Malam Pencabut Nyawa

Troubled by horrific dreams and visions, a teen learns that his grief can allow him to access a realm of the undead where they lie in wait to haunt the living, and when a fellow student arrives claiming to be able to help him understand everything must deal with a demonic spirit controlling it.

This was a generally solid and overall enjoyable genre effort. Among the better elements of this one comes from the rather strong and well-intentioned storyline that provides a fun starting point for what's to come. Initially being introduced to the character, trying to come to terms with the grief of his parents dying in front of him in a car accident that he couldn't do much to help them, the haunting memories are exacerbated by the torment of them coming back in spectral form to eat at him further, making for a generally strong start. As we get to see his grief manifest not just in how his relationship is strained with his surviving family members taking care of him, but also the failing school-work and being more concerned with getting a handle on what his dreams mean, the start to this one comes across with a solid series of ideas to get everything going. It's when the introduction of the friend from school who knows about what's going on in his head that the storyline starts to come together. With the dreams being interpreted as his connection to a realm for the undead to reside in while waiting for a chance to contact the living, and him being able to stay conscious during this time when others shouldn't, it introduces a genuinely intriguing idea. Rather than presenting this as a teen-oriented drama, the fact that it goes for a more involved second half with the search for the secret of their hallucinations, which leads them back to the remote village supposedly at the center of the hauntings that's quite fun overall. On top of this strong setup, there's also a lot to like with the implications of this supernatural realm taking place. The first encounters with the deformed spirits of his parents, appearing to torment him, make for a strong, suspenseful start, with the unnatural look and sudden appearance of everything happening around him giving this some shocking moments. When it starts incorporating the dream-world into what's going on and the implications of how the spirits are coming for him, the scares pick up considerably with the revelation of the spirits residing in that realm trapped inside and have to await outside forces to come after them so not only are the storyline implications connection but the action works quite well whenever we journey into this twisted environment. Featuring plenty of impressive creatures and chilling imagery, it all helps make for a lot to like, while there are some issues that bring this down. The main issue here is that the film tends to lose a lot of steam once it develops into a series of supernatural battles taking place in the spirit dimension. Bringing aboard a main villain to defeat at that stage of the game with little to no build-up other than just a generic spirit bent on domination, feels weak and unearned, especially with their being more time spent on understanding how to conquer the process of transporting there instead of anything else. Dealing with this also means the film runs on way too long for what it should, forcing a series of fights that are fun enough in concept but are undone by horrendous CGI work that leaves everything feeling mundane and rather familiar. It's not a huge issue, but enough to drive this one down enough.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.