Pocong the Origin

I was hooked by the synopsis and I thought it would be something. The movie is kinda unique for Indonesian horror, it tries to incorporate emotional thing in it with father-daughter relation. I was expecting something like Korean movie like The Host, The Wailing or Train to Busan in context of father-daughter emotional relation.

However the movie lost its way as the story progresses. The movie keeps giving you random ghost encounters which doesn't add to the story. Then at some point the MC just flips her switch and goes full melancholic with her father. The writer could have cut the random ghost encounters and build more emotion by elaborated more about their past. In conclusion, it had potential but it lost its way with too many random ghost encounter scenes which ultimately weakens the story and ending.

Sashti has to transport her father's corpse to his home village. However, unbeknownst to her, the villagers do not want the latter's corpse to be buried due to the fact that he was a murderer who possessed supernatural powers. Needless to say, Sashti, accompanied by a prison guard Yama and pursued by a relentless reporter, encounters unnatural occurrences. The plot does not seem interesting. It is like a roadtrip movie with a corpse. And this is what it is. There are decent ghost effects but no real scares. The characters are stock characters: the grieving daughter, the dead but loving dad, and the one who can deal with the supernatural. There are a few funny scenes and some attempts at scares but nothing to impress horror movie fans.

Monty Tiwa is one of the minds behind SinemArt's Pocong movie series (where is this PH right now?). I love Pocong 2 so much for its story and ambiance, and Pocong 3 for its color tone and jumpscares. Even though Pocong The Origin doesn't share similar universe (probably, because this movie produced by different PH), is it safe to say that this movie will be decent as his "predecessor"?

Well, consider from the synopsis, this movie sounds original due to many elements that are not often seen in the Indonesian film. Prison and capital punishment, horror road movie concept, and Pocong ... because it's the ghost that not showed much in the recent Indonesian horror movie. The 90 minutes, after the prison scenes, leaves me bored and confused due to the tame jumpscares and weird characters. At least, Samuel Rizal steals the show.

Samuel Rizal, as one of the actors that aren't that popular in the big screen, capable of doing broken accent with an innocent face that keeps making comedic remarks or gesture that makes me empathize to him. Something that probably wrong because all of the writing was focusing the drama/serious part to his main partner, Sasthi (whoever played her). I don't know what's wrong with this character, but the writing is confusing to just showing her fragile and doubtful self. This character uses most of her scenes to changing her mood quickly; from moody to quirky to funny to cranky, and to be moody again.

The mood swing also follows the plot. While the plot has many strong points, in the beginning, the whole movie which only showing suitable pre-teen jumpscares, ends with a stale resolution and weak twist, a twist that can be predicted easily and can't justify the whole movie. It's a pity, because of most of Pocong series, even the weaker one like "The Real Pocong," has a sharp twist.

To conclude my review, I think the writer/director doesn't know which is the right way for this movie. And they think it's a good idea to keep all ideas even if you have to make the main character confusing. With the tame jumpscares, I thought this current direction is fit to the younger audience who wants to give a shot in horror. But, it's awful to do that with your characters are poorly written. Again, for the first time since I last saw him, Samuel Rizal deserves praise, and with excellent writing and directing, Indonesia could have a decent comedy horror.

1. SUSPEND (SOUND CHECK AWESOME) 2. START OF STORY (SLOW BUT MYSTERIOUS) 3. HILARIOUS (YAMA SAVED THIS STORY) 4. ENDING (WHAT, SERIOUSLY, U SURE THIS IS THE ENDING)

OVERALL, OK OK. SIMPLE , SLOW, HILARIOUS