Impetigore

I found this to be a disappointment as my expectations were high cos of Joko Anwar. His Satan's Slaves is a solid horror film n his Gundala is an amazing action thriller. This one started off very well, a young woman working in a toll booth during the wee hours, a man passes the booth regularly n stares at her giving her the creepy vibes. Her fear comes alive when the man tells her everything about her, from her name, her father's name n her village wher she was born, all these info creeps her out even more. After this suspenseful start, the film lost the pace but the atmosphere kept it going when the woman unearths that she has inherited a big, old dilapidated house n visits her village so that she can sell off the house. The old woman's mumbo jumbo dancing is hilarious. In most of the horror/thriller films things get messy due to the cell fone or its ringing but why the need to throw away the phone when it can b put on silence or vibration. The end came very rushing n the twist isn't that shocking. Generous with a 7 cos of some fine direction and as a fan of Joko Anwar.

I was supposed to be arriving in Bali, Indonesia yesterday, but thanks to Covid-19 that trip didn't go ahead. So I decided to do the next best thing and watch an Indonesian film. And I'm kind of glad I did. I'm not sure I've seen an Indonesian film before, and if this is my first taste then I'm okay with that. It wasn't a bad film by any stretch of the imagination.

I'm not exactly sure what the title 'Impetigore' means, but the word gore is in there and the film certainly had plenty of that. It falls back on that more often than not. It tries to scare you in a few places (not with a lot of success) but for the most part it would certainly rather gross you out. There was some pretty genuinely hard stuff to watch in the mix too I'd have to say. The stuff involving newborn babies was particularly tough. But that's what a good gore-based film does, it challenges its viewer to outlast it and stick through until the end. It's not supposed to be easy.

I really liked the opening scene and the very final scene in this movie. They bookended the film perfectly. I also liked how the movie always kept the viewer in the know about what was going on. It's never fun being confused in a horror film, so I was very pleased they did a good job of making it easy to follow. I had a good time with 'Impetigore' and would recommend it as a worth a look.

This movie exceeds my expectation from the usual indonesian horror movie genre. I've watched Pengabdi Setan and wasnt really impressed by it. So my expectation when watching this movie was not very high, but all that was gone just after seeing the opening scene. It was good, it was thrilling and full of tension, the scene captures my attention immediately. But as good as the opening scene were, the story especially the motives behind it all seems a little bit convoluted and forced. I do gave props for mr.anwar for setting up some takes as if it was gonna be a jumpscare but ended up didnt do it and then show us the take that completely took us by surprise. He reversed our expectation of jumpscare. The pacing is great, the lead actress and actors are great with the exception of the old lady and some extras, she overdone it a bit in my opinion. Also the use of language is rather odd, mixing jawa language and formal indonesian accent was kind of created an imbalance of the whole atmospheric feeling. It threw me off every time I hear it. It would've been better if they used full jawa accent, the lead with full jakarta's accent and didn't mix the two.

All and all this is a solid cinema work. Mr anwar managed to capture the eerieness of a small village, the horror of black magic and what the mob mentality of an isolated villagers can do.

I really like the visual tone of this movie. Joko Anwar always use shades of yellow lights and dim, making the audience's perception to get into the movie storyline. Traditional and cultural elements are blended in the details in several scenes. In my opinion this movie is the development of the Pengabdi Setan (Satan's Slave) movie, but equipped with many plot twists.

The set up of this film feels very convincing. The dialogue is pretty good. The interaction between characters in this film feels natural and believable.The setting and tone of this film is no doubt one of the best in Indonesian film history. One of my favorite aspect of this film is the depiction of a culture that feels sacred and real. This really helps bring up the feeling of uneasiness from the audiences.

After a convincing build up, the film feels like it ended in a hurry. The mysteries that have been built slowly from the start are forced to be answered in some flashbacks that are annoying and feel too long.The motivation of the villain feel poorly developed. At the end of this film, I feel there is a scene that can be compared to the "save Martha" scene which I think is quite stupid.

Maybe the problem with this film is rooted in the film's duration which is not long enough. This film can be a real masterpiece, but sadly this film did not reach its full potential. I really hope that Joko Anwar fix these problems in his next films.