18/42
The problem with Indonesian and Hollywood horror is their over-reliance on ineffective and predictable jump scares
Narrative
Lela, a mortician, struggles to uncover the truth behind her mother’s mysterious deaths while being haunted by spirits and burdened by the weight of untold secrets. Atmospheric horror is something Indonesians have always failed to execute, despite the country’s rich cultural tradition and beautiful landscapes.
It’s almost as if the filmmakers weren’t horror fans at all
The lazy use of conventional camera angles is almost as disappointing as the wheat flour on the ghosts. Story-wise, it was a little too obvious from the start, with the meddling women discussing widowhood.
There’s always some antisocial, monosyllabic guy or girl injecting a sense of mystery, and I’m really, really tired of seeing this
The fact that Lela is tasked with cleaning up the corpse completely single-handedly also doesn’t reflect the reality of a typical Southeast Asian village – what happened to fardhu kifayah and gotong-royong? The only new element is how the evil spirits are portrayed to seem unfazed by the Quranic verses and loud chants of mourners, a trope more commonly seen in Western horror films.
Another disappointment, sadly
I imagine this would create some sort of controversy among more conservative audiences in places like Malaysia. At least Indonesia is moving away from soft porn in its horror films.
