Necromancer (2005)

The former corrupt police officer and necromancer Itti (Chatchai Plengpanich) escapes from prison using black magic and Lieutenant Santi (Puthichai Amatayakul) is assigned to chase him. Santi feels the supernatural powers of Itti and becomes obsessed to capture him, but realizes that he needs to become a necromancer to face Itti.The premise of "Necromancer" is very interesting – a corrupt police officer that shifts to the dark side and an obstinate lieutenant that finds that only choosing the way of the shadows he will be able to destroy the criminal. However, the chaotic screenplay is completely disconnected and the cinematography is too much dark, making difficult to understand the story. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Necromancer"

Three cops from anti-sorcery department one day find that one of them (Itty) went too far with black magic. Having escaped from high-security prison Itty now looks for revenge being confronted by young police officer (Santi). Will occult powers bring any luck to those with good and bad intentions?What pleased me most about this movie is that creators relied more on imagery, rather than dialogs, surprising me with how little has been spoken having told so lot.As for the imagery itself it was full of style and sometimes stunning (in a way of Re-Cycle and Eye), being well infused with cultural motives (ceremonies, temple sequences) and genuine nuances (lunch scenes, hierarchical relations).I always praise the sense of proportion and Necromancer didn't disappoint me. No excessive gore, and effects were used right to the necessary. In fact, in this aspect it was quite an opposite to the Arts of Devil already mentioned here.In contrary to what have been written here the story wasn't confusing or demanding a deep Asian background, it was even not without some dramatic value (how far one can get with good intentions), and a good thought-provoking twist. Again nothing in common with the Arts of Devil, which was nothing more to me but an exotic Hostel-like slasher.Acting and obviously directing were strong, nothing to complain. Even soundtrack was pleasing all the way with a relevant new-age-like background.Making a decent horror movie about black magic is tricky by definition so I was eager to see the final stand. Surprisingly, although not without some minor reservations Necromancer passed even this test having delivered quite an impressive battle scene and not so easy to guess finale.So, although Necromancer doesn't offer anything new in horror-making and doesn't scare much it nevertheless delivers as a high-quality exotic thriller with some stunning imagery and involving story. It's well worth seeing.

Well… I find this movie a great one. My friend and I enjoy it very much. We watched it twice. The movie revolves around the primitive Khmer ( or the Thai version of Khmer) black magic. It needs some cultural background and concept to understand the use of this magic. The dark art was commonly practiced in Thailand in the past. But those two cops try to learn and use such art in modern days. So the only way they can learn and posses the power of this art is to steal the existing dark-art associated items from others because such art did not get written in any specific manuscript or taught in any school or appeared on any historical sites but secretly passed down from generation to generation. So each family has a limited share of knowledge on this dark art. (Such art starts to be forgotten and less practice in modern-day Thai society.) However, I think foreigners may have some difficulties understanding the story and its tension. Thai people, told by their parents, generally accept the idea that such dark art exists and have common knowledge on some practices shown in the movie. So normally the Thais don't have any difficulties in understanding the context or feeling the intangible fear mounting in the movie. For example, the prison guards know that Itti posses the black magic and get very frightened (because they know what Itti is capable of doing.) I also wonder if any foreigner will understand the scene at a Pan-Yak prayer ceremony and its significant. ( It's the scene when Itti walked up to the monk and put his hand on a boy's head.) The magic buffalo and the nail appeared in the movie are common black magic used for people- killing purpose and every Thai know it by heart. If this movie is going to be viewed internationally, it may need to get a new cut with some introduction on the use of those black magic tricks and its regulation. Also, another cultural notion of the black magic in the movie is normally those who practice such black magic are those who have enemies. They either practice it to protect themselves or hurt others. This kind of black magic has two sides, beneficial or harmful to those who use it. So whoever practices it will need to strictly follow the regulation, like refraining from doing so many common things or eating only some specific kind of food. In the movie, Santi will have to stop eating squash that he likes. So only those who have enemies and must hurt others will sacrifice their normal lives and live by these special rules. They are in a way like 'The Highlanders'. Only the people of their kind can be their equals.I like this movie because it's a cultural specific movie. If you understand the idea or have some cultural background knowledge, you will enjoy the movie. Also, I find it educational on the Thai black magic, which has its origin from ancient Khmer. Few people are practicing it these days. I think more practice of this black art can be found in another two Thai horrors: Art of the Devil (Khon Len Khong ) and Art of the Devil II (Long Khong). Some foreign comments on both movies called the dark art 'voo doo'. It's certainly not the African 'voo doo', of course! Thai has its own black magic. We call it "Khong" - directly translated as the "Thing". "Khon Len Khong" (Art of the Devil) can be directly translated as the "Thing" player ( or The practitioner of the "Thing"). In this movie, the "Thing" player is translated to be the "Necromancer" as the English title. "Long Khong" ( Art of the Devil II) is directly translated as Daring or Challenging the "Thing".

I went to my local DVD rental store and i saw this movie in the list.The description was intriguing. The police hunts a former police officer, able to use dark magic powers, that has escaped from prison in mysterious circumstances. I thought that mixing police and black magic was an unusual but interesting idea. Maybe it could be, but not in this movie.From the first second to the last the movie was a continued and foolish cut and paste of scenes that always seemed disconnected among them. When you expected that someone was going to explain to you what was happening the scene changes radically and you can only feel something like "What the heck is happening now?"The characters are badly introduced to the audience and it's impossible to understand why they are doing what they do. The only interesting character is Itti, the bad guy of the movie, but the attempts of explaining it's past are only confusing as is impossible to understand why he has his powers and why he is using them like that.This is an awful film and I suggest to avoid it if you can!