I've been finding Indonesian horror movies to be pretty enjoyable. This one was no exception, although it doesn't come close to Witch with Flying Head, for example.
This one involves the interplay between good and evil. The movie begins with a Muslim burial, a body in a white shroud being put on its right side facing Mecca, covered with wooden planks at an angle, then covered with dirt. A voice recites Arabic, probably verses from the Quran.
A family has suffered the death of the mother. The father, son and daughter live together with a wheezing old caretaker. The son is visited at night by a corpse-like woman with bulging white eyes lacking irises. In some respects, he thereafter acts possessed. He visits a fortuneteller for help, who says his family is in danger and he can protect them with black magic. He begins reading up on horror and other topics.
The fortuneteller shows up at the house as the new live-in maid, saying nothing of her fortunetelling. The son continues to act odd and see the woman in white, who his sister glimpses as well. The caretaker urges them to pray. The daughter visits an outdoor disco and has a friend who urges her to try a shaman.
There are additional deaths, and a mysterious man whose attempts to speak to the father at his work and at home are rudely put off.
As the DVD box states, the movie "use(s) Islamic beliefs in dealing with the subject of the undead." This makes it somewhat novel, although really one could substitute in a Christian and nothing would have changed much.
The DVD box also calls this "an Indonesian version of the cult horror film PHANTASM." This is a bit hard to figure. They're both low-budget horror movies. However, the most characteristic properties of Phantasm were the tall man, the dwarfs, and the spheres. There's nothing like that here, or the portal or embalming fluid. Some broken glass flies around, there's a scene with a motorbike in a cemetery, and there is an old hearse with relatively short men (but not little people) carrying a casket. Beyond that, I can't figure out what connection was seen.
Regrettably, there are several points in the movie where the DVD was poorly made and the entire screen, including the letterboxing is covered with large colorful pixels (though the subtitles can still be seen).
