Art of the Devil 3 (2008) User Reviews

The Price of Black Magic

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 19 August 2011]

The youngster Ta (Namo Tongkumnerd) returns to his hometown, and his aunt Pan (Kalorin Supaluck Neemayothin) and her husband Aod bring him home to meet his grandfather and his great-grandmother. Ta misses his mother Daun (Paweena Chariffsakul) that was poisoned by his father Prawase, and sooner he learns that his family will use black magic to bring her back.

The warlock Dis (Supakorn Kitsuwon) needs the devil of three eyes to control the demons that are eating him due to the excessive use of black magic. He is hired by Ta's grandfather to bring Daun back from the afterlife. He steals the soul of the teacher Panor (Napakpapha Nakprasitte) to use her body to receive Daun's soul through black magic. He gives two instructions to the family: they should bury Panor's fetus and the mirror with her soul in the cemetery and burn Daun's body otherwise lost souls would use it. However, when Aod goes to the cemetery during the night, he is frightened by Panor's soul and he leaves the fetus and the mirror on a tomb and does not bury them. Sooner Dis and Ta's family discover the price of the black magic.

"Long Khong 2" is a good story of black magic and its price but unfortunately with a messy screenplay. This dark film has good performances and special effects but maybe something is lost in the translation. Even the names of the characters are slightly different in the subtitles in Portuguese (Panor is Panoh; Pan is Pen; Daun is Deun). My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Amaldiçoados pelo Demônio" ("Cursed by the Devil")

A Prequel to Art of the Devil 2

[grey1066 · 7/10 · 17 January 2020]

First off let's make it clear that this film is a direct prequel to Art of the Devil 2. It will make no sense whatsoever if you have not seen that film!

With that out of the way, I gave this one a higher score that I normally would. Yes, much like AOTD 2, the bulk is mainly torture , but then if you know anything about this series you should know that going in. Yes there is a strange tattooed villain who contributes almost nothing to the plot and could easily have been left as a breakaway (like the dark magician in part 2).

However, I was surprised that, when all was said and done, this DID explain several questions that I felt were leftover from the second film. Whose corpses were those that the teacher was using for her army of walking dead? Why did she seem to question them so closely as if they were on intimate terms? What happened to Ta's mother? Why did the teacher enter into what seemed such an uneven marriage?

I also liked the motif of the monk serving as a vehicle for both the teacher and Ta working through their karma, although that brings me to one of my main problems with this as a prequel film. Although this is set up to occur one year before the events of AOTD 2, I wish the ending scene (the monk speaking with the souls of the teacher and Ta) could have somehow been after the events of that film.

The message of having to work though and accept the negativity of one's own actions to break the chain of evil consequences is an important one, since part of the "twists" which keep happening in these films is that we are shown that certain characters who began as victims are, earlier and earlier, actually the ones who began using black magic in the first place (indeed, I believe the point has been push as far as possible unless they would like to show us a baby somehow engaging the services of a dark magician!). In other words, as in typical revenge narrative, a character begins as a victim, but then, in the process of revenge, becomes a demon who then inspires feelings of revenge in his or her victims creating a never-ending chain of evil.

The ending scene seemed to imply some remorse and self-awareness on the part of both Ta and the teacher (indeed, I felt Ta came across as a much more likeable character in this film). If all of this occurred BEFORE the horrendous events of AOTD 2, however...well, not much karma was worked out during that year.

So all in all, if you are a fan of this series, don't miss this entry. The central actors are solid and the storyline is in keeping with the previous storylines about revenge, justification, and the nature of how much is too much. Also there's plenty of gore and dead people. Basically a good Art of the Devil film!

you mess with me, I mess with you

[mrdonleone · 7/10 · 27 July 2009]

okay, so I saw Art of the Devil 3, even though I did not see Art of the Devil 1 or 2. so why is it I was a bit fascinated by this scary movie? well, actually because it isn't a scary movie at all. you can state this is a horror movie because it's about satanism or think it's a torture movie because there are a lot of different ways to torture people in this film, but I don't think it's either of them. in my eyes, this is just a modern version of a good old revenge picture with Charles Bronson. so if you see this movie and you are disgusted by the bloody ways that are used to torture victims (are they really victims???) on the most cruel ways, you have to see it on the other side too. like DeNiro said in The Untouchables: you mess with me, I mess with you (or something like that). and isn't that what this picture is all about? it's revenge we see here, even more than horror. so see this movie without disgusting thoughts about the torture devices.

Watch it for the gore, story is meaningless

[amorpurusbg · 7/10 · 5 May 2017]

Bloody, gore, sick, violent torture movie. A classic for it genre.

This movie is not exactly horror in the way most people understand it, neither paranormal and there's no exorcism.

The plot is simple. Nothing deep. Almost no story for me. No backstory and no explanation how everything started and for what reason it is happening. Maybe there is something with first 2 parts, but unfortunately I haven't watched them

Just a bunch of people messing with the wrong ghost(s) for a greater good and the ghost(s) brought terrible vengeance on them afterwards.

The movie is relatively short with nothing happening during the first 1/3, really, nothing. Then everything "escalated quickly". There are sick ways of getting people killed/tortured to death, although some are not so realistic. When a scorpion bites you, you don't explode. *Phisics*. Explicit violence most of the time.

The end was kind of unexpected, like unfinished, cut. Then there was some backstory for the backstory of the movie. The plot twist at the end is great.

The Prequel to Art of the Devil 2

[Uriah43 · 5/10 · 21 August 2021]

This film begins with a violent young man named "Dit" (Supakorn Kitsuwon) torturing an aged practitioner of black magic in order to substantially increase his already formidable powers. Although he fails in that regard, he considers it to be just a temporary setback and decides to continue on his evil quest. The scene then shifts to a hospital where a young woman by the name of "Aajan Panor" (Napakpapha Nakprasitte) is suffering from a mental breakdown and is being cared for by a nurse nameg "Pen" (Carolyn Supaluck Neemayothin). More important to this story, however, is the fact that Panor is pregnant because not long afterward she is kidnapped by some of Pen's colleagues and taken to a house in a remote part of Thailand. It's then revealed that a woman by the name of "Duen" (Paweena Chariffsakul) has died several years earlier and that Panor's unborn fetus is the key to resurrecting her. That said, a special ceremony is then conducted which starts with a high school student named "Ta" (Namo Tongkumnerd)--who happens to be the son of Duen--reading from an ancient script while Dit utilizes his knowledge of black magic to transfer the soul of Duen into the screaming woman before them. It then transpires that, as soon as the fetus is ripped out, Duen's consciousness comes back to life within Panor's body while Panor's soul is simultaneously transferred into the fetus and held into place by a mirror bearing her image. Dit then ties a red string around Duen's wrist which he insists must remain there at all times. Instructions are then given to bury both the mirror and the fetus but, when this not fully carried out, Duen immediately begins having visions of dead people--and the string falls from her wrist. Things take a horrific turn for the worst afterward. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a confusing film due in large part to the overlapping subplots along the way. To that effect, it should be mentioned that this film has absolutely no relevance to the first "Art of the Devil" movie. Instead, it is probably best summed up as a prequel to "Art of the Devil II" as it lays out some extra details and clarifies certain portions of the second film in the process. Beyond that, however, this film is also quite murky with lots of gore and mumbo--jumbo used in place of any real suspense necessary for a horror film of this type. Likewise, even though it had a couple of attractive actresses like Napakpapha Nakprasitte, Carolyn Supaluck Neemayothin and Paweena Chariffsakul, there really wasn't any sexual tension which could have also improved this picture as well. Be that as it may, in spite of some of these missed opportunities, this turned out to be an okay movie for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Average.