5/10
Art of the Devil
8 April 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Twisted Thai witchcraft flick with an emphasis on using evil to seek revenge and to gain riches. Jittima(..the alluring beauty, Supakson Chaimongkoi) is a lover scorned, a pregnant victim who seduced a wealthy architect, Pratan(Tin Settachoke) who threw money at her to keep her away from his family(..that, while also arranging for her to be ravaged by his business chums). With the help of a secretly practicing witchdoctor, Jittima uses black magic to systematically eliminate Pratan's entire family. When she is hit by a car(..while spellbound at the site of Pratan's family, together as ghostly apparitions looking at her), Jittima loses her child, becoming even more volatile than ever before. Adding extra sting to her torment, another family(..whose mother's children were Pratan's)receives Pratan's luxurious estate and inheritance, with Jittima orchestrating a plan to besiege them, using the dark arts to gain access to the fortune she feels is rightfully hers. By capturing(..literally)the heart of Ruj(Isara Ochakul), Jittima will infiltrate the family, marrying him and progressively use witchcraft to destroy them with her eyes on the prize she's so longed for.

The film focuses on this family's teenage daughter, Nan(Arisa Wills)and the effects on her watching each member falling prey to supernatural forces beyond her control. This is the emotional arch of the film, a family worsening at the hands of a pathological, cold-blooded female with a deadly agenda, gaining trust by those she is in fact exterminating. Interesting enough, the witchdoctor is just as guilty for he willingly participates in performing the rituals which cause such destruction, whose spells cause really horrific acts to innocent people(..many of the acts cause hallucinatory effects which force victims to see created horrors, resulting in certain death). There's no doubt that Jittima(..known as Boom to the family she's annihilating)is pure evil and to watch so closely her own handiwork, the architect of destruction she is, is really what makes the film so chilling. The violence that ensues can get quite disturbing such as the sight of an army of eels smothering Nan's brother Neng(Nirut Sutchart), Ruj's vomiting razor blades, Nan's mom constantly coughing up blood, her insides hemorrhaging, or reporter, Danai(Somchai Satuthum), a threat to the entire concocted scheme, suffering a piece of broken glass crawling underneath his skin, having to slice his body in order to get it out..you see the effects of just how dangerous black magic can be. I think it's the way Jittima carries them out, like a Black Widow slowly poisoning her husbands with arsenic, a cold and calculating series of attacks, that provides the film's most unpleasant tone. The inhumanity of it all, and the whole fact that no one suspects her(..the cynicism of this kind of power, seen earlier when Nan was forced by a friend, a true believer, into visiting a spiritualist, is established)is what drives the story, culminating in a showdown between Nan and Jittima, with Danai, a believer in the forces of good and evil, lending a helping hand, trying to uncover the one responsible for causing the black magic. One unnecessary decision, which mars the film, is the bouncing back and forth, to past and present, as Jittima discusses her reasons for what has transpired to a bound and distraught Nan. With more focus on linear story-telling, this could've been less aggravating. Still, the film shows the genesis of the monster that would become Boom until the very confusing climax when Jittima makes a very odd decision regarding her own fate, in turn shattering all that she has strived for. Another really bizarre sub-plot has this mysterious ghost girl hanging around Nan's kid brother..this ghost child is connected with Jittima, and it's quite a revelation, to say the least.
2 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed