The Critcal Frog: Mystics In Bali

So in my cultural studies class, we`ve been discussing the different aspects of multiple cultures and their tastes for certain kinds of films. And from what I`ve learned during the times i don`t have my headphones on (best idea ever- why didnt I think of bringing headphones to school years ago?) is that people in the eastern regions have a certain flair for horror. Sometimes, they`re good, as in the case of the original version of The Ring, but other times they fall flat on their faces, like they do in today`s feature review, Mystics in Bali, where the characters undergo horrors like they were mild annoyances.

The film stars a girl named Cathy, hopefully not the one from the comic strip, as she undergoes the most horrifying black magic on earth with the emotions of a person who realizes the pizza delivery man forgot the garlic bread. Throughout the film she is haunted by a sorceress known as the leak master, and her and her friends/lover experience multiple horrors with bland faces.

Now I haven`t been able to get the entire movie- copies are very hard to come by- so I`ll just try to summarize the parts I was able to see. Bear with me, because the plot is annoying and difficult to get as it is, not to mention I couldn`t get much translation. On a side note, when I got up from the couch to get refreshments, I banged my knee on the table..... bad luck, or the sorceress`s curse?

The film opens with the previously mentioned Cathy exploring Bali, India. She happens upon a sorceress, who offers to teach her black magic. Cathy accepts, but clearly not understanding that you don`t trust people who offer to teach you black magic is betrayed. Her body begins to be taken over by the sorceress, and we have many scenes where she vomits green bile and/or scares people with odd looks. How else to explain a scene where she and her boyfriend are making love when she pukes out some living mice, and the two look at it and make small talk as if somebody just told a racist joke at a party?

Anyways, we get a lot of puking and black magic, and the girl is turned into a floating head with organs still attached to the neck, because why not. She scares a pregnant woman (though again, the woman seems unfazed), and headbutts another flying head into the room, after which.... well, if I was to put a picture of two floating heads sexually assaulting a woman on the blog, I`d probably end up on the government watch lists, so let`s just say that happened.

Eventually, about 3/4 of the way through the clips I watched, we meet a magical warrior. He has no back story, no plot- in fact, he just appears out of nowhere for no good reason but to slay the sorceress. Indeed he challenges her to a fight, where she turns into a pig demon with heaving bosoms and shoots lightning (which apparently the film decides she can do now) and fights the hero before being vanquished by the daylight, which the film neglected to tell us could happen.  I really can`t explain the film myself very well, so here`s some pics:

Here we see the evil sorceress....thing.

And here we see either the bravest or highest people on earth.

       

She seems to take being a disembodied head very well.

And now I`m on some kind of watch list, aren`t I?

And to top off this marvelous scene, here are the guys` reactions to seeing disembodied heads eat an unborn baby out of a hoo-haw:

"Yep, nothing abnormal here. Just a head eating an unborn baby straight from the vagina.. Normal sight here in Bali."

Ah, horror films. You never cease to entertain me, be you good or bad. In this case, you`e bad. But you still manage to entertain. Well done.