That's So Raven: Mystics in Chiang Mai is a 2009 anime-influenced Western animated supernatural horror film directed by Jenifer Lewis and Cheech Marin. The film stars Kirsten Storms, Raven-Symoné, Rondell Sheridan, Kyle Massey, Anneliese van der Pol, Breckin Meyer, Adam Baldwin, Andrea Martin, Mindy Sterling, and Lauren Tom. The film focuses dark magic and borrows from Maritime Southeast Asian folklore and Mainland Southeast Asian folklore, specifically the Krasue and the penanggalan, a blood-sucking creatures that appear in the form of flying head with organs and entrails still attached.
Plot[]
Nicki Peterson (Kirsten Storms) is a teenage girl from San Francisco, who goes to Chiang Mai to write a book about voodoo and dark magic. She learns of Krasue magic from her lover named Jonah Weatherly, who says that it is the most powerful form of dark magic and that it can be used to kill. After attending a ceremonial ritual, Weatherly agrees to help Nicki study magic, and they share a kiss as a mysterious man watches from afar. The next night, after a brief thunderstorm, the two meet the cackling leader of the Krasue cult, an old witch with long fingernails known as the Queen of the Krasue.
The Queen of the Krasue shows the two her face, but says that her face changes every time she makes an appearance. Before leaving, the Queen shakes hands with Nicki, and her severed arm is left in Nicki's grip. She drops it in fright, and the arm crawls a short distance and stops. The following night, Nicki and Weatherly bring bottles of blood to quench the Queen's thirst. The Queen, revealing herself only as a prehensile tongue, orders Nicki to take off her long pants, and carves a spell into Nicki's left upper leg. The Queen demands that Nicki return the next night, and that Jonah Weatherly is not to join her side.
The next day, Nicki asks Jonah to read the spell on her left upper leg, but he can only decipher the word "Krasue". At midnight, wearing a long skirt, Nicki ventures into the graveyard. The Queen appears, cackling, and Nicki laughs maniacally and dances with her, and they transform into a pair of female boars. Later on, Jonah's paternal aunt Samantha Weatherly, teaches him mantras which can counteract Krasue magic. Nicki tells Jonah that she and the Queen could communicate telepathically, and that she envisioned destroying a wall of fire, which Jonah says means that she killed someone somewhere. Nicki feels ill, but tells Jonah that the Queen will cure her illness that night. In her meeting with the Queen that night, Nicki's head, organs, and entrails detach from her body. Now a floating vampiric head under the control of the Queen, Nicki's head flies into the home of a pregnant Chinese lady and sucks out the unborn baby from the mother's womb.
Nicki's head returns to her body, her illness is cured, and the blood she devoured invigorates the Queen's youthfulness and power. They transform into a pair of female reticulated pythons as Jonah watches in shock from the bushes, and Nicki awakens as a human and vomits tokay gecko in the toilet, leaving Jonah horrified and speechless. During the night, in the form of fireballs, the Queen and Nicki defeat one of the Queen's enemies. The mysterious man named Michael Oswalt witnesses Nicki's head flying, and he tells his aunt-in-law Samantha Weatherly (his children's maternal great-aunt), who informs her colleagues of the evil and retreats to meditate. The Queen appears to Nicki as a teenage girl and detaches her head again. Samantha finds Nicki's headless body, and the townspeople attempt to ward off the flying head. Samantha tells her eldest nephew Jonah Weatherly (her sister-in-law's eldest son) that Nicki is no longer the girl he loves and knew, and they bury her body to prevent the head from reattaching. Jonah dreams of Nicki, who pleads for her body to be exhumed.
That night, the Queen and the flying head appear to Samantha and Jonah Weatherly in the graveyard. The Queen, revealed to be an old nemesis of Samantha Weatherly, uses her powers to disinter Nicki's body. The head reattaches, and the Queen electrocutes Samantha and slashes her neck, seemingly kills her. The mysterious man named Michael Oswalt, revealed to be Jonah's cousin-in-law and Samantha's third nephew-in-law, tries to attack the Queen with a wooden baseball bat, but is killed by her in the process. Jonah's paternal aunt Samantha (who fakes her death earlier at the hands of the Queen) appears and angrily attacks the Queen as revenge for killing her third nephew-in-law. The Queen transforms into a humanoid boar, which Samantha stabs in the heart with a holy dagger. Becoming a masked figure, the Queen shoots green-colored energy blast at Samantha, who projects blue-colored energy blast in return, causing an explosion. The Queen and Nicki are killed by the sunrise.
Voice cast[]
- Kirsten Storms as Nicki Peterson
- Adam Baldwin as Jonah Weatherly, Michael Oswalt's cousin-in-law and Samantha's eldest nephew.
- Andrea Martin as Samantha Weatherly, Jonah's paternal aunt and Michael Oswalt's aunt-in-law.
- Nolan North as Michael Oswalt, Samantha's third nephew-in-law and Jonah's cousin-in-law.
- Mindy Sterling as the Old Queen of the Krasue
- Lauren Tom as the Young Queen of the Krasue
- Raven-Symoné as Raven Baxter
- Kyle Massey as Cory Baxter
- Rondell Sheridan as Victor Baxter
- Anneliese van der Pol as Chelsea Daniels