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Ta lost his
mother several years ago as his father
decided to poison her since he had a crush on a
school teacher named Panor. Now, Ta is all grown
up and together with his family he has decided
to bring back the soul of his dead mother and
put her soul in Panor's body. At first it seems
like it's a success, but it doesn't take long
before Panor's spirit finds her way back into
her body and takes revenge on the ones who hurt her.
This is a complicated story. Not just the story
in the movie but the story behind the titles as
well. See Art Of The Devil 2 and 3 have nothing
to do with the first movie. In Thailand this
third instalment was even called Long Khong 2,
completely ignoring the first movie. I have no
idea why this is but since I've only seen the
second and third movies I don't really care. To
make things even more complicated, this is a
prequel to Art of The Devil 2 (they're treating
this as a cash cow in Thailand, kind of like Saw)
and it's not a simple prequel either. In fact,
it's overly complicated and it's almost impossible
to figure out what's going on for the first 30
minutes or so. This could easily have been avoided
but apparently that wasn't an option.
Art Of The Devil 3 brings back Panor (the killer
from the 2nd movie) and Ta (one of the teens
from the 2nd movie) and tells us why Panor is
so upset with Ta and his friends. See, Ta and
his family transferred Ta's mothers soul into
Panor's body (to make a long story short). BUT,
that's not all, we also have some guy wanting
the black magic that Panor possesses. It's all
a bit too much for my liking and it took way
too long for me to figure out what was going on.
As for the torture scenes - they're just as
gory as in the 2nd movie but they only take place
in the final 20 minutes of the flick.
The basic story here isn't all that bad, it's
actually pretty clever (if a bit far-fetched for
us westerns). It's a classic tale of revenge and
a solid one at that and had they only cleaned it
up a little and made it more coherent this could
have been a winner. Unfortunately the production
felt rushed (it's only 80 minutes long) and you
could easily tell that this was only made with
one purpose - to milk the Long Khong success before
people forgot about it. Still, it's always nice
to see a well-made Thai horror flick with good
production values and I commend them for daring
to do these gorier horror flicks that no other
Asian country dares to do. Art of The Devil 3
may not be the best movie of the year but it's
actually pretty entertaining and lives up to its
predecessor (mind you I wasn't the biggest fan
of Art of The Devil 2 either). Worth checking
out if you liked the 2nd flick.
We get eyes nailed open, guts, a tongue cut off,
gory stabbings and a whole lot more. Gory stuff.
Nothing special.
One of the better prequels that I've seen to date,
but that's not saying much. It does live up to
its predecessor but it's still very forgettable
with its crowded and confusing story. Worth a
rent if you enjoyed the 2nd movie.
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