SPECIAL SILENCERS (1982) (Mondo Macabro Blu-ray Review).

SPECIAL SILENCERS (1982)

Label: Mondo Macabro 

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 86 Minutes 38 Seconds 

Audio: English or Indonesian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Arizal
Cast: Barry Prima, Eva Arnaz, W.D. Mochtar, Dicky Zulkarnaen

In this Indonesian mind-melter directed by Arizal (Final Score) crooked politician Gumilar (W.D. Mochtar, Mystics in Bali) sets out to eliminate any and all competition in his village, beginning with the town's mayor. To do that he uses a personal stash of “special silencers” which he killed his own monk grandfather to acquire – they are small red pills that are used to enhance meditative states, however, when ingested with food or drink they erupt inside the victim’s stomach, all of which happens in a matter of seconds, sending the victim into excruciating pain while blood-covered branches emerge from their guts! 

With the Mayor out of the way he is left to contend with his son, a powerful cop, and his ass-kicking daughter Julia (Eva Arnaz, Deadly Angels Strike Back). Surprisingly the cop is easy enough to deal with, some thugs are hired to taint his picnic meal with the lethal red pills, and soon enough he's writhing on the ground with a dang tree bursting from his stomach like the chest-burster alien from Alien! That leaves the cop's daughter Julia and her newfound friend Hendra (Barry Prima, The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman) to contend with, both of whom prove to be quite resilient and able to deliver some whoop-ass kung-fu on the crooked politician and his murderous thugs, alongside Eva's brother Dayat. 

It's a ridiculously action packed flick that is utterly ridiculous, what you see here will boggle your mind and tickle your funny bone as only an early 80's Indonesian martial arts flick can. At one point Gumilar, who has used the red pills to develop impenetrable skin and immortality, has his leg sliced off at the knee, he just picks up his severed limb and snaps it back into place like a lego and gets back to business. The scenes of the red pills taking effect are fairly gruesome with some gnarly gore and blood gags that I thought were pretty dang effective, we get A LOT of blood here, so the gorehounds should be delighted. Not all the action is top-notch, we get a half-ass tree-fall trap, a torture scene that involves making Eva my making her get a whiff of some stinky shoes before throwing rats on her, and Gumilar's afro'd henchman dropping snakes on unsuspecting villagers from high up in a tree while manically cackling. It's not great action but it is silly as shit and never dull to watch, not even for a minute.  

The main cast does well enough, with Prima doing his best shirtless Bruce Lee impressions, but it's W.D. Mochtar as the exaggeratedly corrupt politician Gumilar who steals the show, he's completely over-the-top in a most ridiculous sort of way, demanding extortion money from the locals and raping a fisherman's daughter when he's late on making a payment - that's a Hell of late fee!, That scene ends with the despondent girl killing herself with a samurai sword accompanied by a geyser of blood!  

Special Silencers is wacky Indonesian martial arts schlock of the highest order, chock full of kung fu insanity, geysers of gore, and bucketloads of rib-tickling unintentional humor, which all combines into such as entertaining slurry or jaw-dropping ultimate ridiculousness - easily my favorite MM release this year, easily.    

Audio/Video: Special Silencers (1982) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro in 1080p HD widescreen (2.35:1), supplied  by Parkit Films from the only known existing HD masters, presented here for the first-time ever in it's intended aspect ratio. Is it HD perfection? Nope. The source is in decent shape and blemishes are sparse, but there is a yellow patina to it and it's washed out in spots and some staining as well. That said, the colors are quite vibrant throughout, and even with source limitation this is quite an exciting watch in HD. Audio comes by way of both Indonesian and English-dub options in uncompressed DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono with optional English subtitles.  I give the edge to the English track, both seem dubbed to me, and dialogue comes through well and is never difficult to discern, and the at time goofy synth score by Gatot Sudarto enhances the flick quite a bit, especially combined with the silly English dub, it's quite a treat.  

Extras on this set includes an Audio commentary from Andrew Leavold, the The Filipino film expert who directed the The Search for Weng Weng (2007) doc. It's a knowledgeable and fun track as he dissects the films, giving background to the cast and crew, and plenty more. We also get a 90-min Extended Version of the film with Dutch VHS Inserts cropped to 4:3; the 25-min Fantasy Films from Indonesia: Mondo Macabro episode on Indonesian cinema (2001) which I am pretty sure has shown up on previous MM release, plus 4-min of Deleted Scenes and the alternate 3-min English Credits Sequence. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork. 

Special Features:
- HD restored feature supplied by Parkit Films.
- Extended version with VHS  Inserts (90:09) 
- Fantasy Films from Indonesia: Mondo Macabro episode on Indonesian cinema (2001) (25:07) 

- Deleted Scenes (4:28) 

- English Credits 
- Audio commentary from Andrew Leavold