Main cast: Jennis Oprasert (Pleng Piapit), Mark Siwat Jumlongkul (Boy Chayanon), and Noon Pitchatorn Santinatornkul (Jinnie)
Director: Putipong Saisikaew

I have a soft spot for Thai horror films that have a black magic theme. There’s nothing like seeing some poor fellow puke out centipedes while snakes erupt from the skin of his back thanks to some creepy old witch doctor in a hut somewhere muttering some incantations over some personal possession of the victim.

Of course, these days, Asian horror is all about long-haired women, with way too much white make-up slathered on their faces, popping up behind the victim, usually at one corner of the screen, so sigh, let’s pour one to the bygone glory days of hooked nails painfully falling out of one’s privates.

In Vengeful Spell, the black magic is simple.

One, write the person’s name at the sole of your foot while muttering the magic words. What’s “klaatu verata nektu” in Thai again?

Two, stamp the foot that has the person’s name.

Three, jump gleefully when the victim dies a gory death.

Pleng discovers the “box of curses” that had been stashed away at the storeroom of her school, and it calls to her, teaching her the incantation necessary to get the curse to work. She naturally uses this to gleefully send the girl whom her ex dumped her for to her death.

Honestly, I think that girl that dies early on in this episode isn’t long for this world anyway. She uses her phone not to call the cops or anyone else for help. Rather, she makes a video of her screaming for help and uploading it on whatever social media these dumb kids use these days.

What can I say? She’s going to meet her demise sooner or later anyway, and at least she goes out in a flaming of Darwinian glory.

Anyway, Pleng now moves on to Boy. Don’t ask, it’s a Thai thing. All seems well with Boy, and she is going to move past second base with him, oh glory glory… until some girl calling herself Boy’s real girlfriend harasses her in school one fine day and tells Pleng to stay away from her man, er, boy.

Ho, ho, guess whose name is going to grace Pleng’s sole next!

Of course, in grand tradition of such stories, the protagonist that uses black magic always meets a bad end, and here, Pleng gets hers in a beautiful show of body horror that has me approving completely.

An occasional practical effect looks silly, but on the whole, the death scenes here are pretty awesome in their gory goop glory, definitely good enough to compensate for the weak sauce story, average performances from the cast, and predictable twist. Maybe that’s the point. Who cares about the story, after all, as long as it serves up some awesome kills?

In many ways, this episode is a nice blend of old school and modern day Thai horror. Sure, it has the obligatory creepy long-haired girl thing, but the horror scenes have a lovely tinge of old school with a nice balance of practical and occasional CGI effects.

All in all, this one works in many ways like a charm.