Country and Year: Indonesia (1981)
Director: H. Tjut Djalil
Starring: Ilona Agathe Bastian, Yos Santo, Sofia WD
Review By: Jeff
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars (good)

There are weird movies, and then there is Mystics in Bali: the film against which other weird movies are measured. While some weird movies are 90-minute freakouts devoid of any comprehensible plot, and other weird movies contain startling moments interspersed with long, boring narrative sequences, Mystics in Bali strikes the proper balance between craziness and an interesting (albeit awkwardly told) story.

The film tells the story of Cathy, a young Western lass who is determined to learn about Indonesian black magic. With the help of her Indonesian boyfriend Hendra, Cathy tracks down an ancient witch known as the Queen of Leaks. (That’s pronounced “lay-ack”.) Cathy convinces the Leak Queen — a shriveled, cackling hag who sounds like an evil Yoda — to teach her black magic. Over the course of several evenings, the Queen — who has the power to transform, alter and levitate herself — inculcates Cathy in the dark arts. The Queen paints mantras all over Cathy’s body with her elongated tongue, does a strange ritual dance, and causes Cathy to shoot out a forked tongue like a serpent and transform into a pig, among other fun stuff.

However, the fun cannot last forever, and soon the Queen sends Cathy’s flying head and entrails (but not the rest of Cathy) on a mission to eat babies. The Queen also does other unfun things to Cathy, such as inflating her lips to enormous proportions and making her throw up mice. Hendra comes to the realization that introducing Cathy to the Leak Queen was not the best decision he ever made, and enlists the aid of his uncle, who is a sorcerer. In a huge special-effects blowout, the forces of good magic take on the Queen and her new minion Cathy.

A few months ago, we here at Cinema Strikes Back had the opportunity to conduct a roundtable interview with Pete Tombs and Andy Starke, the visionary madmen behind the Mondo Macabro label. (We will be bringing our readers a complete transcript of that interview in 2008.) During the interview, the Mondo Macabro guys succinctly explained the appeal of movies such as Mystics in Bali:

In Asian movies, particularly South Asian movies, there’s a quality (to the special effects) that’s sort of unreal … There’s something sort of pantomimey about it; you’ve got to bring your imagination to it. … I don’t care that it look cheesy; it actually looks better — stranger and better. So what that it looks like a fake head? I don’t care, I’ve gone beyond that. If you want it to look real, then go and watch Lord of the Rings. But it never does look real (in Hollywood). Each time they push the envelope, and it’s as slick as slick can be, you know that in five years’ time, that’s going to look really old-fashioned.

I could not write a better description of the special effects sequences in Mystics in Bali than that. As many cult film fans know, the film’s pièce de résistance is its depiction of Cathy’s head and entrails rising off of the rest of her body, flying in the air, and sucking a unborn baby out of a woman. I don’t know how the incredibly resourceful special effects crew pulled this scene off — it is a miracle of engineering and imagination that invites comparisons to Stonehenge and the pyramids. In other words, it is one of the damnedest things I have ever seen in my life. The transformation scenes are nearly as amazing. One scene involving a woman-to-pig transformation is particularly vivid and disturbing.

As if the special effects in Mystics in Bali were insufficiently surreal, the film’s weird performances add an additional layer of unreality to the proceedings. All of the actors recite their lines with a blankness that is characteristic of amateur actors. However, the actress who portrays Cathy walks through each scene looking especially dazed and confused, which is not surprising given the strangeness of the film that she had been talked into appearing in. The film seems to have been shot MOS, and each performer’s lines appears to have been dubbed in by voice actors. However, these are not just any old voice actors — they sound like the same overacting Kiwis who dubbed nearly every old school kung fu movie. It is always a comfort and a joy to hear these guys — though I have never met them, to hear their voices is like being reunited with old friends. The voice actress who played the Leak Queen gets particular brownie points for turning in a completely gonzo, over-the-top performance, filled with vocal-cord-shredding cackles and laughter.

If the weird performances and special effects are not enough to hold the viewer’s interest, the film’s ethnographic details provide an additional level of interest. The film is structured as a travelogue, as it takes time to show the viewer various Indonesian sites and attractions, such as a traditional stage show and a tribal village. Mystics in Bali also contains a huge amount of detail regarding Leak rites and rituals. I have no idea whether the film’s information about Leaks is accurate, but if it is not, someone spent a huge amount of time making this stuff up.

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DVD DETAILS

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DVD Company: Mondo Macabro (http://www.mondomacabrodvd.com)
Release Date: October 2, 2007
Video Format: NTSC
Extras:

The Mondo Macabro label released Mystics In Bali on a PAL-encoded DVD several years ago, which makes their new DVD the second time that they have unleashed this film upon an unsuspecting public. The second time definitely proved to be the charm here, as their new DVD contains dramatically improved picture quality. (The special-effects sequences still look rather grainy, but that is part of the charm of this film.) The new DVD also features an essay on Indonesian exploitation, a text article on “How to Become a Leak”, a trailer for the film, and the awesome Mondo Macabro promotional reel.