ART OF THE DEVIL (2)

Combing the poetics of brutal violence and rough eroticism with emotional torture and an effectively nightmarish focus on the supernatural, Art of the Devil (2) is an inspired celebration of all the things that make us squirm! A surprisingly sensitive subtext of karma, responsibility, and the destructive nature of love underscores a surface plot rooted in folklore, gore, and hysterical revelations every bit as disturbing as scenes of fish-hook surgery, skin shaving, and cannibalism. A follow up to the 2004 Thai original, this intelligent and poetically brutal love letter to uncanny revenge ignores characters and themes established in the first film, going on to tell its own story. Directed by the Ronin Team (7 Thai directors), this powerhouse of pain and perversion cleaves a bloody trail through abuse, cloaking its jaw-dropping torture sequences in social culpability. A complex plot questions the thin, frail line between victim and victimizer, and our expectations (and sympathies) are expertly manipulated by an innovative screenplay.

Inventively structured, the plot unfolds in a fragmented nature that both mirrors the confusion/madness of its characters and enhances our fear of the supernatural. The nightmarish discordance of the plot, shifting between past and present, focusing on varying points-of-view also shields the story's plentiful surprises to remain hidden until they're appearance evokes the highest level of shock. The story proper begins with a disorientating, squirm-inducing scene of a fisherman being impaled with fishhooks. Told by Madam Sulee (a local wise woman) that he's been visited with a Cambodian, the hooks rip out his torso, eyes, and toes. Later we're introduced to a few of the principle characters, Kim and Por. Kim is an insecure young woman, and Por her somewhat geeky love interest. Receiving a call from the bereaved Ta, whose father has died, Kim, Por, and their four friends (all of whom used to know and live in the same town with Ta) return to their village to lend him emotional support. The center of the plot, Ta's familial history, is the dark heart at the center of this spectral revenge tragedy, and dream-like shadows of the past are effectively interwoven around suspenseful scenes in 'present time' as the six friends are assaulted by increasingly sinister portents of doom.

When Ta's mother died (in his youth), his father married Panor, an attractive teacher as cruel in her soul as she is seductive in her physical appearance. At heart a mean-spirited disciplinarian, she beats Ta often. Around the same period his girlfriend Kim breaks up with him, and, in a rash of incredibly bad luck, he's blamed for the death of his brother Nong . . . This is the outer skin of the plot, leading us up to brief depictions of the six friends, which include the aforementioned Kim and Por; Ko, the requisite goof-ball; and Tair and Noot, two girls whose relationship hints of lesbianism. As the young adults are viciously attacked in a fit of supernatural rage, a labyrinthine web of deceit cracks open and we learnt that Por and the gang convinced Ta to expose his mother's infidelity with the school coach. Ruining two careers and Panor's marriage, Ta was left behind in the village to weather her wrath alone. Now that the conspirators are all together again, they're surprised to find her outwardly generous. But madness rages beneath her smile, and before long she shows that she can become very nasty indeed . . .

Crafted by a small studio in Thailand, Art of the Devil (2) seeks to build upon, and perhaps outshine, Western culture's recent return to Seventies type visceral, hard-hitting horror fare, combing wince-inducing viscera with strong performances, plenty of suspense, and a fatalistic, hard-knuckled pace. Replacing the by-now expected pantheon of long-haired specters, hopping vampires, and cursed technology tropes burned on our sub-conscious with an impressive original occult concept, this mean-spirited debacle of depravity buries its thematic roots in the believably established emotions of characters. As strong and unsettling -- as downright disgusting! -- as many of the movie's scenes of excess may be, wallowing in the sensationalism of torture (and treating the human body as a sack of meat), even more disturbing, and certainly more emotionally satisfying, are the inner desires, anxieties, and overwhelming instincts explored by inspired direction.

Sharing with such films as Eli Roth's Hostel and Alexandre Aja's remake of The Hills Have Eyes a penchant for naturalistic violence and uncompromising attitude, this feast of fatalistic conflict exchanges the all-too-common moralizing inherent indicative of major studio 'horror' movies for a realistic, far more frightening context. This is NOT a popcorn movie; you won't walk out of it feeling good about yourself or life; in fact, you'll walk out feeling nauseated, pissed off, and enthralled -- these very emotions evoked by the film's sharp-laced plot, terrorist's sensibility, and decidedly disturbing subject matter. Of course the filmmaker's approach to their material is what saves this from being just another clone of other torture flesh-and-blood shows. As devoted to the inner conflicts (and mysteries) of the human heart as it is a bloody slab of grand guignol, Art of the Devil (2) takes itself seriously enough to provide a rationale for all the carnage. Rooted in intimate and surprisingly complex inter-relationships, this lurid poem to the politics of pain modernizes the ancient if often neglected revenge tragedy so important to cross-comparative Mythologies and, of more recent vintage, the Elizabethan Drama. If the gore grabs our attention, the recognizable desire for revenge speaks to a deeper part of our psyche. The movie wouldn't be half as successful -- either challenging or entertaining -- if not for this retrospective quality.

While all is not well in this torture-show of conscience and occult evocation, including occasional lapses of internal story logic that clash with the film's otherwise unique personality, the basic sequence of events, a lively atmosphere, and images of hyper-violence make it a safe bet for future cult status. Interweaving serious social context and rustic themes with unabashed violence, Art of the Devil (2) deals as deeply with motifs of Eastern spiritualism as torture. A sense of pervading doom looms over the gang of friends, thick and possessing a life of its own as the story progresses. The violence itself ranges from sloppy (in the best way) to formalistically refined. Meanwhile a mystical sense of Karma lends greater substance to the scares, suggesting amidst all the teeth-pulling, eye-poking, and blow-torch acrobatics the deeply held conviction that one's misdeeds somehow always find their way back to the perpetrator -- a refreshingly simplistic message for a brutal and beautiful film. The ending is both touching and bitterly ironic, succeeding in a last attempt to disturb. Perhaps the scariest DVD release of the year, Art of the Devil (2) is also the most thoughtful. Learn to love fear again!

The visual quality of this release is stunning. Delivered in anamorphic widescreen at 1.85:1, the transfer is sharp and vivid, without grain, scratching, or blurs. Colors are sharp and well defined. Audio is just as professional, offering viewers English 5.1, English 2.0, and Thai 2.0 options, and optional English subtitles. Extras aren't as generous as I would have liked, wishing to know more about the filmmakers and their inspiration, but what's here is worthwhile. They include a brief if meaty Behind-the-Scenes featurette discussing various elements of the film and its production, a theatrical trailer (which also includes an incomplete trailer), and trailers for Death Trance, Garuda, Art of the Devil, and Antioch (the series).

Review by William P. Simmons