Nyi blorong (1982)

... aka: Snake Queen, The
... aka: Theendum Mohini

Directed by:
Sisworo Gautama Putra

Born in Java, Indonesia and of Eurasian descent, Suzanna Martha Frederika van Osch adopted the singular stage name Suzzanna and began acting when she was just a child. She won numerous awards then (including being named “Best Child Actress” at the Asia Film Awards in 1960) and, by 1972, she was named “Most Popular Actress in Asia” at the Asia Pacific Film Festival held in Seoul, Korea. Moving into middle age in the 80s, she became Indonesia's #1 female horror star in a series of wild genre films that seldom saw light outside of Asia. Though not her first horror efforts, it was the pair of Sundelbolong (1981; given the awkward translation “Ghost with Hole”) and Ratu ilmu hitam (also 1981; aka Black Magic 3, Black Magic Terror or The Queen of Black Magic), for which she was nominated for a Best Actress Citra Award at the Indonesian Film Festival in 1982, that helped to change the dynamic of her career. It was around this time she also married her second husband and frequent co-star, Clift Sangra, who was over twenty years her junior. Numerous other genre films throughout the 80s into the 90s more than earned the actress the nickname “The Queen of Indonesian Horror” before her retirement in the early 90s.

Suzzanna was also a tabloid fixture in her home country, with rumors circulating that she was able to maintain her good looks for so long because she had mystical powers or was a real-life witch. In 2003, she made headlines again when a feud over her estate resulted in her husband shooting her son-in-law and serving 4 months in jail for it. And this woman is almost completely unknown in Europe and here in America! That has to do entirely with the lack of availability of most of her films. Of all of her genre offerings, The Queen of Black Magic (distributed by both Lettuce and Twilight on VHS, and recipient of a 2008 DVD release through Mondo Macabro) appears to be the only one with anything resembling a decent release here.

According to the opening narration, those in Java believe that deep beneath the “Indonesian Ocean” (I think they meant Indian Ocean) lies a magical kingdom ruled over by a powerful and immortal woman named Queen Kidul (Ade Irawan). Living all by herself, the Queen yearned for a child to ease her loneliness. She prayed and meditated for days, asking the Gods to give her a baby. The Gods answered back, telling her to make a storm on the South Seas until a dragon's egg falls to the bottom. She was then to throw the egg into “The Cave of Secrets” so it could incubate and hatch into a beautiful woman with the soul of a serpent. And thus Queen Para, the Snake Queen, was born, as we see a bloody, fully-grown woman (Suzzanna, of course) bust out of a giant egg. Not content just ruling the underworld kingdom, Para also causes plenty of ruckus above ground. (Much of the mythology used in this film is from the South Seas Queen legend, which also factored into numerous other Indonesian films, like the amazing LADY TERMINATOR.)

Queen Para has managed to easily ensnare the greedy Mr. Cokro (Ratno Timoer) in more ways than one. For starters, she's already had him sacrifice his own wife and son in exchange for riches. Not content with just that, she now wants someone else who has enjoyed his money for at least one year to be killed. Cokro has her spare his last remaining child, daughter Sasti (Nena Rosier), and schemes to make Sasti's boyfriend Andika (Barry Prima) the next sacrifice. But first he has to ensure the two marry. Andika is a student and wanting to wait until after he graduates to wed, but Cokro convinces him otherwise by offering to pay for the wedding and a house, plus letting him run one of his many companies. Unbeknownst to Cokro, both Sasti and Andika suspect what he's up to and aren't easily going to fall into his trap. What no one seems to know is that the Snake Queen is also impersonating Cokro's new wife and calling herself Dewi.

Meanwhile, a young man named Johan (George Rudy), who's desperately in need of money or else he'll be killed by thugs he's indebted to, finds his way to the entrance of the Snake Queen's lair. There he encounters cackling old witch Gino (Ruth Pelupessy), who warns him of what's in store if he proceeds: “Queen Para will be in charge of your life forever!” Johan agrees to the arrangement and, after a long journey, finally makes it to the Cave of Secrets only to be greeted by a flying cobra and some beautiful young women who leap into the water when they see him. The Queen rises up out of a small pond on a platform, makes him cannibalize a baby (!) and tells him to build a special, hidden room onto his home and she'll visit him there “...next Wednesday.” Johan returns home to his wife Natri and the two are horrified to stumble upon a cat feasting on their baby girl's dismembered corpse (!) But the Queen does keep her appointment, arriving in a flying gold carriage and descending a flight of stairs, with each step lighting up as her foot touches it. She turns into a large snake during sex and kills both Johan and the wife.

Andika finally meets his future mother-in-law Dewi and falls for her. He's so smitten he ignores his fiancee, stops going to class and spends all of his time in his dorm room brooding. Believing a spell has been cast on him, Andika's roommate Norman (Dorman Borisman) decides to go see an old buck-toothed man (H.I.M. Damsyik) who teaches an aerobics class by day (!) but makes money on the side casting magic spells. They encounter a man with a flaming head whose legs and body detach and dance on their own. The figure then throws its head, which turns into the magician's head and then a snake before disappearing. What that has to do with anything else is beyond me but it happens nonetheless. As Andika and Dewi spend more time together, she also finds herself in love with him and is torn between her position as the Snake Queen and wanting to live a normal life. Her mother and handmaidens try to convince her to stay with them in the underworld, but can she have her cake and eat it to?

Pissed off at Andika, Sasti crashes her car through a store window and ends up in the hospital, where one of Para's handmaiden's disguised as a nurse leads her back to her palace. In some scenes very reminiscent of the Brazilian Coffin Joe movies, she watches a group of dancers do a long routine through a Vaseline-smeared lens while it snows and enters a colorful hell-like landscape filled with fire where she crosses over a bridge made out of moaning men. Her dead, pasty-faced mother makes an appearance and then Andika appears with a huge sword and slices her head. The Snake Queen appears, decked out in Medusa-like headpiece made of real snakes and now a giant snake from the waist down herself. She uses her wiggling tail to grab onto Sasti and pull her near. This was later stolen for the climax of Night of the Demons 2 (1994) of all things!

Sasti's night of horror turns out to just be a nightmare, but soon she finds herself possessed by the spirit of her mother. Her her face turns blue, her head spins around, she starts speaking in a chain-smoker's voice, levitates in her bed, walks (and does cartwheels!) on the ceiling and then delivers a message from hell about who Dewi really is before being driven out of the body by an exorcist. The finale has Sasti and her father (who finally comes to his senses about what he's doing) going to old sorceress Gino for help, which leads to a sorceress' battle involving flying (on highly visible wires), leaping, flipping, smoke, fireballs, a melting face, an explosive car crash and a moral to the whole story delivered by the Queen herself about how important it is to be honest and work hard. Wow!

Weird Asia fans certainly won't regret seeking this obscure fantasy / horror title out. It's bonkers, fast-moving, sometimes gruesome and packed with entertaining, surprising stuff from start to finish. The special effects and sets are undoubtedly cheap, but delightfully so, and often highly imaginative. As with many other Asian genre films from this time the continuity is, shall I say, loose, but this never goes into the realm of being utterly nonsensical. Suzzanna serves as a great grounding point for all the craziness, as she's very composed, graceful and regal as the Queen despite whatever nonsense is going on around her. Her presence carries with it a sort-of calming mystical vibe and she never goes over the top in the role.

Never released in the U.S. in any form, this Indonesian / Japanese co-production was actually the top-grossing film in Jakarta in 1982 and was popular enough to be followed by two sequels: Perkawinan nyi blorong (“The Snake Queen's Wedding) in 1983 and Petualangan cinta nyi blorong (“The Hungry Snake Woman”) in 1986. Both were from director Putra and starred Suzzanna. The print viewed here was the Greek VHS tape distributed by Joconda Video, which is dubbed into English with burnt-in Greek subtitles. It was also released in India under the title Theendum Mohini and dubbed into Tamil. I'd love to see this one get cleaned-up and remastered because the colorful visuals really suffer on the current muddy VHS print.

★★★

Quatermass Xperiment, The (1955)

... aka: Creeping Unknown, The
... aka: El experimento del Dr. Quatermass (The Dr. Quatermass Experiment)
... aka: L'astronave atomica del dottor Quatermass (The Atomic Spaceship of Dr. Quatermass)
... aka: Le monstre (The Monster)
... aka: Quatermass Experiment, The
... aka: Schock
... aka: Shock!
... aka: Xperiment Q

Directed by:
Val Guest

This is a feature film remake of the 3-hour-long BBC production The Quatermass Experiment (1953), which was broadcast live in 1953 and is now partially lost in its complete form (only the first two 30 minute segments still survive). For this film version, Richard Landau and director Val Guest have compressed the original Nigel Kneale-penned television play into a more compact running time ranging from 78 to 82 minutes depending on the cut. All of the original actors from the TV version were replaced, with American actor Brian Donlevy taking over the central role of Professor Bernard Quatermass from Reginald Tate, who was slated to reprise the role but passed away before filming began. Not only an important genre title content-wise, this is also noteworthy as being one of the few Hammer horror films to precede their breakthrough hit THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957). It was released in the U.S. under the title The Creeping Unknown in 1956, became an international hit and led to numerous other Quatermass tales, starting with the TV miniseries Quatermass II (1957), which itself prompted a theatrical remake that same year (released as Enemy from Space in the U.S.). That was followed by a third miniseries called Quatermass and the Pit (1959), which eventually saw a theatrical version in 1967 (released in the U.S. as FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH in 1968) and brief revivals in both 1979 and 2005.

A rocket crash-lands in a field in the English countryside. Part of a secret project headed over by scientist Quatermass, the ship had been launched "1500 miles into space" and was manned by three astronauts... only one of whom has returned safely. Engineer Victor Carroon (Richard Wordsworth) is that lone survivor and yet it's immediately apparent that something isn't quite right with him. For starters, he's disoriented, sickly and no longer speaks. He's also ice cold to the touch, his fingerprints change completely and his skin slowly begins to look cracked, pale and gray. Further analysis by Dr. Gordon Briscoe (David King-Wood) reveal his heart rate and blood pressure are so off that he *should* be dead. A gelatin-like substance is discovered aboard the crashed space crash that may be the remains of the two missing astronauts and, since a film camera was placed aboard, our heroes at least get a bit of proof that something inscrutable and other-worldly happened. They're just not entirely sure what.

While Quatermass, Lomax (Jack Warner), an inspector who's been assigned the case, and others attempt to get to the bottom of things, Victor is taken to a clinic and put under observation. Not wanting her husband to be some guinea pig, his wife Judith (Margia Dean) hires sleazy private eye Christie (Harold Lang) to pose as an orderly and help bust him out of the clinic. Things don't go off quite as planned and, by the time the authorities get there, there's only a blood-drained corpse and a missing cactus to tell the tale of what really happened. Now free and on the run, Victor continues to mutate into something inhuman, absorbing other life forms (including a zoo full of animals) along the way until he becomes some a large, ever-growing, tentacled, octopus-like blob who finally turns up at the BBC.

Well-directed, written, photographed, paced and acted (for the most part), this was influential not only to 50s sci-fi and horror in general but also the concept of 'body horror;' a subgenre of film where one's body is overtaken by something and goes through horrifying physical mutations as a result. That style of film would begin to become very popular in the mid 70s and continues to be popular to this day. This is one of the earliest films I've seen to attempt that. The makeups and special effects (by Philip Leakey and Les Bowie) I frequently see criticized, but they didn't bother me at all. In fact, I found them quite good for the time, especially considering the main ingredient to create the monster was tripe! This film also marked a turning point for Hammer Pictures, who were struggling to keep afloat by 1955. Without the success of this first Quatermass film prompting the company to focus primarily on horror productions, there may not have been their first Frankenstein film and thus never been a Hammer as we know it today. Enough questionable content made this the first X-rated sci-fi film made in the UK; something the altered spelling "Xperiment" consciously pointed out to audiences as a selling point.

Quatermass creator Kneale had mixed feeling about this version, but most especially disapproved of casting several American actors in lead roles. Though Donlevy claimed to be from Ireland and IMDb states he was born in Ireland, he was actually born in Cleveland, Ohio and the whole Irish thing was something cooked up entirely by his publicist. Either way, the actor doesn't do a bad job at all and his commanding, gruff, hard-edged and somewhat pushy performance is appropriate for the character. Apparently Guest didn't mind his work either because the actor got to reprise this role in the 1957 follow-up. Most everyone seems to agree that the real standout of the film is Wordsworth, the great-great grandson of poet William Wordsworth, who creates a pitiable and sympathetic character with no words and a limited amount of screen time. The character certainly has more than a few things in common with the Frankenstein Monster.

The only flaw in the central casting was Dean, a former Miss California and one-time girlfriend of the president of 20th Century Fox, who was hoisted upon the filmmakers as part of the American co-financing deal. Yes, despite being currently listed most places as being an entirely British production, this was actually co-produced and financed by Americans (Robert L. Lippert's "Regal Films; which was more-or-less a branch of Fox). Guest would later say of Dean: "She was a sweet girl, but she couldn't act." As a result of her inappropriate American accent (and presumed poor performance), all of her dialogue was dubbed over by someone else in post. Unfortunately, whatever actress they chose to dub the role also could not act and didn't even sound British! Regardless, it stands out like a sore thumb in this otherwise professionally-done movie. Also in the supporting cast are Gordon Jackson, Thora Hird, Lionel Jeffries, Marianne Stone, Maurice Kaufmann, Henry B. Longhurst and a young Jane Asher as a little girl whose encounter with the monster works out better for than it did little Marilyn Harris in Frankenstein.

Upon its 1955 release in the UK, this became one of the biggest hits of its year. Here in America, where it was cut down by four minutes and frequently double-billed with THE BLACK SLEEP (1956) by distributor United Artists, it was also a big hit. At one showing, a nine-year-old boy died of a ruptured artery in the lobby after viewing the films, which prompted the Guinness Book of World Records to list this as the only incident of an audience member being "scared to death." A unsuccessful lawsuit by the boy's parents followed. This story ran in a 1956 issue of Variety and very well could have been where William Castle got his idea for the later "death by fright" insurance policy gimmick for MACABRE (1958). After the boy's death, the producers of Black Sleep tastelessly urged theater owners to “Cash in on the Variety Headline Report!” in their press materials.

There have been numerous releases of this film over the years on laserdisc, VHS and DVD (mostly through MGM as part of their "Midnite Movies" line). In 2014, Kino Lorber issued a Blu-ray, which contains a commentary track from director Guest and film historian Marcus Hearn, interviews with the director and John Carpenter (who was clearly very influenced by seeing this film as a boy) and a guide the differences between the cut and uncut versions. 

★★★