On Friday night, my wife was given the chance to see a new Indonesian movie directed by an old acquaintance of her in a Nonton Bareng event at CGV Grand Indonesia. We were told that it would start around 7 PM but we need to register first. Since my wife had to do something relating to her activity as a food blogger in the mall near that area in the afternoon, it would not be too inconvenient for us to reach the location at the designated time. After the registration, we could finally enter the studio at almost 7.30 PM and the movie started at 7.40 PM. Well let's go on with the movie now, shall we?
Brief Story Line
Colin (Ario Bayu - Soekarno: Indonesia Merdeka, Serangoon Road TV series etc) got into an accident but his body was never found, leaving his wife Natalie (Laura Basuki - Di Timur Matahari, Madre etc) and their two young children Maggie (Tissa Biani - Perfect Dream etc) and Dom (newcomer Muzakki Ramdhan) in grieve. After 3 months of living in denial as Nat could not accept the lost of her husband, she finally went to psychologist to get help. Meanwhile Maggie was very upset with her mother's condition and only found solace from her grandmother Sonya (Dayu Wijanto - Bukaan 8, Love for Sale etc).
Surprisingly though, Colin suddenly returned home with no knowledge or memory of what happened during those 3 months. However, mysterious and strange things started to happen since Colin's return. Nat started to have hallucination and even Maggie with Dom also experienced something scary.
So what actually happened? How did Colin manage to return home? Find them all in this drama horror movie.
End of Brief Story Line
As mentioned above, my wife was the one who got the invitation to join this event and I was grateful to get the chance to see this movie. Without such invite, I do not think I would choose to see the film since strangely enough, it did not have its trailer shown in the many movies we have been seeing in the past few weeks. So we did not have knowledge of what the film was all about. Anyway, this movie was much more drama than horror to my opinion. Which was a good thing for my wife since she was not fan of movie filled with horrific images. Aside from 2 or 3 jump scare scenes, there was nothing frightening in the film since the supernatural thing was not terrifying. Most probably due to the special effects which was less than spectacular.
The story though was something unique. It was written by the director himself Witra Asliga who previously co-directed movies like Gentayangan and 3Sum which happened to be the first time I saw his work. I admire Witra's courage to make a unique and unconventional type horror movies, in the midst of all those Indonesian supernatural horror movies which did not offer something new. A real valiant attempt which must be appreciated, even if the execution might be less than perfect.
The acting of the people in here, especially Ario Bayu and Tissa Biani were amazing. Both these two really got into their roles and their performances were especially convincing as the long lost father and the teenager. Laura Basuki though was a bit peculiar as at certain times her acting seemed natural but not so in other times which should not be the case since she was quite an established actress. The setting of the movie was quite good. My wife and I both were curious why people in this film did not wear seat belts, then we realized that the story was set in the 1980s with the rather old fashioned cars and the seat belts requirement were not imposed during that time. The attention to details were great as we could see small things like the use of walkman, or fan instead of air conditioner, the non existence of handphone and few other things.
The sound effect was amazing in the studio we saw this movie. The jump scare scenes quite successfully shocked me, especially that one scene in the middle of the night and it was due to the wonderful sound system. There were also the creepiness at times. Though I personally did not really like some of the scenes where they were zoomed in too close. With such a unique horror type and the slow burn as it was focusing more on the drama side, the general audience might not be able to enjoy this film. I would not know how the critics opinions of this movie, however I myself really appreciate the effort of a young Indonesian film maker who I personally think would have great future. With larger budget from major producer, who knows what kind of quality he would be able to create?
Overall it was a nice experience getting to see an unconventional Indonesian horror movie in this event filled with some of the movie bloggers and friends of the director who used to be a movie blogger himself. It also turned out there were few of them who had brief appearance in this film. Even Laura Basuki and Muzakki Ramdhan also showed up and greet us before the start of the movie. My wife and I are really thankful to be given the opportunity and we wish huge success for Witra Asliga.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Below are some pictures relating to the event:
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| The nice tickets (we got very strategic seats in the middle of the studio) |
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| Both of Us together with Witra Asliga |
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