La mujer del infierno

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.

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.

From the studio (or producer) that brought you 2016's "The Wailing", though in my opinion not as great, "Impetigore" is an evidence that Joko Anwar (Jokan) is ever ready to take the global market with his horror, mind-twisting work of art (or at least just Asia, or maybe the south-eastern part of the continent). It's an improvement of his directing, writing, and movie making skills; Plot-twist was unexpected to me (I had it figured in my mind, then I was like, "oh, it's nothing like I had thought before"). Blood cgi is already perfect, ghost cgi? not so, still need a lot of improvement. mature content was still shying away from being frontally shown, no wonder since we live in a country that BBC (or CNN? I kinda forgot which one) considers as "ultra-conservative country". There are still so much of bad horror movies produced in this country, some at least have a kind of storytelling and movie directing technique that even put Hollywood-own horror stories to shame. Korea, Japan, and Thailand are probably still kings in this matter, but I'm sure sooner or later Indonesia will catch up to those three thanks to the creative power of individuals like Jokan and the Mo Brothers. Oh talking about Mo Brothers, their next projects, "Ratu Ilmu Hitam" and "Sebelum Iblis Menjemput Ayat 2", will be released 3 weeks in the future and in the next year. Whether both will be the same level as, or even better than (or maybe worse than, please don't!!), "Impetigore" is a matter time will tell.

It is good enough, a bad movie, production value is surprisingly great for an Indonesian movie. I liked it, but it is not that scary, it is more of a mistery than a horror movie

Impetigore is the saviour of Indonesian horror in a currently formulated and oversaturated industry. Joko Anwar's ability to blend traditional mysticism with his trademark twists and directing is a feast to the eye.