"The Queen of Black Magic" effectively puts characters through a relentless, creepy-crawly wringer

The Queen of Black Magic (2021)

Unless we're talking about Little Orphan Annie cleaning house and singing about it under Miss Hannigan's nose, nothing ever good happens in an old orphanage, especially in Indonesia apparently. The terror continues in “The Queen of Black Magic,” a loose remake of a 1981 horror film of the same name and from the same country. Written by Joko Anwar (2020’s “Impetigore”) and directed by Kimo Stamboel (2016’s “Headshot”), this extreme Indonesian import combines repressed trauma, revenge, the occult, and a lot of centipedes. If a horror film is meant to be horrific and make one uncomfortable, “The Queen of Black Magic” is surely effective in that regard, like a meat grinder that keeps putting its pawn-like characters through the painful wringer. It's a mean one.

Calling off their trip to Bali, Hanif (Ario Bayu), wife Nadya (Hannah Al Rashid), and their three kids head to the orphanage where Dad grew up to pay his respects to dying caretaker Mr. Bandi (Yayu A.W. Unru). Before they even get there, Dad thinks he just hit a deer, but it’s probably something else. Meeting them at the old orphanage are Hanif’s childhood friends, Anton (Tanta Ginting) and Jefri (Miller Khan), and their wives, along with Mr. Bandi’s current caretakers Maman (Ade Firman Hakim) and Maman’s facially scarred wife Siti (Sheila Dara Aisha) who never left. The grown-ups reminisce, flipping through a photo album with the photos curiously turned backwards, while the children go exploring. After an abandoned bus of orphans is found, all hell breaks loose, most of the characters either becoming possessed or falling under the power of black magic.

After the first 40 minutes—the calm before the storm, if you will—of establishing the characters’ relationships and the mythos behind the orphanage, “The Queen of Black Magic” begins to show its teeth and not let up. The youngest child, Haqi (an endearing Muzakki Ramdhan), is told a scary story about Ms. Mirah, who used to work at the orphanage but also practiced black magic; when she was locked in her room, Ms. Mirah killed herself by repeatedly slamming her skull into the locked down. In truly creepy J-horror fashion, Ms. Mirah (and her deformed foot) make an appearance on an old tape and then for real. One of the wives with body dysmorphia tries slicing away the skin she doesn’t want, seemingly blood-free in a mirror. Someone else gets visited with centipedes in bed and under their skin, and another poor soul keeps obliviously devouring poisonous caterpillars. It’s the kind of shocking stuff that just taunts and dares you to look away. By the time "the queen" of the title gets her head cut off with a scythe and then reattaches it, all bets are off.

As plot revelations literally emerge from the floor, sins seemingly buried from the past come back to haunt, rip, and twist the bodies of these visitors. Director Kimo Stamboel’s film does end with bloody stills from the original film playing over the end credits, but his own unrelenting horror show holds its own grisly power. Some of the visual effects of the bug variety are clearly digital, albeit no less effectively creepy-crawly when the disgustingly vivid sound design picks up the slack. Familiarly plotted but unsparing, “The Queen of Black Magic” is neither for the squeamish nor those who don’t like blood staining their shirt.

Grade: B -

Shudder is releasing “The Queen of Black Magic” (99 min.), available to stream on January 28, 2021.