Another for the too-stupid-to-be-ignored category, an Indonesian horror fest from 1988 that will make very little sense to non-Southeast Asian viewers. Taken purely as a gross-out spectacle, however, BISIKAH ARWAH (WHIPSERING SOUL) ranks pretty high, with a monster tongue, horrific transformations, bug eating, Kung Fu fighting and lots of excess insanity.
To wit: A snake chaser named Iwan (Yoseph Hungan) finds himself in a subterranean realm, where a snake creature that is in fact the reincarnation of a deceased man named Parda causes Iwan to morph into a gross, scaly monstrosity. As such he becomes a Kung Fu expert and attacks a nearby couple by strangling the man with an impossibly long forked tongue, while the woman, one Eka Puteri (Puteri Salbiah), escapes the critter’s clutches—but not for long.
Flashbacks reveal that the pre-snake-ified Parda was none-too-secretly in love with Eka, and summoned a snake queen to make Eka fall in love with him. The Queen followed through, forcing Parda to eat a bowl of maggots in preparation, but cautioned him not to get too close to Eka, because “that makes me sad.” Parda managed to seduce Eka, but in so doing upset the snake queen, who during the tryst caused him to transform into the scaly monster seen earlier. Eka ran out of the house and informed passerby of what occurred, leading to Parda getting beaten to death by an angry mob and thrown into a sewar, where he became the monster seen at the beginning—and the narrative is brought full circle.
Can the Parda-possessed Iwan be defeated? Will Parda’s corpse receive a proper burial and so be put to rest? Will Iwan’s sexy wife Mira (Nina Karina) ever learn what has become of her husband? Frankly I don’t have a firm answer to any of those questions, and I’ve viewed the film twice.
Yes, BISIKAN ARWAH is difficult to follow, as it’s steeped in Southeast Asian folklore (albeit with a Satanic invocation that got the film banned in at least one country), in addition to the fact that narrative clarity evidently interested the filmmakers very little. The film is, in short, below average in the category of Southeast Asian horror cinema, being poorly paced and indifferently plotted.
By Western moviemaking standards, however, BISIKAN ARWAH seems novel and interesting. The gaudily lit imagery is far from slick (with sub Rob Bottin-esque transformation effects that are almost good, although the monster make-up is horrendous), but the pic has a kaleidoscopic strangeness that a western filmmaker would have a hard time matching.
Vital Statistics
BISIKAN ARWAH (WHISPERING SOUL)
Kanta Indah Film PT
Director/Screenplay: Jopi Burnama
Cinematography: Djarot Bintoro
Editing: Ermis Thaher
Cast: Nina Karina, Latif Ibrahim, Puteri Salbiah, Rachmat Hidayat, Pietra Jaya Burnama, Yoseph Hungan, Mr. Oss, Hussein Abu Hassan, Toni Yusuf, Benni Burnama, Stevi Jhon Tutupoho, Yoes Tarpase, Tanase, Lucky, Oman Rochman, Denni. Rh, Sita Devil Haryram, Babay Sutara, Harry Irawan, Lina Malesy