An initial start to review this movie, I'd like to say this is one of the best horror movies I've ever seen. I'm a cinephile and a horror addict, but don't get me wrong, I'm still in love with The Conjuring, Ju-On, Insidious trilogy, As Above So Below, The Exorcist etc. But this movie is a whole lot of new experience where you can see Syamsul Yusof, the director and actor of Munafik, gave such huge potential to create a shivering amount of fright to the audience.
This is not a typical horror movie which can always be seen in three objective ways; a haunted house, an exorcist and a trip to a haunted location. There's an exorcism part in Munafik but it doesn't pin it as the main story. The movie is basically about Adam who is a medical practitioner in a village, but things start to get dimmed when his wife is met with a car accident. With his frustration, he stops to treat people until he eventually decides to treat Maria, and strange things start to happen in his life.
Nabila Huda, who acted as Maria in the movie, should give a standing ovation. You can never see a Malay actress pulling off her career acting like how she did.
Maybe some of you won't know the meaning of Munafik; Munafik is a person who pretends to be a believer of Islam when he does not.
For those of you who don't know, this movie is at the first spot in Malaysia to being the highest grossing in local history! Polis Evo, Ola Bola, Boboiboy, which some of you have might heard, are now on the second, fourth, and fifth spots respectively.
I gave this movie a full-star mainly due to its rare type of horror. In one of the exorcisms, the devil talked in Arab language which is new to a horror movie. The build-ups of suspense in the story was a huge success. The cinematography was almost perfect and the screen writing was absolutely outstanding! Also, there's a lot of moral values to learn and lie deep within this movie. If you're a Muslim or non- Muslim, you would still get the lessons throughout the whole movie. The climax ending and revelations pulled off to its highest peak, you can never guess the ending to this story. There were just too much of revelations but in a systematic manner.
If you're scared of The Conjuring, this movie will scare the hell out of you in multiple times. Go watch it! I've watched this movie 10 times in the cinemas!
