidding here, folks!) and battling it out with our heroes: it's scenes like this that I have to give these guys props for doing something as nutty like that! Scenes featuring Cathy's flying head in Penanggalan-action are achieved either by an unconvincing but very mobile marionette or an off-looking optical effect achieved via shooting on Chroma-key video and transferred over to film. Then we also get old-fashioned optical laser animation effects that are just too trippy and colorful to believe. But still, realistic or not, it's all part of the charm with this movie and I have to say the crew did the best they could, so I still give this high marks for purely being weird.

Mondo Macabro's DVD release of "Mystics in Bali" marks this the first time this title is available in the US and the team gets it right in the transfer department. When Mondo Macabro released this first in the UK in the early 2000s, the transfer of the English version apparently was less-than-desired and it was all that rights owner Gope T. Samtani had available. But for the new American release, the Mondo Macabro team was able to get access to the original negative materials to do a better transfer and the results are impressive: presented in it's original 2.35:1 CinemaScope format with 16x9 enhancement, the colors are vibrant and the image is definitely cleaned up, while the English dubbed audio is audible with a slight hiss or two. However, there is something about this release that needs to be pointed out: while the back cover says the film is "completely uncut", I'm sure you've noticed I mentioned the original Indonesian language version had a much longer running time. Therefore, while you readers out there will think that back-cover statement is a lie, let me stress that I am NOT saying Mondo Macabro's release is cut or edited: considering how rare this film was, I'm glad the company put out the closest version available. Keep in mind this is the English dub that Rapi Films distributor Gope T. Samtani prepared for its international release and it's this version that would be seen on Japanese home video and bootleg tapes by fans and curiosity seekers. As such, Mondo Macabro's claim their release is uncut is correct: in this case, the print used is the complete and remastered English dub. That said, it makes one wonder what happened to the longer Indonesian version and if Samtani still has it or if it's gone due to poor storage facilities? At this point, who knows? However, quite some time ago, someone on YouTube managed to post what looks to be the original 118 minute Indonesian Bahasa language version of the film, which apparently was sourced from a VCD as it has a new video title of "Rahsia Ilmu Iblis"! After seeing some of the original version on YouTube, I can say that it does have scenes that look to be important plot points that were dropped from the English version: the beginning of the story features a longer introduction of the Cathy and Mahendra characters and look to be further developed, there are more establishing scenes giving the impression that the editing in the Indonesian version is much better, some of the music is a little different and the ending is more complete. But on the other side of the coin, I can see why Samtani had the film edited down: the original cut is far too long and it takes quite a while to get to the action. Also, the downside of the YouTube presentation is that it's panned-scanned and a lot of the compositions are horribly compromised. Even so, Mondo Macabro deserves a huge amount of credit for getting the English version out there on DVD and it looks good.

Also included is the original English trailer, obviously taken from a poor video source and it should show you how much effort the company went to restoring the feature film itself, and some text essays about the film and Indonesian horror cinema by Mondo Macabro leader Pete Tombs. One bizarre inclusion is a text essay about how to become a Leak master of Black Magic: believe me when it says 'Don't Try This at Home!' And rounding out the extras is the Mondo Macabro preview trailer reel featuring their available titles.

Highly Recommended!