Santet Segoro Pitu

This movie is based on the old (or the original) Javanese culture pre-Islam. The depictions of various ghosts and curses are quite accurate despite some adjustments to cater for the bigger audience (not just Javanese).

The movie plot is centered around the hustle and bustle of life in a traditional wet market in Semarang, Central Java. Most javanese merchants believe that a certain kind of magic can be used as a tool to attract customers, but it always come with a price. This movie quite accurately depicts how the rituals are done according to the old ways.

Don't trust the negative reviews, as a native Javanese, this movie is the closest you get to understand the old Javanese supernatural world.

Granted, while I was not familiar with the 2024 Indonesian horror movie "Santet Segoro Pitu" (aka "Curse of the Seven Oceans"), as I stumbled upon it here in 2025, of course I opted to watch it, given my love of horror movies and Asian cinema in general. I had never heard about this movie, so I virtually had no idea what I was in for, nor what to expect. And on that note, I suppose director Tommy Dewo had every opportunity to entertain and impress me.

Writer Riheam Junianti put together an interesting script and storyline. Sure, one might argue that it was it was a bit generic, but it still proved to be enjoyable and entertaining. It was a pretty straightforward storyline, though.

Of the entire cast ensemble, I was only familiar with actress Sara Wijayanto. The acting performances in the movie were good.

Something that definitely impressed me and added a lot to the overall impression of the movie was the special effects. The special effects in the movie were good, and the designs of the various apparitions and Hellish entities were good. I certainly liked that part of the movie.

I was surprised with the blood and gore in the movie, as there were some pretty visceral scenes. And the death scenes are nicely made. I like how writer Riheam Junianti didn't discriminate against characters both main and supportive. No one in the movie was essentially safe, and there were some surprising death scenes. That certainly added a nice twist to the movie.

My rating of director Tommy Dewo's 2024 movie "Santet Segoro Pitu" lands on a six out of ten stars.

After a series of strange incidents, the youngest son of a family gradually learns that the incidents are due to the remnants of a curse placed on the family by a wronged deal made against the family years ago, and must seek out a spiritual healer to help the family combat it and save themselves.

For the most part, this one has quite a lot to like about it. One of the better elements here is the general twisting and complex storyline that manages to incorporate some intriguing elements alongside some outright chilling factors. The initial setup of the black magic curse against the family and the resulting hints of supernatural activity that follow start the film quite nicely, from the son receiving the gift of the spiritual third eye as a kid following the life-saving surgery and his constant visions of ghosts or spirits following him to the encounter as a teen when the attacks start occurring on the rest of the family. It hints at just enough of a family life in the intervening years since the incident that we get to know who everyone is and plant the seeds of a potential instigator for the curse as a means of getting back at the family for the success of their shop sales. Spending a nice bit of time also looking into the potential type of black magic being used so that their friend who knows about various types of evil forces can find ways of saving everyone by enacting against this type of malevolent practice, how this uncover the truth about the actual guilty party and brings them together to fight back against their dark rituals provides a solid backing story to the film. On top of that, the film goes for the jugular with a series of brutal and high-intensity hauntings and curses. With the first scenes showing random strangers or visions of demonic spirits lurking around him and his family, the early section operates more as a traditional supernatural haunting due to the sudden appearance of the various spirits creeping up out of the darkness. As it grows in intensity to include the demonic beings coming to cause physical harm to the family, the stakes start rising as the father falls to the curse before spreading to the rest of the family. That the son still manages to see these spirits tormenting everyone helps to keep the urgent and frenetic tempo established, and the type of encounters present starts shifting to demonstrate the onset of the curses coming to life. As nails are piercing the body from within, invisible forces manipulate the body into unnatural positions, breaking bones along the way, or being forced to vomit up insects or animals, among other curses. The effects of the curses taking shape add to the atmosphere rather well. The final half, where the black magic battles take place, focuses on both positive and negative factors. As the brother and sister are the only ones left alive, their battle to retrieve the various ingredients to stop the black magic unfolding is awkward and clunky, as rather than going for the spirits to impede the progress, they stand by watching it go down, waiting for something to happen instead of preventing anything. It also feels rushed and doesn't have the adventure or quest-like feel of setting off on a journey to gather the means of stopping the curse from taking over their family, as it misses a big sense of urgency required. Still, the physical confrontations are quite fun once they return to the house and try to put it into motion as that requires the spirits to finally interact with them providing some solid action along the way, only if you're able to overcome the shoddy CGI work for the creatures, who come off impressively in concept but silly in execution. Beyond that, the main issue here is the generally formulaic storyline. The overall storyline about the family suffering the indignities of the curse as a result of foolish and reckless actions taken in the past against a vengeful figure that sets everything in motion against them as a means of revenge is pretty standard in the scene and doesn't offer up much new or original. The use of secondary characters with specific purposes designed to inform them of what's going on or set them on their way to carry out preventative actions to stop it is pretty expected and mandatory, continuing the sense of familiarity found throughout here. Explaining more in depth about the nature of the original incident that set the curses in motion would've helped as well, with the actual motivation being immensely petty and unnatural for that to be the genuine cause for the supernatural attacks to start. The retaliatory strikes make complete sense, but it's the start that feels underwhelming and underwritten, lacking the deeply personal layering that would justify going through the process. These are what manage to hold it down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Language, and violence-against-children.

Look I wasn't expecting the exorcist or the witch but damn the only good thing about this movie was the kills. The special effects were laughable. There was no chemistry with these actor's and the performances were bad. I hope I'm not cursed for having watched this movie. This movie I've had so much potential. It's not normally hard to follow a movie when trying to read the subtitles but this was def a challenge. Overall there were no good jump scares. The monster was tall but not intimidating at all. This movie failed at everything it was trying to do except the kills. This is 90 minutes of pure torture. Tim Treakle.