Director – Arizal (Trouble Everywhere, American Hunter)
Starring – Barry Prima (Hello Ghost, London Virginia, Eva Arnaz (Please Be Patient!, Forgotten Rules), and W. D. Mochtar (Hell Raiders, Revenge of the Ninja)
Release Date – 1982
Rating – 3/5
Blu Release – 3.5/5
When I started my writing career I was not very knowledgeable about foreign films but some binging of Asian splatter flicks made me realize that I cannot live on just American films alone. Since then I’ve been actively searching for international films released by some of the boutique labels that I support.
A few weeks back my friends over at Mondo Macabro sent over the 1982 Indonesian action horror film Special Silencers. The film, from what I can tell, finished production in 1979 but didn’t release until 1982. I don’t know why but I’m glad it finally found an audience and I’m extremely grateful that MM took the time to release it. It’s a wild action oriented film that has horror elements planted deep in it. I want to take a moment to thank Mondo Macabro for sending this one over.
**Spioler Alert** The film follows an evil man who killed his grandfather, a wise mystic, in order to get his hands on little red pills known as silencers. If you use them correctly and meditate they can turn you into a strong martial arts master. However, using them without the proper training results in a large tree growing out of your torso. When a stranger arrives and discovers that several people have died after a tree has sprouted through them, he sets out to find the cause of it and stop it. **Spoiler Alert**
Like a majority of the Mondo Macabro releases, I knew absolutely nothing about this one prior to reviewing it. The title had me scratching my head but all the artwork I had seen for the film prior to my viewing painted one hell of a film. While the film was not AS wild as the artwork, it was still a lot of fun.
The acting in this one is what you would expect from a low budget regional flick from Indonesia. The cast has several credits to their names and had decades in the entertainment industry but the rushed scenes, poorly written characters, and inexperienced supporting cast made a lot of the scenes feel comical in a way and didn’t really showcase what the cast is capable of.
The story for this one is a lot of fun. While it does feel more like an action oriented drama, it did have some horror elements that worked well especially if you are a fan of martial arts cinema. The characters are not that well written but the scenes and outlandish story more than makes up for it. It holds the viewer’s attention very well and the action is a lot of fun.
Finally, the film has a lot of blood and some fun effects with the tree like thing bursting through the victims like chestbusters from Alien. These effects look great for the film and horror fans will appreciate them. Overall, Special Silencers may not be the bloodiest and goriest Asian horror flick I’ve seen but it was so much fun. The martial arts is enjoyable and the story is absolutely wild. I highly recommend it.
Special Features:
Region Free
HD restored feature supplied by Parkit Films
Extended version of film with a few SD inserts
Indonesian audio with optional Eng subs; English dub
Mondo Macabro episode on Indonesian cinema
Audio commentary by Andrew Leavold
