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Here’s a piece of film-gleaned advice for you: should you come into contact with a book of ancient wisdom, do not read from it aloud. That never, ever works out.

These days, each month seems to bring a brand new slice of international movie history from the folks at Mondo Macabro. (Though it looks as if they’ll be taking December off before returning in 2005 with such promising sounding gems as Mansion of Madness, The Girl Slaves of Morgana le Fay, The Paris Sex Murders, Snake Sisters and many more!) This time around it’s a return to the Indonesian work of H. Tjut Dalil, a director who has already had two of his films released by the company: Lady Terminator, which was issued domestically just a few months ago and the deliriously whacked Mystics in Bali, that has as yet only surfaced in an R2 edition from their UK arm. Both of these prior efforts were wildly entertaining bits of global genre hash; can the third time through also be a charm?

What stands for plot here in Dangerous Seductress mainly revolves around a buxom blonde American woman named Susan who is running away from her brutal husband and thus ends up visiting her supermodel sister in Indonesia. As the insanely action-packed first part of Dangerous Seductress has already set the stage for the return of a powerful Queen-of-Darkness type, it comes as little surprise when Susan’s later encounter with the proverbial Ancient Book of Native Wisdom goes horribly awry. It’s quite obvious that our poor heroine has never seen even a single horror film in her entire life, as she almost immediately begins coolly chanting verses from this book in a nice clear voice and thereby opens herself up as a fleshy conduit for the evil sorceress to come back into the corporeal world.

What follows is much sexy mayhem and masculine exsanguination as the witch who possesses Susan drives her to kill enough souls so that she can return to walk the earth again. (Just ignore the fact that she seems plenty powerful in the real world even in her mirror-bound state). Susan’s harsh marital history helps to explain why she is taken over so easily by this feminist demon, and this provides at least a bit of context - and a plot thread - for all of the action that occurs. It’s nice that there’s some semblance of motivation for Susan (though the scene that sets it up is probably meaner than was necessary), as Dalil’s at times scattershot directorial style shifts scenes so rapidly that you may be unsure of where you are or who the characters on screen might be — though there are some subtler cues that might escape many Westerners, such as the use of gamelan-style music on the audio track to indicate when the action has moved from Djakarta to Bali. In any case, for the most part the sometimes random changes of setting don’t do much at all to hurt the film — in fact, their semi-disorienting nature only adds to the attraction of this wild bit of cinema.

While the action does flag a bit in the middle of Dangerous Seductress (and the director also commits the cardinal sin of upping the ante so much during the first quarter hour that the film has trouble reaching that level again), there are all kinds of entertaining things that make this one a supremely worthwhile effort. Dalil’s approach takes the story and filters it through a prism heavily influenced by both Indonesian culture as well as obvious Hollywood antecedents like The Terminator and The Evil Dead. The result, much like the previous two works by the director from Mondo Macabro, is a internationally blenderized mix of parts that combine to form a lunatic whole. If you’re on the lookout for edification or intellectual stimulation from your DVD watching, then this is likely not the outing for you; but if, on the other hand, your taste encapsulates the simple pleasures of bikini clad models, amateurish acting, low-budget settings, outmoded fashions, bad music and over-the-top action then you’ll find much to revel in here. But while cheap thrills are certainly on order, there’s a bit more to the proceedings than that — as the filmmaker’s sense for pacing the out of control chases and special effects sequences truly makes them come alive with verve. It’s just too bad that there isn’t a tiny bit more meat to the film’s middle half hour; if this bridging part of Dangerous Seductress didn’t drag so then this would really be a four-star B-movie piece of celluloid.

But there’s really no reason to dwell on the few shortcomings extant in the main event here, as this one offers just as much entertainment value as either of the other Dalil efforts we’ve seen previously from Mondo Macabro. Additionally, there’s the by now standard excellent anamorphic presentation offered up from the company for this disk; barring some likely unfixable print flaws and an occasionally rough sounding soundtrack Dangerous Seductress both looks and sounds quite excellent. There are some very tasty extras included here as well, like an interesting interview with the director himself and another feature that has special effects crewman Steve Prouty (who has since gone on to do makeup for films such as How the Grinch Stole Christmas) commenting on scenes from the film that contain his work. There’s also some straight chat with Prouty, a filmography for H. Tjut Dalil, a bunch of trailers for other Mondo fare and a great little text history of Indonesian exploitation. While a couple of these bonuses will be familiar to those who imported Mystics in Bali from the UK, it should all be new to those who only have Region 1 viewing capabilities.

Though perhaps not delivering quite as consistently as Mystics in Bali (which remains my favorite of the three Dalil DVD’s issued so far), Dangerous Seductress still easily overcomes its minor pace problems to deliver the thrills in spades. Along with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments come some spryly cut action scenes that are performed with utter abandon, and the surprisingly good latex makeup really helps make the movie fun to watch. (The primitive computer effects are good for a chuckle, as well). There’s also the simple attraction of watching this global blend of elements and influences combine into a sort of postmodern B-movie that manages to purloin pieces of the celluloid past and put them together into a seemingly unselfconscious package of entertainment. Dalil’s unique approach to genre film results ultimately in a fantastic piece of cinema that is never undone by the insipid self-awareness that oft times sinks modern action films; instead, this ride is a pretty pure ride into the heart of the international genre film. As such, it serves as yet another perfect vehicle for the globetrotting celluloid archaeologists from Mondo Macabro who have unveiled so much to us this year — and given the looks of their release schedule for next year, 2005 should be no different.