After my long holiday last week, I was quite eager to see some of the new movies that were released during those days. So when I finally got the chance last night, my wife and I opted this one first since we wanted to see this seemingly fun horror comedy movie. It so happened that her sister and nephews who lived in the same apartment as us were also interested to see the film and we ended up watching in the same theater. Anyway, let us find out what the movie was about now.
Brief Story Line
Naya (Tatjana Saphira - Sweet 20, Ayat Ayat Cinta 2 etc) and her younger brother Darto (Endy Arfian - Pengabdi Setan etc) unknowingly moved to a cheap and old rented house which was haunted by a couple of ghosts. In that house, Naya found a diary written by the male ghost who later on revealed to be named Galih (Ge Pamungkas - Jomblo, Negeri Van Oranje etc). Driven by her monetary condition and encouraged by her boyfriend Vino (Deva Mahenra - Dancing in the Rain etc), Naya decided to write a novel based on that diary, despite the disapproval from Galih.
Out of her desperation, Naya tried to convince Galih to let her write the novel which finally he agreed. Thus started an unlikely cooperation between a human and a ghost. However as you would have guessed, things did not go well all the time, especially with the appearance of a scary female ghost, not to mention Naya's editor Alvin (Ernest Prakasa - Sesuai Aplikasi, Cek Toko Sebelah etc) who had different idea on how the novel should be written for commercial purpose.
So how would this end for Naya and what was the reason behind the haunted house? Find them all in this interesting and enjoyable drama horror comedy movie.
End of Brief Story Line
When I saw the trailer few times earlier, I thought this movie seemed to be quite fun with a hint of few scary scenes. So I was not sure at first what the movie's feel would be. It turned out that it was indeed having some jump scare scenes and some scenes that gave the eerie feeling. However, most of the time whenever there were such scenes, they would be combined with some humors (in certain parts the humors were dominating and made the supposed scary scenes became just pure fun). For me and my wife personally, we felt this formula really worked as it made us enjoy the movie better.
As the movie progressed, it became clear that the focus was not about the horror or the comedic moments (which were pretty abundant) but on the story of Galih's past. I really loved the storytelling of this film as it was not done in a rush and the revealing was done in just a nice pace with a certain climax which surprisingly was quite touching and emotional that would affect audience (my wife was definitely one of them).
The make up effects were pretty decent with some brief special effects which did not disappoint. Obviously the sound effects were also great element where certain scary scenes gave some horrifying feel, especially when the female ghost appeared (although 1 or 2 times I personally felt the acting of Asmara Abigail as the ghost was a bit overly done). The ghosts' ability to touch was the one part that I thought was inconsistent and made it a bit confusing which to more critical viewers would probably found disturbing.
The cast of this movie mostly did their part adequately. I thought Tatjana Saphira and Ge Pamungkas did have a nice chemistry and their acting came quite naturally. For me, the scene stealer was definitely Moh. Iqbal Sulaiman who played Darto's best friend Billy. Both of them really performed a lot of hilarious moments, especially when they had to hide from the ghost (but the jokes might be a bit too crude for certain audience). Apart from those, there were also other supporting characters who seemed to be included just to add fun elements such as Arie Kriting & Muhadkly Acho plus Asri Welas and did not provide any depth to the story, but their bantering did provide us few laughs. The other important characters were portrayed by the more senior actor Slamet Rahardjo Jarot and Dayu Wijanto as Mr. and Mrs. Harja, the owners of the old house.
For a movie that combined horror, comedy and drama, I thought this one managed to do it quite well. It did not feel overly complicated and the horror was not truly terrifying like other Indonesian horror movies. Some of the comedy was actually well written, probably with the name of Ernest Prakasa as one of the producers made him have some creative authority on this area. Plus Bene Dion Rajagukguk in his directorial debut but had prior writing or screenplay experience in several comedy movies like The Underdogs, ReuniZ, or Warkop DKI Reborn: Jangkrik Boss.
Overall, I was quite entertained with this movie. It had some hilarious moments that made us laughed quite hard and few scary moments plus some drama. A nice enough film for us to have fun and for me personally, one of the best choices for a holiday movie. If you are willing to dare yourself to see few scary scenes (like my wife did by covering her eyes few times), you should be able to enjoy this movie. But if you are looking for pure horror movie or a pure comedy film, then this definitely would not satisfy you. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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