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Mystics In Bali
[Mondo Macarbo]
1981; color
Directed by H. Tjut Djalil
Starring: Ilona Agathe Bastian, Yos Santo, Sofia W.D. & W.D. Mochtar
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Ah, witches and vampires... they go together like oil and vinegar to create a decidedly evil cinematic vinaigrette; Mystics In Bali is perfect proof. We've tackled a couple other examples of Indonesian cinema here at the buffet before and, while some of MIB does noticeably drag, some parts of it are as over-the-top as anything I've seen come out of that country yet. The story revolves around a young American author, a woman who's an authority on various types of witchcraft and black magic. She's in Bali doing research for what she hopes will be her next book, on something called 'Leyak' - supposedly the most powerful black magic known to exist. Apparently she's spent time there previously, as she's got an old friendship with a young Indonesian guy who happens to know how to get her introduced to a Leyak witch. Somehow or another, he sets up the meeting and the girl begins to get knowledge from the perpetually cackling crone said to be the most powerful of all the Leyak witches. Unbeknownst to the girl, however, the Leyak is not only using her as a vehicle to attain unlimited power, she's a vampire as well. After a few meetings, and a few blood offerings (where we get to see her multiple-foot-long forked tongue), the witch tells her her learning is almost complete. The girl goes home to sleep but is awakened by a feeling of something on her neck. She takes off her necklace and goes back to sleep. Then, in one of the more unexpected turns this hard-to-follow flick takes, her head detaches itself from her body, and floats out the open window - with the spinal column and a few organs still attached! The head, which now has fangs, flies off in search of baby's blood, which leads to one of the greatest / weirdest scenes in exploitation I've seen in a while. In what might be a backhanded ode to Re-Animator, the bloodthirsty severed head flies in a very pregnant woman's window and proceeds to ingest her unborn baby. Although you never see the baby so it really just looks like she's giving the pregnant chick head; we know this is what happened though because, as the head is between the legs, we get the pregnant woman's POV and her stomach completely deflates. This scene is really the tip of the iceberg because there are so many inexplicably weird things that happen in MIB, cataloging them all would spoil it. At any rate, when the girl wakes up the next day, with her head quite firmly back in it's place (along with the rest of her insides), she had no knowledge of what's transpired. She notices blood dripping from both corners of her mouth and shrugs it off saying, "Oh, I must have bitten my lip in my sleep." (In two different places?! Uh, OK.) The Leyak continues to use the girl as her pawn, eventually leading to the unfortunate circumstance where one evening her flying head can't make it back to her body in time. Interestingly this doesn't stop the head from reattaching itself later, although the girl is now hopelessly undead and a full-on vampire. The male friend, who is not-so-secretly in love with her, wants to take her away from all this but only ends up enlisting his uncle for an all-out good vs. evil battle to kill the Leyak and save the girl. Or at least her soul. Their battle, which definitely reminded me of the magic-meets-martial-arts fight in The Devil's Sword (another equally crazy Indonesian movie previously reviewed on the BMB), leads to the Leyak's demise, but in an unexpected way that reminds us she was more of a vampire than a witch. If truly off-the-wall horror is your bag, then this obscure nugget should fit the bill nicely. While I can't say I'm positive I'd watch this one again, I'm definitely glad I've experienced it once.
—the Kommandant
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