Signature Scenes: Borrowed Head In Mystics In Bali

If you’ve ever had a boss or coworker ask “Can I borrow your head for a minute?” around the office, that question will never sound the same to you after watching Mystics In Bali. A cult favorite in Indonesia, it was the first film from that country aimed at a western audience, although they hit that mark rather ironically.

The movie is about Cathy, an American author traveling to Bali to research black magic for a book she’s writing. It had better be one hell of a book, because she meets a bona fide black magic witch, the "Queen of the Leák,” who agrees to take her on as a disciple. Cathy's witch training involves getting a magic mark tattooed on her thigh, and transforming into various shapes ranging from pigs to flying, screaming fireballs. And for payment for these lessons, the Queen demands... well, just watch that clip.

In case it’s not clear, Cathy’s head becomes the witch’s flying familiar, with the internal organs attached because, naturally, the head has to stay alive. She’s sent to suck a baby out of a pregnant woman’s womb to provide blood for the cackling Queen, which makes her younger. The budget production and wild unfettered imagination just makes this scene get crazier by the second. The flying head was a good start, but it’s cruising through the village and knocking into a man hard enough to send him right through a wall (think of the physics of that for a moment). By the time the head visits a woman whom we’ve never seen before and flies down between her legs, we’re more shocked by the implication than what actually happens. It’s this scene that gets the movie talked about by anyone who sees it, but the rest of the film is just as off the wall.

Now, we’re told over and over again that the flying head thing is part of traditional Balinese folklore, and therefore we’re supposed to get over it. That doesn’t make it any less weird. For context, a literal translation out the the King James Holy Bible (try Ezekiel on for starters!) would make a disturbingly odd scene too.

Your humble horror explorer got to review this bonkers Indonesian-exploitation flick for a full review over at 366 Weird Movies. I can tell you this much, this movie floors the crazy pedal and doesn’t let up until the end credits.

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