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“Special Silencers” (1982 (?), Mondo Macabro) Career Indonesian heel W.D. Mochtar is again up to no good in this delirious Indonesia action/horror hybrid. Here, Mochtar’s ends are relatively modest (take over a small village), but the means by which he chooses to accomplish it are, to put it mildly, outlandish: he dispatches the current village headman (Darussalam) with tiny red pills – the “special silencers” of the title – which, when consumed, cause a full-grown tree to erupt from the victim’s body, with the expected showers of gore. Indonesian action star Barry Prima and one-time off-screen spouse Eva Arnaz are the high-kicking heroes who oppose him. Cult movie-minded viewers looking for a deeper, weirder flex are advised to explore Indonesian exploitation titles like “Special Silencers” and others carried by Mondo Macabro; their unique cinematic space – a world where black magic co-exists with dudes in feather cuts and flare jeans, where stinky shoes are a lethal weapon, and where the threadbare and the exotic combine to create something wholly alien and familiar at the same time – provides the sort of intoxicating disorientation available from only the most outre movie experiences. Mondo’s Blu-ray for “Special Silencers” – the first ever legal Western video release – features both the Indonesian theatrical cut and a longer version with deleted scenes culled from a Dutch VHS source; commentary by Filipino exploitation expert Andrew Leavold and a 25-minute featurette on Indonesian fantasy/horror films rounds out this mind-expanding disc. Continue reading