Horror Movie Review #5: Art of the Devil

ART OF THE DEVIL
Directed By: Tanit Jitnukul
Release Date: 17 June 2004
Running Time: 96 min
Language: Thai
Horror Type: Witchcraft
Sex? - SOME
Gore? - YES
Momel's Rating: 4/5

A very good looking Thai woman executes her wrath on this very wealthy horndog after he impregnates her and, well, "shares" her with three of his equally horny friends. So what's a girl to do, most especially if she's in cahoots with some ass kicking Level 99 A-Class shaman with a black belt in witchcraft? She appeals to his devilish art, and it concludes in a visually painful array of torture:

1. Iron nails slowly force their way out of his head.
2. His son chokes on a sandwich and begins to cough shards of glass.
3. His other son turns mad and shoots his sister, his girlfriend, and himself in the head.
4. His wife dies mysteriously with her eyes wide open and with the length of her tongue curled outside her mouth.

And it's just warming up because our heroine has started taking a be-deviled interest in his very capital inheritance and the real estate that comes with it. Turns out that she'll need to practice the art once more because his other wife and kids have claimed everything he owns by virtue of legal practices. What ensues is a chilling carnival of carnage which includes death by eels, regurgitated razor blades, a diseased maddening that precedes suicide, two miscarriages, and, for effect that borders on overkill, a blond albino ghost with bad teeth.

It's a scary movie that powerfully simulates an already terrifying truth that is witchcraft. It presents this evil practice with such attention to detail; it shows the master occultist at work in the second floor of his urban barber shop, with his ceremonial gestures, requisite corpses. hair samples, and grilled still born foetuses. Art imitates life, and Art of the Devil does so with an endearing soft spot for detail.