Roh

A creepy & ill-omened folk horror that invokes its eerie vibe, foreboding tone & uncomfortable aura from the remote wilderness setting its plot operates in, Roh (Soul) relies on its minimalist style, relaxed pace & central mystery to envelop the viewers into its grasp and only gets more unnerving as it progresses. There are however a few confusing bits in it that go over the head.

Directed by Emir Ezwan in his directorial debut, the story concerns a family of three who live an isolated life in the forest but soon find their quiet existence disrupted after the arrival of a mysterious girl with an unsettling prediction. Ezwan's direction exhibits ample restraint as he allows the sinister atmosphere to set up gradually and lets each scene play out in its entirety.

Assisting the director in bringing his vision to life on the screen is the methodical camerawork, brilliant sound design & restless score. Every new stranger turning up at the family's doorstep only amplifies the film's dark, ominous mood with their undisclosed identity & intention. As for the performances, the amateurish & unpolished acts aren't a plus but they're still serviceable.

Overall, Roh combines folklore, superstitions, spirits, omens, sickness, devilry, death, rituals & premonitions into a bleak & unforgiving fable of a family that gets ruthlessly torn apart by evil forces. The final act runs longer than required plus the local flavours & context at play remain lost on foreign viewers but this indie art-house horror from Malaysia is oddly fascinating if not wholly satisfying.

One of the best supernatural horror of the year. Without a heavy plot and special effects, this film rellies a lot on the jungle. Great cinematography and creepy atmosphere. A well done slow burn horror.

I feel pretty down the middle on this one. I was invested, but maybe not riveted. It delivers the necessities competently, never feeling derivative, but not totally something you haven't seen before. I couldn't always see where it was going, but I wasn't that surprised when it got there. It's the pinnacle of the slow burn, taking it's time but properly peppering in some shockingly morose scenes, and definitely not shying away from violence towards children. The cinematography is lovely, though that generally just amounts to a multitude of slow shots of the jungle, the droning music hammers home the moody atmosphere.

I don't wanna come off too harshly, it's clearly an indie picture due to how sparse it all is, but it looks great and the performances are excellent. Basically everyone involved did good at their jobs, which is a pretty solid accomplishment for first time director Emir Ezwan. The minimalism is a bit of a patience tester, so it'll be down to individual tastes how effective that is. If you're a fan of folk horror and stuff like The Witch, this might be up your alley. It feels like a wise old sage spinning a dark tail of the evils of the old world, delivered at a steady, deliberate pace with very little light at the end of the tunnel.

The plot is simple. It is about a mother and her 2 kids. One day they were visited by a little girl who woke up the next day with a prophesy that the whole family will be killed by the next full moon. They were then visited by 2 strangers and strange events followed. One of the stranger reminds me of Hantu Galah, a man who went out one day to find a white deer for his pregnant wife. He ended up killing all the animals and cursed by the jungle spirits. He never came home.

But Roh is not a story about Hantu Galah. It is something else.

It is not a horror about screams. It is a horror movie that gives you feels and that is scary.

There are no special and cheap gimmicky effects that flood many horror films. Either I have not seen that many horror films as I would like to claim, I could not recall any borrowed scenes from Western horror movies to induce fear and screams.

It moves on a glacial pace ( maybe too slow for some kot) bringing audience shudder as it slowly moves from one scene to the next.

Without a heavy plot and special effects, Roh relies a lot on the jungle for its soul. The cinematography is excellent that it feels like a disservice to call it as an insta-worthy scenes in motion for a movie that is cheap in budget but high on class.

The ending makes you want to watch it all over again, to catch back what you missed before. There is a good message behind the movie. From the opening where it quoted Quran verses to the end, it made me wonder why the characters did not notice the signs in the middle. Why must you be reminded of God by evil?

Try and watch this. To me, when a movie refused to escape from my mind immediately but chose to meander in my thoughts urging me to blog, it is a good movie.

I am usually the first to dissent from saying that a certain film is the foreign equivalent of another, but in this case the comparison helps me identifying the tone and target audience of who will appreciate this film.

It's a slow burn, devoid of any mainstream sensationalism that makes the horror genre suffer lately. It's definitely more of an arthouse work, that cares more about constructing a narrative than making the audience get a heart attack.

Like, as I learned, most of the latter horror films from far east, Roh draws from local folklore. What makes Roh more interesting is the sense of mystery that sorrounds the events.

In a clear choice, the dialogue is minimal and there is heavy subtraction. In other words, much is implied, not said, assumed, and this makes the ending, although clear, with unanswered questions.

I mentioned "The Witch" because the tone is very similar, although the setting is somewhat radically different, and the different culture makes the seemingly similar plots very radically different.

Roh is Emir Ezwan's directorial debut, and as such, it is outstanding. I hope that we get to see more from him in the near future.

I have seen "Roh" at the Far East Film Festival Online. Despite the first "official" screening is on the 3rd of July, all the films of the films can be seen at any time during the festival days.