Art of the Devil (2004) Poster

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5/10
Not Too Bad
missismiggins7 February 2011
Despite certain other "reviews", this movie is NOT Taiwanese, it is Thai, Thailand and Taiwan are a long way apart, certainly in distance if not in culture.

If you expect to see any Thai movies that are based on Western precepts, then you will be decidedly disappointed.

Belief in ghosts, black magic is normal in Thailand, ridiculous scenarios (to us Westerners) seem perfectly logical to Thais.

It is a movie with its faults like many movies, it is not by any means perfect.

But these sort of movies should be viewed with a bit of a different perspective to the multi million Spielberg Hollywood trash, generally, most Thai movies seem to be either slapstick ranting and screaming, whereas once in a while you will find a more reasonable stance, at least you can watch this without cringing.

If you watch these movies, you really need to expect to have all logic turned on its head regarding what you are generally used to.

Not my cup of tea, but better than so many from here.
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6/10
A tasteless, but tedious Thai horror.
BA_Harrison15 August 2008
Fans of unusual Asian horror will no doubt be familiar with the spate of weird and rather unsavoury films that emerged from Hong Kong in the early 80s; titles such as The Devil, Seeding of a Ghost, Centipede Horror, Calamity of Snakes, and Devil Fetus delivered disgusting gore mixed with black magic, and quite often featured a plethora of slimy or creepy critters (bugs, worms, eels, snakes etc.) crawling from corpses or victims' mouths.

Thailand's 2004 horror Art of the Devil, from director Tanit Jitnukul, is very reminiscent of such films: it's a revenge film that sees a woman using magic to torment and kill the family of a man who wronged her. It features some nasty gore, plenty of hokey voodoo rituals (including one that involves the use of a dead baby!), and LOTS of eels, but although it has the occasional good moment, the film is rather tedious overall, not as nasty as I had expected, and is hampered by some mediocre acting.

Jitnukul's direction is slick and the film has a very polished look, but with a narrative that meanders rather aimlessly until the predictable conclusion, plus lots of confusing flashbacks, it's hard to stay interested for the duration. Lead actresses Arisa Wills and Supakson Chaimongkol (as vengeful bitch, Boom) are both easy on the eye, and provide a little incentive to remain focused, but, in the end, Art of the Devil proves to be nothing more than another forgettable horror flick.

5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.
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6/10
Not as Bad as a 4.6 rating
keyser_soze_0831 December 2008
Warning: Spoilers
But only as high as a 6.

First off, I have to say that my copy of the DVD will not play the original Thai audio, so I am stuck with the horrible English overdubs. I kept the subtitles on anyways but had to laugh at how different they were from the spoken lines. Sometimes the dialogue was more detailed and sometimes the subtitles were.

So due to the fact I had to listen to the overdubbed version, I cannot comment on the acting as a whole. Most of the physical acting was decent, with body language and whatnot, but nothing really stood out.

The Story: Pretty decent revenge/black magic story. The woman has an affair with a married man, gets pregnant, wants hush money, gets gang raped by the married mans friends, demands more money, gets bitch slapped around and then wants revenge. You're sort of torn about how you're supposed to feel about the main girl. She's sort of a slut and seems a bit like a gold digger, but she was also cast aside by the baby's daddy and raped by his friends. So you can see why she wants revenge but not to the extent she takes it, which is why she makes a good villain. She's a very pretty girl but can definitely pull off the evil look to her. The story gets a bit confusing at first since a lot happens in such a quick time with little explanation, but picks up a bit more later. She kills one part of the family and then moves on to the other side (It' sort of confusing to explain). You never connect with any of the characters except for Nam (the other main girl), so when a character dies, big deal. The twist (if you can call it that) is a bit weird, but very typical for a horror film. The little albino girl (or maybe she was just Swedish) was a bit creepy which I'm sure was their intentions. What, or who, the albino girl represented can be disputed. I won't go into detail as not to spoil too much.

Now for some of the technical aspects. Some of the graphics were very bad, but I'm guessing this was somewhat a low budget so understandable. The physical graphics as in the gore (spitting up bloody razors, nails coming out of the head, the eels, stabbing, etc) was pretty good, something that if was digitalized, would have made this worse. Some shots were very well done but a lot seemed amateurish.

Now was it entertaining? Yes, it was. Worth a rent if you can deal with cheesy horror films. Just make sure the Thai audio track works, or you may just laugh a lot at the English overdubs (especially the scene where the mother is being haunted by the previous family killed by the girl).

6 out of 10 for being entertaining, with some good gore and a decent story
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5/10
Art of the Devil
Scarecrow-888 April 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Twisted Thai witchcraft flick with an emphasis on using evil to seek revenge and to gain riches. Jittima(..the alluring beauty, Supakson Chaimongkoi) is a lover scorned, a pregnant victim who seduced a wealthy architect, Pratan(Tin Settachoke) who threw money at her to keep her away from his family(..that, while also arranging for her to be ravaged by his business chums). With the help of a secretly practicing witchdoctor, Jittima uses black magic to systematically eliminate Pratan's entire family. When she is hit by a car(..while spellbound at the site of Pratan's family, together as ghostly apparitions looking at her), Jittima loses her child, becoming even more volatile than ever before. Adding extra sting to her torment, another family(..whose mother's children were Pratan's)receives Pratan's luxurious estate and inheritance, with Jittima orchestrating a plan to besiege them, using the dark arts to gain access to the fortune she feels is rightfully hers. By capturing(..literally)the heart of Ruj(Isara Ochakul), Jittima will infiltrate the family, marrying him and progressively use witchcraft to destroy them with her eyes on the prize she's so longed for.

The film focuses on this family's teenage daughter, Nan(Arisa Wills)and the effects on her watching each member falling prey to supernatural forces beyond her control. This is the emotional arch of the film, a family worsening at the hands of a pathological, cold-blooded female with a deadly agenda, gaining trust by those she is in fact exterminating. Interesting enough, the witchdoctor is just as guilty for he willingly participates in performing the rituals which cause such destruction, whose spells cause really horrific acts to innocent people(..many of the acts cause hallucinatory effects which force victims to see created horrors, resulting in certain death). There's no doubt that Jittima(..known as Boom to the family she's annihilating)is pure evil and to watch so closely her own handiwork, the architect of destruction she is, is really what makes the film so chilling. The violence that ensues can get quite disturbing such as the sight of an army of eels smothering Nan's brother Neng(Nirut Sutchart), Ruj's vomiting razor blades, Nan's mom constantly coughing up blood, her insides hemorrhaging, or reporter, Danai(Somchai Satuthum), a threat to the entire concocted scheme, suffering a piece of broken glass crawling underneath his skin, having to slice his body in order to get it out..you see the effects of just how dangerous black magic can be. I think it's the way Jittima carries them out, like a Black Widow slowly poisoning her husbands with arsenic, a cold and calculating series of attacks, that provides the film's most unpleasant tone. The inhumanity of it all, and the whole fact that no one suspects her(..the cynicism of this kind of power, seen earlier when Nan was forced by a friend, a true believer, into visiting a spiritualist, is established)is what drives the story, culminating in a showdown between Nan and Jittima, with Danai, a believer in the forces of good and evil, lending a helping hand, trying to uncover the one responsible for causing the black magic. One unnecessary decision, which mars the film, is the bouncing back and forth, to past and present, as Jittima discusses her reasons for what has transpired to a bound and distraught Nan. With more focus on linear story-telling, this could've been less aggravating. Still, the film shows the genesis of the monster that would become Boom until the very confusing climax when Jittima makes a very odd decision regarding her own fate, in turn shattering all that she has strived for. Another really bizarre sub-plot has this mysterious ghost girl hanging around Nan's kid brother..this ghost child is connected with Jittima, and it's quite a revelation, to say the least.
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4/10
A weak, late entry in the fading Asian horror scene
mw_director20 January 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This is the story of a young woman seduced and then dumped by her older, married lover after she gets pregnant; she avenges herself against him, and his entire family, through black magic — which, disappointingly, she doesn't do herself but has someone else do for her. Good production values for a Thai horror flick. But the bland script never generates suspense, the director approaches the material entirely conventionally, and the final act loses viewer sympathy for the victims by throwing logic to the winds. At one point, a character has a prime opportunity to simply shoot the villainess dead, and instead she gets up and runs away without picking up the gun. Bad writing — you're soaking in it!

Some icky gore effects, including a really tasteless late-term-fetus corpse and one guy dying from having hundreds of live eels burst out of his stomach. Only recommended for genre completists who simply have to see every horror film produced in Asia in the last 15 years.
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4/10
A Woman Betrayed and Seeking Vengeance
Uriah437 August 2021
This film essentially begins with a young woman by the name of "Boom" (Supakson Chaimongkol) having an affair with a rich businessman and accidentally getting pregnant during this time. Realizing that he is extremely wealthy, she goes to him and demands a large amount of money--which he immediately pays. Having done that, however, he then has her gang-raped by several associates just for spite. So, after recovering from this horrific event, she subsequently demands more money--but this time she is beaten up for her efforts. Completely enraged, she seeks out a practitioner in black magic who casts an evil spell on all of those who raped her--to include the businessman's entire family as well. Sure enough, not long afterward, all of these people die in such an extremely gruesome manner that it catches the attention of a journalist named "Danai" (Somchai Satuthum) who immediately begins to investigate these incidences under the suspicion that black magic is somehow involved. Meanwhile, thinking that her unborn child is now the only heir to a fortune, Boom is shocked to learn of a court settlement granting the businessman's estate to his former common law wife "Kamala" (Krongthong Ratchatawan) and her children instead. Quite livid at this new development, she quickly devises a plan to ingratiate herself with this family while at the same time employing the same black magic specialist to destroy them in the process. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film turned out to be a rather standard Thai horror film which suffered somewhat from a lack of character development and an overabundance of repetitive death scenes. That being said, while this wasn't necessarily a bad film by any means, it could have used some improvement and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.
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7/10
Decent Thai Splatter...
EVOL6665 March 2006
Warning: Spoilers
It seems that Thailand is trying to jump head-first into the horror scene that has long been dominated in Asia by the Japanese. They have a long way to go to surpass some of the more notable "underground" horror films from Japan - but with some solid entries, and some more interesting looking films on the way - the Thai's may yet make their mark on Asia's horror scene...

ART OF THE DEVIL is about a girl who gets pregnant by a rich businessman and then blackmails him for money after he offers to pay her off to keep quiet about the child. When he refuses to pay up any longer, the girl seeks the help of a sorcerer to seek revenge on the businessman and his family...

Very reminiscent of some of the early 80's HK gore films in terms of black-magic subject matter, and eel-puking revenge - ART OF THE DEVIL isn't exactly a unique film. Hong Kong directors have been making these types of films since the early 80's, but ART OF THE DEVIL does it with better production values and with a more coherent and interesting storyline. I was supremely disappointed that there was no nudity in this film, as some of the leading ladies were quite smokin'...but overall, ART OF THE DEVIL is a worthy entry in the Asian horror realm. 7/10
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4/10
I WANT EVERYTHING
nogodnomasters11 April 2019
Warning: Spoilers
This is the Thai version of "I Spit on Your Grave." A woman goes after a rich man only to find herself pregnant. She blackmails him for money, which he freely pays, but then forces her to have sex with his friends...all at once. She uses magic to enact her revenge against them and the heirs of the estate of the rich man.

The present was filmed in black and white while flashbacks were in color until they came together. The story was rather bland. Sexy scenes involved close ups of sweaty skin and rice. Yum.

Parental Guide: No f-bombs. Brief sex. Implied rape. No nudity.
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7/10
Surprisingly gruesome Thai occult horror.
HumanoidOfFlesh13 July 2005
"Art of the Devil" is Thanit Jitnukul's first stab at horror which tells the story about one family's disaster after the father's mistress uses black magic to get revenge against him.The back of my VCD says:a mysterious and bizarre murder of a millionaire's entire family grips the attention of the public.Not a clue is uncovered; not a person can be fingered as the killer.The mysterious and gruesome deaths baffle everyone.A crime reporter goes to investigate the case, which leads to a beautiful lady.How can he convince others that she is the mistress of the occult,a witch who is skilled in the art of the devil."Art of the Devil" offers some gruesome effects including eels vomiting and bloody regurgitation.The acting is mediocre,but the film is quite interesting.Still there is not enough tension for my liking,but if you like horror films which deal with black magic you can give it a try.7 out of 10.
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Payback Is A... Witch...
azathothpwiggins26 October 2020
In ART OF THE DEVIL, a woman uses black magic to destroy her ex-lover and his family, after he abuses and humiliates her.

This is an underrated, supernatural revenge film from Thailand. It uses religion, superstition, and human frailty to tell its story of betrayal and a family curse. Some of the death sequences are unforgettable, like the vomiting of razor blades, and a hospital room floor covered in blood and eels! Very effective, but not for the fainthearted!...
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4/10
Overlong Thai black magic horror
Leofwine_draca21 July 2015
This is the Thai answer to all those black magic horror films made in Hong Kong during the 1970s and '80s. The plot is virtually the same, involving a jilted lover and her efforts to punish the man who abandoned her by resorting to black magic (the same plot was used in 1981's BEWITCHED). However, while those films have gone down as gruesome classics of horror cinema, ART OF THE DEVIL is a somewhat lacklustre retelling of the same story.

The problems lie in the technical details. This is a poorly edited film and the director doesn't seem to want to make the events that play out very clear. It's also overlong, with the second half of the movie introducing an unbelievable plot twist as the villainess goes after more innocent folk – this time her lover's ex-wife! It's little more than an excuse for more gruesome deaths but the novelty quickly wears off.

The cast isn't particularly good for a film of this calibre. There's plenty of overacting – especially from the villainess - and little subtlety, aside from the actor playing the investigative reporter. There ARE some good gruesome bits, one involving the old joke with a victim having an evil presence under his skin, and his efforts to cut it out. Of course there are also moments of bad taste, as is the norm for this genre of production. A guy vomits up eels in one unpleasant scene while the nastiest bit involves the rotting corpse of a baby being used in a ritual. Such moments come few and far between however, and this is a case of style over substance. In the end it's a disappointment, feeling like a half-hearted attempt to emulate the classics of old.
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7/10
Solid Thriller with Some Great Practical Effects
timothygartin22 September 2019
I liked this movie. It is not as good as Art of the Devil 2 in my opinion, but, actually, the two movies don't have much to do with one another anyway. The acting was really good in this one although some of the voiceover choices in English are not effective.

The story has been done before. It is a standard movie of greed and revenge. This movie does this story well and the practical effects are really good. I liked how the director made use of angles and cut-aways to use the gore effects more effectively.

I recommend this one.
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5/10
Los Dedos Torcidos del Diablo
joanamolko16 May 2009
This film trilogy now known as "The Art of devil "is really like in Mexico, the first film in countries Latin America and Mexico this film is known as "The Fingers Twists of the Devil, "the second movie as" The Art of the Devil "and I must say that is my favorite! Then I read "The Art of the Devil 2" As you heard the first: 'The crooked finger of the devil " has nothing to do with the second "Art of the Devil" and the last 2: "The Art of the Devil" and "The Art of the Devil 2" if the second supplement is the first sequel for all those who have not seen the movies that invite you to visit the following Spanish page: http://joanamolko.spaces.live.com in the movies section
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