An entertaining example of early 80s Indonesian horror/thriller, 'Mystics in Bali' comes across extremely strangely. The plot plods along, covering the same point time and again, and introducing settings and characters in bizzare ways (the way that it turned out that a scene was a story one character was telling another, and then that scene was a story, and then that scene was a story etc. felt particularly odd. I think I like the idea in principle, but it's so badly handled here that I had very little idea what was actually going on). The actors are all really terrible, other than the old woman playing the witch, who at least has the sort of manic enthusiastic energy that makes her character seem like a cross between Yoda on crack and Tim from 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'. She reminded me a little of the witch from 'Throne of Blood', but not scary or even particularly creepy.
What else to say? well the plot was bad and the shots and sets were basic. The one redeeming thing was the practical effects, which someone had obviously put some work into.
They ranged from women tranforming into pigs and snakes. so the leading lady's head popping off (along with most of her internal organs) and then flying around and SUCKING AN UNBORN BABY RIGHT OUT OF THE MOTHER. Sorry, I had to put that bit in caps, because I wanted to get across hw surprised I was at the time. It's not bloody or scary, it's just bizare and hilarious. The woman doesn't even seem to be in any pain, she just sort of goes cross-eyed for a bit and then the vampire head zips off again, banging it's entrails on the window sill as it leaves. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, practical effects. So they weren't brilliant, but work had gone into them, and I enjoyed them. The post effects were much worse, but at least made me laugh.
A really weird movie, much of which is based on actual Indonesian fables.
Mystics in Bali: 22.5