Suzzanna: Empress of Darkness – Severin Films (Blu-ray)
Theatrical Release Dates: Indonesia, 1991 (Pact with the Forces of Darkness), Indonesia, 1988 (White Crocodile Queen, Malam Satu Suro), Indonesia, 1986 (Kliwon Friday Night), Indonesia, 2008 (Ghost Ambulance)
Directors: Sisworo Gautama Putra (Pact with the Forces of Darkness, Malam Satu Suro, Kliwon Friday Night), H. Tjut Djalil (White Crocodile Queen), Nayato Fio Nuala (Ghost Ambulance)
Cast: Suzzanna (All Films), Elly Ermawati, Piet Pagau, Yenny Farida, Clift Sangra, Soendjoto Adibroto (Pact with the Forces of Darkness), Soendjoto Adibroto, Vera Magdalena, Ruth Pelupessy (White Crocodile Queen), Fendy Pradana, Nurnaningsih, Soendjoto Adibroto, Johny Matakena, Karsiman Gada (Malam Satu Suro), Alan Nuary, Bokir (Kliwon Friday Night), William Alvin, Dimaz Andrean, Fitri Ayu, Gianina Emanuela, Ratna Galih, Clift Sangra (Ghost Ambulance)
Release Date: May 12th, 2026
Approximate Running Times: 85 Minutes 25 Seconds (Pact with the Forces of Darkness), 98 Minutes 16 Seconds (White Crocodile Queen), 83 Minutes 55 Seconds (Malam Satu Suro), 88 Minutes 20 Seconds (Kliwon Friday Night), 88 Minutes 16 Seconds (Ghost Ambulance), 87 Minutes 52 Seconds (Suzzanna: The Queen of Black Magic)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC (Pact with the Forces of Darkness, White Crocodile Queen, Malam Satu Suro, Kliwon Friday Night), 1.78:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC (Suzzanna: The Queen of Black Magic), 1.78:1 Widescreen / 1080 Interlaced / MPEG-4 AVC (Ghost Ambulance)
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Indonesian (All Films Except Suzzanna: The Queen of Black Magic), DTS-HD Stereo Indonesian (Suzzanna: The Queen of Black Magic)
Subtitles: English (All Films)
Region Coding: Region A (All Films Except Suzzanna: The Queen of Black Magic), Region Free (Suzzanna: The Queen of Black Magic)
Retail Price: $79.95
"The Queen of Indonesian horror” (Collider) stars in two classic films from the latter part of her legendary career featuring three of her most provocative performances of all: Suzzanna has the time of her life as a woman who returns from the dead – complete with eye-popping special effects and Freddy Krueger-style razor glove – to avenge her family’s massacre in PACT WITH THE FORCES OF DARKNESS from writer/director Sisworo Gautama Putra (SATAN’S SLAVE, MALAM SATU SURO). In WHITE CROCODILE QUEEN, directed by H. Tjut Djalil (MYSTICS IN BALI, LADY TERMINATOR), Suzzanna triumphs in a dual role as a malevolent reptile empress who possesses the body of her sexually uninhibited twin sister to unleash savage retribution on the men who murdered their parents.
In her most iconic role of all, “Indonesia’s greatest scream queen” (Whitlock & Pope) stars as folkloric ghoul Sundelbolong – literally ‘ghost with hole’, the vengeful spirit of a rape victim whose long black hair hides the maggot-infested opening in her back through which her baby was born – in these two classic ‘80s shockers: In MALAM SATU SORO, Suzzanna brings supernatural carnage to the big city when a violent kidnapping unlocks Sundelbolong’s maternal fury. In KLIWON FRIDAY NIGHT, Suzzanna is an agoraphobic author whose haunting by Sundelbolong triggers a nightmare of dark secrets and demonic mayhem.
She starred in 42 movies and is still hailed as ‘The Queen of Indonesian Horror’. But who was Suzanna Martha Frederika van Osch, beloved by the Asian world as Suzzanna yet virtually unknown outside it? In this “stellar” (Hi-Def Digest) Severin Films documentary from director David Gregory (ENTER THE CLONES OF BRUCE, BLOOD & FLESH: THE REEL LIFE & GHASTLY DEATH OF AL ADAMSON), discover the enigmatic horror star best known for portraying vengeful spirits from Indonesian folklore, demons whose supernatural retribution are widely believed to have influenced her controversial life and mysterious death. Through exclusive interviews with family, colleagues, filmmakers and historians, as well as “gloriously over-the-top” (Gizmodo) clips from her classic films, Gregory unearths the legacy of “Indonesia’s eternal queen of darkness” (Vice), complete with over 3 hours of revealing Special Features that include Suzzanna’s final film, GHOST AMBULANCE." - synopsis provided by the distributor
Video: 4/5 (Pact with the Forces of Darkness, White Crocodile Queen, Malam Satu Suro, Kliwon Friday Night), 1/5 (Ghost Ambulance)
Here’s the information provided about the transfers, "Pact with the Forces of Darkness, White Crocodile Queen, Malam Satu Suro, and Kliwon Friday Night are now scanned in 2K from their original camera negatives in English-friendly versions for the first time ever in America.
The following presentation of Ghost Ambulance is sourced from the producer's only usable file of the feature, as the original master is apparently lost.
While it suffers from baked-in interlacing and other digital abnormalities, it is the best possible version available of Suzzanna's final film."
Pact with the Forces of Darkness and White Crocodile Queen come on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.
Disc Size: 44.9 GB
Feature: 20.6 GB (Pact with the Forces of Darkness), 23.7 GB (White Crocodile Queen)
Malam Satu Suro and Kliwon Friday Night come on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.
Disc Size: 43.5 GB
Feature: 20.3 GB (Malam Satu Suro), 21.3 GB (Kliwon Friday Night)
Suzzanna: The Queen of Black Magic and Ghost Ambulance come on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.
Disc Size: 45.7 GB
Feature: 19.5 GB (Suzzanna: The Queen of Black Magic), 20.7 GB (Ghost Ambulance)
Pact with the Forces of Darkness, White Crocodile Queen, Malam Satu Suro, and Kliwon Friday Night is on par with the best-looking transfers for Indonesian films that have been released in North America on Blu-ray. Flesh tones and colors look correct, image clarity is strong, black levels fare well, and there are no issues with compression or digital noise reduction. That said, Ghost Ambulance looks considerably worse; the image is interlaced and digitized.
Audio: 3.75/5 (All Audio Tracks)
Pact with the Forces of Darkness, White Crocodile Queen, Malam Satu Suro, Kliwon Friday Night, and Ghost Ambulance each come with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in Indonesian with removable English subtitles. While all tracks sound clear and balanced, they are limited range-wise.
Extras:
There are no extras on the disc with Pact with the Forces of Darkness and White Crocodile Queen.
Extras on the disc with Malam Satu Suro and Kliwon Friday Night include Hantu Retribution: Female Ghosts Of The Malay Archipelago—an interview with filmmaker Katrina Irawati Graham and Dr. Rosalind Galt, author of Alluring Monsters: The Pontianak and Cinemas of Decolonization (28 minutes 43 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles).
Extras for Suzzanna: The Queen of Black Magic include a trailer (2 minutes 35 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English and Indonesian with non-removable English subtitles), David Gregory’s introduction at the Jakarta Film Week Screening, October 2024 (3 minutes 10 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), and a conversation with director/co-producer David Gregory and co-producer Ekky Imanjaya (18 minutes 55 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles).
Extras for Ghost Ambulance include a trailer (1 minute 57 seconds, Dolby Digital mono Indonesian with removable English subtitles), promo clips (24 minutes 5 seconds, Dolby Digital mono Indonesian with removable English subtitles), a Ghost Ambulance Silet interview with Suzzanna and Clift Sangra (14 minutes 50 seconds, Dolby Digital mono Indonesian with removable English subtitles), ShowBiz on Location interviews with the cast and crew (20 minutes 35 seconds, Dolby Digital mono Indonesian with removable English subtitles), and an archival featurette titled The Making of Ghost Ambulance (28 minutes 33 seconds, Dolby Digital mono Indonesian with removable English subtitles).
Summary:
Suzzanna: The Queen of Black Magic is an exemplary documentary about the life and career of Indonesian actress Suzzanna. Not only does it feature comments from Suzzanna via archival interviews, it provides a well-rounded overview of her from those who knew and worked with her. While most will be drawn to the discussion of the films she appeared in, the strength of the documentary is her personal life and the tragedies she experienced, notably the death of her son. Ultimately, Suzzanna: The Queen of Black Magic is a must-see documentary for fans of Indonesian cinema.
Sisworo Gautama Putra directed Pact with the Forces of Darkness, Malam Satu Suro, and Kliwon Friday Night. He’s most known for Primitives, Satan’s Slave, The Warrior, Sundelbolong, Srigala, Santet, and Santet 2.
H. Tjut Djalil directed White Crocodile Queen. He’s most known for Mystics of Bali and Lady Terminator.
Pact with the Forces of Darkness: A greedy businessman murders his rival and his family. The dead rival's wife returns as a vengeful ghost that avenges their deaths.
White Crocodile Queen: A curse is put on a man who steals an amulet that subdues crocodiles.
Malam Satu Suro: A vengeful ghost is given a second chance to live a normal life. Her happiness is short-lived when men change her back to a vengeful ghost and kill her child.
Kliwon Friday Night: An author questions her sanity after moving into an old house inhabited by a vengeful ghost.
There is a lot of overlap between Pact with the Forces of Darkness, White Crocodile Queen, Malam Satu Suro, and Kliwon Friday Night. Commonalties they share are characters driven by greed, curses, and vengeful ghosts. Another commonality is that all of these stories begin with opening setups that capture the audience's attention. A man and his family are murdered in Pact with the Forces of Darkness, a woman dies in childbirth in the White Crocodile Queen, a man summons a vengeful spirit and gives her life in Malam Satu Suro, and a child bursts out of its mother's back in Kliwon Friday Night.
All of these films are a mix of supernatural horror and exploitation, and some have martial arts thrown into the mix. When it comes to carnage, these moments are gory and at times jaw-dropping. While their use of practical special effects mostly works, there are times when the effects call attention to themselves like people in crocodile rubber suits. All of the narratives, except for Malam Satu Suro, move briskly, while that film feels padded and at times momentum drags. Of course, the main draw of these films is Suzzanna, who always outshines the rest of the cast.
Ghost Ambulance: A pact with a malevolent demon returns to haunt a family when a son returns to his family's ancestral home, where the deal was struck.
Although Ghost Ambulance has all of the elements that one expects from an Indonesian supernatural horror film, a curse, revenge, and a vengeful ghost, its execution leaves a lot to be desired. The narrative does a good job balancing scares and exposition as it effectively builds to a climax that perfectly puts everything into focus. Ghost Ambulance’s use of sound and jump scares, while effective at first, loses some of their bite from overuse. The main draw of Ghost Ambulance is Suzzanna, Indonesia’s most iconic horror film actress, making her final film. Unfortunately, her screentime is limited.
Suzzanna: Empress of Darkness is an excellent release from Severin Films that gives each film their best presentations to date and insightful extras, notably Suzzanna: The Queen of Black Magic. Recommended.
Written by Michael Den Boer
