In the first part, Wizard of Darkness, schoolgirl Misa Kuroi fought the power of evil with the help of black magic. In Birth of the Wizard, she discovers the existence and origin of her magical powers, which means that the second part is actually a prequel.

For centuries, imported European black magic has been practiced in a little Japanese mountain village. Well, that couldn't last long. One fine day in 1881, under conditions unimaginable for the outside world, this Saiga clan village was raized to the ground with almost no survivors. A whole century later an archeologist discovered a mummified woman. If only he hadn't touched it. Now the diabolical Kirie rises from the dead, and must destroy our involuntary heroine Misa in order to continue her existence.

Kirie now jumps from body to body, getting ever closer to her goal, clearing her path of anything that stands in her way. Misa's contemporaries drop like flies, while the dead walk the streets once more. Although she receives surprise support from the magical bearer of the secret, Saiga, she still has to face Kirie alone. And she has taken over the body of her best friend Shoko, with whom she once wanted to share more than just deep friendship...

We have already had evil aliens (The Hidden and The Hidden II - The Spawning), as well as an electrified baddie (Shocker) which took over various bodies in order to get to their ultimate murdererous goal. What is new in this account of the birth of a wizard is the magic of the dangerous creature, used through and against it. The whole thing, of course, is much more brutal. The figures making up the huge body count are not, of course, characterised very deeply, but audiences will not be able to help shedding the odd internal tear over the recently departed during the massacres. Horror, magic and Japanese lust for murder – all here in the second part. This is also a breath of fresh air in this genre, which has become rather bland, as the dangerous, exotic witchcraft comes from Europe, rather than some African or South American jungle.

Seen during the:
the XVth Brussels International Festival of Fantasy, Thriller and Science-Fiction Films

Also shown during the:
11th Fantasy Filmfestival