It was quite a dilemma for me whether to see this movie or not. On the one hand it is an Indonesian horror movie which is not really my favorite genre, but on the other hand, it was directed by one of the most respected director Joko Anwar. In the end, I opted to give it a try but I could only see this last night, as on its premier date, all the studios near my home were almost fully booked. Well without further ado, I'll just get on with the movie now.
Brief Story Line
Maya (Tara Basro - Gundala, Killers etc) and her best friend Dini (Marissa Anita - Istirahatlah Kata Kata, Galih dan Ratna 2017 version, etc) were having financial difficulties and decided to see if there was possibility to acquire an old house thought to belong to Maya's parents. So off they went to a small remote village in central Java where the house was located.
Both of them wanted to see the head villager Ki Saptadi (Ario Bayu - 22 Menit, The Returning etc) who might have info on the house. They also met with many villagers who seemed to be cautious of newcomer, such as the mysterious old woman named Nyi Misni (Christine Hakim - Pasir Berbisik, Eat Pray Love etc). There was also a young woman named Ratih (Asmara Abigail - Ghost Writer, #MoveOnAja etc) who owned a small food stall.
Both of them wanted to see the head villager Ki Saptadi (Ario Bayu - 22 Menit, The Returning etc) who might have info on the house. They also met with many villagers who seemed to be cautious of newcomer, such as the mysterious old woman named Nyi Misni (Christine Hakim - Pasir Berbisik, Eat Pray Love etc). There was also a young woman named Ratih (Asmara Abigail - Ghost Writer, #MoveOnAja etc) who owned a small food stall.
Unbeknownst to Maya and Dini, there was evil lurking and endangering their lives. So what would happen to these two women? Find them all in this eerie mysterious horror movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Well this movie is certainly not Pengabdi Setan even if it was also a horror genre and both were written & directed by Joko Anwar. This one had a dark mystery feel and the Javanese culture was very strongly shown, albeit not all the good ones. For those of us who thought this would be similar to that movie with endless ghost presence would be in for something unexpected. Whether it's for anyone's treat or not remains to be seen though.
The early part of the movie was moving in a nice direction, but things really started to pick up fast when the two leads went to the village. The camera angles and the dark views were exploited to the maximum by Joko Anwar, leaving us with a feeling of discomfort and hoping to never arrive at such scary place. However, as the story progressed, I could already guessed that the horror was not what I expected. It was not a real scary type but more of disturbing type with some scenes which might make general audience felt uncomfortable.
I like the storytelling of this movie as it moved really smoothly towards the climax, but there was a part that I did not really like which was the manner how the main reason for everything was conveniently exposed. The music here was also another factor that made this movie felt eerie with Javanese style old songs playing here and there. The sound effects for a Dolby Surround 7.1 was adequate providing some nice effects during the jump scare scenes, but I thought there were few flaws during the dialogues as sometimes we could not hear clearly what the people were saying. Funny thing about the jump scare scenes in here as they were quite scarce and I could already guessed when it would happen, making them less surprising, although the guy sitting next to me was always jumpy during those parts.
Throughout the whole movie, the dark scenes dominated the picture so it is advisable to see this in a cinema with bright projector. There were few funny dialogues in here, usually between Maya and Dini. Both Tara Basro and Marissa Anita performed their roles quite perfectly. They seemed really natural portraying their characters. One person that caught my attention was the senior actress Christine Hakim who was able to portray this mysterious dark old woman character. In general most of them played their part well enough even the supporting roles like the guy playing horse carriage driver. Btw, the film had a duration of 106 minutes including a very short closing credits which did not have any mid or post end credit scenes.
Overall this was a different kind of horror movie. It has a different focus from the generic Indonesian horror movies where mystery took center stage more than the horror. There were not a lot horrifying images and the horror was not really the supernatural kind. It had few surprising twists which could satisfy those looking for an intelligent horror movie. Credits has to be given to Joko Anwar who managed to keep things interesting enough till almost the end. However, if I had to compare with Pengabdi Setan which I thought was truly scary, this one did not have such attribute, probably because it was something that I had seen in other horror movies. So if you are looking for anti mainstream Indonesian horror movie and you are OK with few disturbing scenes, this would definitely suit your thirst.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
The early part of the movie was moving in a nice direction, but things really started to pick up fast when the two leads went to the village. The camera angles and the dark views were exploited to the maximum by Joko Anwar, leaving us with a feeling of discomfort and hoping to never arrive at such scary place. However, as the story progressed, I could already guessed that the horror was not what I expected. It was not a real scary type but more of disturbing type with some scenes which might make general audience felt uncomfortable.
I like the storytelling of this movie as it moved really smoothly towards the climax, but there was a part that I did not really like which was the manner how the main reason for everything was conveniently exposed. The music here was also another factor that made this movie felt eerie with Javanese style old songs playing here and there. The sound effects for a Dolby Surround 7.1 was adequate providing some nice effects during the jump scare scenes, but I thought there were few flaws during the dialogues as sometimes we could not hear clearly what the people were saying. Funny thing about the jump scare scenes in here as they were quite scarce and I could already guessed when it would happen, making them less surprising, although the guy sitting next to me was always jumpy during those parts.
Throughout the whole movie, the dark scenes dominated the picture so it is advisable to see this in a cinema with bright projector. There were few funny dialogues in here, usually between Maya and Dini. Both Tara Basro and Marissa Anita performed their roles quite perfectly. They seemed really natural portraying their characters. One person that caught my attention was the senior actress Christine Hakim who was able to portray this mysterious dark old woman character. In general most of them played their part well enough even the supporting roles like the guy playing horse carriage driver. Btw, the film had a duration of 106 minutes including a very short closing credits which did not have any mid or post end credit scenes.
Overall this was a different kind of horror movie. It has a different focus from the generic Indonesian horror movies where mystery took center stage more than the horror. There were not a lot horrifying images and the horror was not really the supernatural kind. It had few surprising twists which could satisfy those looking for an intelligent horror movie. Credits has to be given to Joko Anwar who managed to keep things interesting enough till almost the end. However, if I had to compare with Pengabdi Setan which I thought was truly scary, this one did not have such attribute, probably because it was something that I had seen in other horror movies. So if you are looking for anti mainstream Indonesian horror movie and you are OK with few disturbing scenes, this would definitely suit your thirst.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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