Special Silencers

Special Silencers
Promotional release poster
Directed by	Arizal
Starring	Barry Prima Eva Arnaz W. D. Mochtar
Production company	P.T. Parkit Films
Release date	1982 (1982)
Country	Indonesia
Language	Indonesian

Special Silencers (Indonesian: Serbuan Halilintar) is a 1982[note 1] Indonesian martial arts horror exploitation film directed by Arizal[1] and starring Barry Prima, Eva Arnaz and W. D. Mochtar. Prima plays Hendra, a man who arrives at a village where deaths are occurring as a result of red tablets—the titular "special silencers"—supplied by a forest-dwelling mystic; when ingested, the pills cause trees to burst from the consumer's stomach.[2][3]

The film's titular plot element may have been inspired by the chestburster scene in Alien (1979).[3][4]

Cast

• Barry Prima as Hendra[4]
• Eva Arnaz as Julia
• W. D. Mochtar as Gumilar

Release

Distributor Mondo Macabro, who released the film on Blu-ray, identifies the film's release date as 1982.[1] Other sources, such as author Pete Tombs, have identified its release date as 1979,[4] but Mondo Macabro essayist Ekky Imanjaya writes, "I've had difficulties finding a valid source on the circulation of Special Silencers in the global film market in 1979. Most probably, it was sold straight to video."[5] The film received distribution across Indonesia in 1982, with cuts made to "sexually suggestive and sadistic scenes" due to censorship.[5]

Home media

Special Silencers was released on VHS in the Netherlands in the 1980s.[6] A restoration of the film is set to be released on Blu-ray by Mondo Macabro in April 2024.[6][7]

Reception

In 2015, author Clive Davies called Special Silencers "a ridiculous action/horror crossover [...] Unusual but slow-moving, until the exciting finale involving smelly shoe torture, rats, gore and booby traps."[3]

Notes

1. See the Release section for details.

References

1. "Newsletter #17". Mondo Macabro. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
2. Tombs 1998, p. 72–73.
3. Davies, Clive (2015). Spinegrinder: The Movies Most Critics Won't Write About. Headpress. p. 896. ISBN 978-1909394278.
4. Tombs 1998, p. 72.
5. Imanjaya, Ekka (2024). The Special Case of Special Silencers (Blu-ray booklet). Mondo Macabro. pp. 6–7.
6. "Special Silencers limited red case edition". Mondo Macabro. Archived from the original on 21 October 2023. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
7. "Mondo Macabro Presents Special Silencers". Horror Society. 19 February 2024. Retrieved 27 February 2024.

Bibliography

• Tombs, Pete (1998). Mondo Macabro: Weird & Wonderful Cinema Around the World. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0312187484.

External links

• Special Silencers at IMDb