Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
not bad, delivery wasn't good unfortunately, March 20, 2006
I saw this movie yesterday and I have to say that ASIAN horror flicks have a way of coming out with original ways for its characters to pass away.
The plot itself wasn't very original. It revolves around a woman scorned and played with a rich married man. When she got impregnated by him, she was paid off by a lot of money then the rich man shared her with his friends. Quite sick if you ask me, but not as sick when she resorted to witchcraft to have her vengeance. With the aid a warlock, she had his entire family killed as well as the rich man who wronged her. She thought that ahe could inherit his estate when everyone was gone. Unbeknowest to her the man had a first family. The story picks off when she becomes the wife of one of his sons, but when he started to suspect something's wrong, she poisons him and tries to pick off the first family one by one. I will not go into further details but in this movie you will see one of the creepiest looking child ghosts since the Locker and the Ring.
My one complaint about the film is the screenplay. It seemed to start near the end and goes back in time as memories and part of a conversation, because of this delivery, the film ended up losing most of the suspense and creepiness it could have achieved. However, the bewitching scenes are a bit creepy, nails, blades among other things being choked up but after awhile it gets redundant. The 2 lead actresses are gorgeous, especially the villainess I hope to see her in other films. The cast all need acting lessons though.
The dvd comes in 5.1 english dubbed but I decided to watch it in Thai as per its original audio. If you are a fan of asian horror, you may want to take a look. The lead actress/villainess is enchanting to look at. So far, the best Thai horror film I've seen is SHUTTER(ART OF THE DEVIL DOESN'T COME CLOSE). That movie creeped me out and I believe it blows away the GRUDGE and THE RING, and it takes a lot to creep me out!!
Hopefully ART OF THE DEVIL 2 will be better. I've read the sypnosis and it looks promising.
Skip it! [2.5 stars]
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Pedestrian and predictable at best, January 23, 2007
So ... given my rather glowing review of "Long Khong" (Art of the Devil 2), was "Kong Len Khong" (Art of the Devil) any good? Nah ... the first Art of the Devil turns out to be just a pedestrian Thai horror movie with little horror, a predictable story, some gore (bleeding gullets and razor blades galore) but not much else. Here's the Cliffs Notes summary: A pretty young woman is introduced to a rich middle aged man, and proceeds to have a torrid affair with him. She gets pregnant and blackmails him into paying her off. He gets upset and arranges for her to be gang-raped by three of his rich friends. She gets more upset and pays an evil shaman to bump him and his family (and his lecherous friends and their families as well) off in nasty ways (picture bloody gullets, razor blades, and rusty nails). Then she gets even MORE upset when the estate of the rich man goes to his common-law wife's family (i.e. "unofficial" second wife i.e. concubine/mistress). And so the evil shaman gets more business, casting a love spell on the eldest (illegitimate) son so that his conniving client can sleep her way into the family and then kill them off one by one with the aim of ultimately inheriting the late rich man's estate. But she did not count on the late rich man's plucky young (illegitimate) daughter and her inquisitive reporter friend. And so both her and her evil shaman get their comeuppance in due course, after a lot of eels, cowhides, bloody gullets, razor blades and rusty nails again (which obviously don't mixed well), and gunshots. End of movie. I did say it was a rather pedestrian Thai horror movie.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Weak And Predictable Thai Horror Film!, January 26, 2007
Writing is everything in a film. And the script-writers are at fault for making this film lose whatever creepiness and possible potential the film could have had. I have seen worse, however the film falls along the path of so many other predictable horror films. Also, while this film does employ the use of black magic, which was used in 'Art of the Devil 2,' [completely different films] it falters in its cohesiveness. The film begins with a girl who becomes pregnant by a wealthy businessman. Even though he offers money to her, to keep her quiet, she threatens to blackmail him for more money. Events will go downhill for him after this.
Since this businessman no longer decides to pay her money, the young girl seeks the help of a sorcerer to get revenge on not only the rich businessman, but his family as well. As the film unfolds, the businessman and his family are found dead. There is no clue as to how, or why the businessman and his family were killed. Therefore, a reporter tries to uncover the mystery. His investigation leads him to the businessmans mistress. However, he must try and convince others that she is trained in the art of the occult, and is responsible. There are some tasteless gory effects the director threw into the film, which actually makes the film even worse.
Plus, the acting in the film is pretty bad, and should have been better: Along with better scriptwriting. Some may enjoy the film. Further, the film is not in any way connected to "Art of the Devil 2," which is a much better film. I would not suggest that those of you who like Asian horror not watch this film, you might like it. However, the entire film is very weak. The production values of the film are good for a Thai flick, however, the writing really misses the mark. Moreover, the prime ingredient in a good horror film is missing: Suspense. There is not enough suspense, or chilling nuances to make this a very good film. Some may enjoy it, however, I found it to be turgid. [Stars: 2.5]
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DVD ~ Kap-su Kim
DVD ~ Paolo Bonacelli
DVD ~ Eihi Shiina
DVD ~ Takeshi Kitano
DVD ~ Beatrice Dalle
