That's So Raven: Mystics in Surat Thani is a 2009 anime-influenced Western animated supernatural horror film directed by Jenifer Lewis and Cheech Marin. The film stars Erica Rivera, Adam Baldwin, Raven-Symoné, Kyle Massey, Anneliese van der Pol, Rondell Sheridan, Yuri Lowenthal, Mindy Sterling, Dee Bradley Baker, and Lauren Tom. The film focuses on dark magic and borrows from Maritime Southeast Asian folklore and Mainland Southeast Asian folklore, specially the Krasue and the penanggalan, a blood-sucking creatures that appear in the form of a flying head with organs and entrails still attached.
Plot[]
Bianca (Erica Rivera) is a Mexican American teenage girl from San Francisco, California who goes to Surat Thani, Southern Thailand 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, Jonah agrees to help Bianca study magic, and they share a kiss as an unknown 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 Bianca, and her severed arm is left in Bianca's grip. She drops it in fright, and the arm crawls a short distance and stops. The following night, Bianca and Jonah bring bottles of goat's blood to quench the Queen's thirst. The Queen, revealing herself only as a prehensile tongue, orders Bianca to take off her long pants, and carves a spell into Bianca's left upper leg. The Queen demands that Bianca return the next night, and that Jonah Weatherly is not to join her side.
The next day, Bianca 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, Bianca ventures into the graveyard. The Queen appears, cackling, and Bianca laughs maniacally and dances with her, and they transform into a pair of female Dobermanns. Later on, Jonah's paternal uncle, Gary Weatherly, teaches him mantras which can counteract Krasue magic. Bianca 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. Bianca feels ill, but tells Jonah that the Queen will cure her illness that night. In her meeting with the Queen that night, Bianca's head, organs, and entrails detach from her body. Now a floating vampiric head under the control of the Queen, Bianca's head flies into the home of a pregnant Chinese lady and sucks out the unborn baby from the mother's womb.
Bianca'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 Burmese pythons as Jonah watches in shock from the bushes, and Bianca 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 Cathy defeat one of the Queen's enemies. The mysterious man named Peter Oliver witnesses Bianca's head flying, and he tells his father-in-law Gary Weatherly, who informs his colleagues of the evil and retreats to meditate. The Queen appears to Bianca as a teenage girl and detaches her head again. Gary finds Bianca's headless body, and the townspeople attempt to ward off the flying head. Gary tells his eldest nephew Jonah that Bianca is no longer the girl he loves and knew, and they bury her body to prevent the head from reattaching. Jonah dreams on Bianca, who pleads for her body to be exhumed.
That night, the Queen and the flying head appear to Gary and Jonah in the graveyard. The Queen, revealed to be an old nemesis of Gary, uses her powers to disinter Bianca's body. The head reattaches, and the Queen electrocutes Gary and slashes his neck, seemingly kills him. The mysterious man named Peter Oliver, revealed himself to be Jonah's cousin-in-law, tries to attack the Queen with a wooden baseball bat but is killed by her in the process. Jonah's paternal uncle Gary (who faked her death earlier at the hands of the Queen) appears and angrily attacks the Queen as revenge for killing his first son-in-law. The Queen transforms into a humanoid boar, which Gary stabs in the heart with a holy dagger. Becoming a masked figure, the Queen shoots crimson red-colored energy at Gary, who projects a green-colored energy in return, causing an explosion. The Queen and Bianca are killed by the sunrise.
Voice cast[]
- Erica Rivera as Bianca
- Adam Baldwin as Jonah Weatherly, Gary's eldest nephew and Peter Oliver's cousin-in-law.
- Yuri Lowenthal as Peter Oliver, Jonah's cousin-in-law and Gary's first son-in-law.
- Dee Bradley Baker as Gary Weatherly, Jonah's paternal uncle and Peter Oliver's father-in-law.
- Mindy Sterling as the Old Queen of the Krasue
- Lauren Tom as the Young Queen of the Krasue
- Raven Symone as Raven Baxter
- Kyle Massey as Cory Baxter
- Rondell Sheridan as Victor Baxter
- Anneliese Van Der Pol as Chelsea Daniels