Main cast: Carissa Perusset (Angel), Lulu Tobing (Vivian), Anjasmara (Burhan), Happy Salma (Mbah Sumi), Donny Damara (Aki Kholil), Abidzar Al Ghifari (Leo), Elang El Gibran (Roy), Fergie Brittany (Mayang), and Ara Ajisiwi (Lena)
Director: Razka Robby Ertanto

Guna guna istri muda, which means something like “Black Magic from the Second Wife” in Bahasa Indonesia, is a remake of the 1977 movie of the same name.

I haven’t watched the original version, so I can’t tell whether there had been any changes to the story line. I can tell, however, that they have updated the 1970s pornstache and tacky fashion of the original to something more present day-ish, which isn’t a bad thing if one has seen the stills from the original film like I had.

First off, this movie is very convoluted to an unnecessary degree, so stay with me as I give the plot synopsis.

Angel, the second wife in the title, is an ambitious lady that wants to marry a rich bloke as she doesn’t want to be poor for the rest of her life. She has a boyfriend, Leo, but she is also sleeping with a much richer older guy, Burhan. 

Burhan is already married but Muslim law allows a man to have more than one wife so long as he can afford to, he can be fair to all the wives, and his existing wives consent to him marrying another woman. His wife, Vivian, has finally relented, so Burhan happily tells Angel that they can now wed and as a bonus, he’d install her a separate house so that she won’t have to deal with Vivian and their kid. 

Angel dumps Leo, who doesn’t take it well and proceeds to assault her. She manages to injure him and flees, but ah, Leo’s aunt is the powerful witch Mbah Sumi. She advises him on how to cast a black magic spell on Angel, but Angel and her friends catch him at it, beat the crap out him, and then hold him prisoner so that Angel can blackmail Mbah Sumi to be her personal witch so that she can be rid of Vivian and her kid in order to get her hands on Burhan’s money after the man dies… of an accident, of course.

Seriously, given how Angel and her friends are so good at assault and kidnap, I’d think it’d be less convoluted for them to rob a bank or kidnap Burhan’s kid for ransom, but I suppose being an evil floozy is more fun.

At any rate, with a witch at her beck and call, Angel proceeds to eliminate all in her way to Burhan’s money. She also develops the hots for Roy, Vivian’s cousin, and when he rebuffs her advances, she has a love potion whipped up to get him to take off his pants and wag it at her.

All of these are pretty standard black magic movie tropes, but it is so messy. Angel does so many unnecessary things like bewitching Roy and shacking up with Leo that her antics feel more like a prerequisite for wacky plot developments than an organic part of her character. The subplot about Leo perhaps I can say is necessary to get Angel in contact with Mbah Sumi, but still, what’s to stop Angel from just being a walk-in client?

However, the Roy thing is absolutely unnecessary, as it’s not like the movie takes this as an excuse to add sex scenes. This is an Indonesian movie, so one just has to be content with kisses and people in bed with sheets up to their armpits. 

Also, the movie forgets that it is a horror film and becomes an increasingly deranged movie that culminates with the all-knowing Muslim prayer man—a necessary trope in these movies—and Mbah Sumi having a showdown that sees them throwing electricity at one another and wait, she now summoning zombies as well. The whole thing is saved by how unintentionally hilarious the bad special effects and make-ups are, although I’m still not sure whether the climax of a horror film making me laugh out loud is technically a good thing.

Still, I suppose I’ve had a laugh, and that counts.

Oh, and as expected, this movie allows all the horny, slimy guys and even the rapists off the hook because, you know, they can’t help it when the woman is so sexy or something like that. Vivian loves Burhan unconditionally when he’s an adulterer and slimeball, and this is supposed to represent what a virtuous woman she is compared to Angel. Even Leo gets off the hook. This movie is all about punishing Angel and only Angel. This is a very Asian movie thing, however, so I can’t say that I’m shocked by the underlying misogyny of the movie… just disappointed.

Anyway, as I’ve said, this movie is a mess, but it can be a comical mess due to how its absurd plot twists and terrible special effects make such adorable contrast with how it is so serious about everything. It’s worth a look, especially to gawk at how terrible a scene of a man turning into a… pig or bear or whatever—the bad CGI makes it so hard to tell—that the movie is so proud of, heh. Just don’t take it seriously and who knows, it may end up being a comedic guilty pleasure.