Kuntilanak

I've been watching a fair bit of Indonesian cinema lately and truth be told I kind of like what I see and for the most part that applies to Kuntilanak.

It tells the story of a group of children who are forced to battle a mysterious creature that preys on the young and steals them away.

The opening sequence immediately got my attention, it was excellent. For this reason I had high hopes, but sadly a couple of things stopped the film from really meeting its potential.

First of all the comedy. If the film isn't an intentional horror comedy then for the most part comedy should be kept clear or a horror, it takes away the fear element and just stops you taking the whole thing seriously.

Second the kids, children are the leads of the film which is never good. Five of them leading in a film of this type? Imagine if you merged The Ring (2002) with the Goonies (1985) and that is basically what you have here.

Kuntilanak's creature effects are great, they adopt the traditional Asian style of scary black haired undead lady perfectly and for that reason this should have been a scary film. The method of which they use the scares also are very good, but they're sadly watered down by the kids. Goofy child actors running away from something that is actually scary, it just didn't work for me.

If they'd played this whole thing serious, added some actual threat to the kids or better yet not have kids at all then this film would have been fantastic.

Moral of the story, kids suck.

The Good:

Incredible opening

A lot of potential

Creature looks great

Awesome scares

The Bad:

Goofy sound effects

Poor cgi

Annoying children

Inconsistent tone

If you want to make a kids movie, use better theme instead of ghost. So many scenes taken from other movies, i mean please grow up and be more creative instead. Indonesian ghost stories are always good but please do not use western style of horror effect on Indonesian ghosts story. Research more and return to indonesian style instead of James Wan's style. This is fully a good critics for you mr Rizal Mantovani, i know you're a good filmmaker

They tried to bring in a little comedy and I dont mind that. They had the set, the ambience , the house everything was right. The actors were really bad and the direction of the movie had too much ghost in it and by defination it got less scary by the minute. The actors seemed to ve chill with the presence of the ghost. I mean youre supposed to run and scream. But the actirs were seemingly playing arounf trying to discuss the ghost. Like the direction of the movie is bad on another level.

Dear Rizal Mantovani, if you read this, and I hope you read this. Please stop making horror movie - especially the one with respected urban legend - stupid.

I know this movie came out before Pengabdi Setan, but now at least you can learn from it. Horror movie is NOT a music video. We don't need your pretty scene, we don't need a genius angle, we don't need beautiful cinematography. All we need is good storyline, good acting and script.

Seems you only depend on your shocking sound effect and spooky background music while there is nothing scary going on, on the scene. Are those your ultimate weapons? Well I'll tell you; Those kinds of jumpscare factors are sux. Doesn't work anymore. "Basi!"

Please be more creative with your storyline and don't underestimate your audience. This is for y'all Indonesian Horror Movie Director wannabe.

Hope your next one will be better. Thanks.

This has been my first experience with Indonesian horror, and while Kuntilanak is far from a masterpiece it made for quite an enjoyable watch. This is the sort of film for which one would have to lower their expectations and take the cultural differences into account. While obviously made for younger viewers (and yet containing certain features and scenes I personally wouldn't want my young ones to watch before their tweens) Kuntilanak has some pretty great qualities:

First, it feels like a nightmare, but an actual authentic one, "realistic", unlike many Hollywood attempts of portraying scenarios allegedly originating from nightmares that simply break immersion and suspense of disbelief.

Second, it takes normal everyday things from children's lives like a mischievous laughter and twists them, deforms them into a cacophony that combined with the dark eerie mood becomes truly terrifying.

Third, one would think the exaggerated comic reliefs presented by the children's infantile interactions with each other and with the other characters (made all the more apparent and dominant by changes in soundtrack and sound effects) would damage (if not completely ruin) the dark mood and fear factor, as well it should! But it somehow doesn't. On the contrary, it makes the following scary scenes that much more terrifying.

All in all, while I can't ignore the film's shortcomings (for instance, I went to sleep before the final 30 minutes and continues the next night, which isn't a very flattering thing to say about a film from the horror genre which is supposed to be suspenseful and compelling) I must admit that I enjoyed it quite a bit. Far from great, but definitely good (in my opinion) for anyone willing to momentarily change their standards and open their minds.