Art of the Devil III – Review

Art of the Devil III takes place before the events in Art of the Devil 2, and begins with Ta’s return home. If you read or happen to see part II, Ta was in jail for being a juvenile delinquent. It’s another fun entry in the Art of the Devil series. Sure, I come for the gore, but I stay because all these films have a lot of the Thai culture within them. Now he’s home and confronts his grandfather who wants to bring Ta’s mother back to life. He even went so far as to keep the body mummified in salt until Ta was old enough to complete the ritual, because as a kid Ta failed to speak the prayer that would ressurect his mom.

The scare factor is taken down a notch, only because if you’ve watched the first film, you pretty much know and waiting to see how this one will end. Traditionally, asian horror films are known to frighten the audience through sound effects, but this film is a combination of the asian’s sound frightening technique and the western gore technique. It is a nice blend that has worked really well for these films thus far. The bloody carnage isn’t delivered by the hatchets and machetes of the American horror tradition, but rather by the ancient mythology and mysticism of Thailand. Only drawback in this aspect is some deja-vu moments courtesy from scenes covered in the earlier movies which didn’t help.

If I can get straight to the point, Art of the Devil 3 is nice, but not as good as Art of the Devil 2. This one was quite slow, and not very suspenseful. Still Mamee is smoldering and just as equally vicious as she was in part 2. Highly recommended for gore hounds, but for those wanting more scares in their horror there is no suspense at all in this one, just lots of body parts ripped to pieces.  Still, I feel that it would be a more enriching experience to watch Art of the Devil 2 first. Basically, there’s a cheating husband, a vengeful wife, and an equally vengeful spirit ghost who desires revenge after too much dabbling in the black arts.

Torture-porn enthusiasts will get their money’s worth here, but the same can’t be said for those who expect minimal character identification in a horror film. All in all, this movie had me wanting more and I hope a part 4 comes out the woodwork. If only Saw movies could quit being made every year and we got movies like this instead, it would be a better world. On the review scale, this film doesn’t rank as high as number 2, and for those who don’t get off on violence, I can only reccomend this to readers who are Thai cult cinema completists. Without a main hero, it is difficult to appreciate this film like other horror films in which there is a protagonist for us to connect with. I had a lot of fun watching these three films back-to-back as it made the whole ride alot more enjoyable. Again, if you can only see one, stick with part 2.