Art of the Devil – Review

Leading lady Nan introduces her friend Boom to her father. The two begin a whirlwind affair, which ends up with Boom pregnant with his child. She wants revenge! One night, then something unforeseen happened. Pratan and his entire family die, controlled as if by magic, in a bestial way. The police are completely baffled, as they must exclude a third party negligence. Art of the Devil stars gorgeous women and messy bloody content. Not one for the kiddos. Because of the magic elements contains within the film, our killer takes care of her subjects by stuffing things into a voodoo doll, which then translates into the victim coughing up a bunch of crazy things. One guy vomits up razor blades.

Art of the Devil was a rather engaging film overall. Gorehounds will eat this film up because it shares their appetite for destruction yet it actually has a coherent plot. The effectively used shock moments are turned out of a more tangible nature, and in contrast to the currently fashionable trend, less subtle. It’s easy, blatant horror that works on a base level. This smart tactic in filmmaking has spawned not one, but two sequels which will be covered in the next few days.

Horror fans who are reading this probably have your hopes up pretty high at this point. Well, Art of the Devil is a horror story, correct, distinctive than the average on the plus, but still it lacks something to be called a really good movie. I felt it lacked the edge needed to generate suspense or any real shocks. To elaborate, as frightening as an Asian albino girl looks, the director decided to only want to play. Not giving us the real meat and potatoes gave up the last spark of hope, but still left enough creep factor not to be extinguished entirely. The magic element was a bit wonky as well. I, personally, don’t believe in black magic but a bunch of people probably do, if the movie The Craft was any evidence of that. So depending on your thought process you might have to suspend belief to find enjoyment.

Despite everything, I believe that Art of the Devil is a film worthy of attention. If anything, the end result is a trilogy that no gore fiend should pass up. Ultimately, it’s another horror film from Thailand not living up to its poster art. Thanks to this site, I’ve seen alot more brutal films from thailand, so in a way this one might be lighter than other horror films. Though as you know a single scene of torture cant really sustain a story. Luckily there is enough of one here to pull it together. Stick around tomorrow for my review of the sequel which I can say with confidence, is worth watching as well. So all you horror fans looking for a good trilogy to sink your teeth in, this isn’t a bad place to start.