Primbon

Horror Indonesian movies in these past years have become significantly better with its new releases. Although the quality of each movie varies from the generic jumpscare-filled movies to actual neatly-executed movies, the general improvement of the quality is quite impressive. But this movie, is something else.

Initially, the storyline had some sort of structure. But over time, the movie just progressed to the worse. All of the characters have no prominent personality which failed the audience, not even the main characters have that. They also have nearly no character development, so for the most part, the dialogues felt a bit forced. Even those who can actually act were not saved in this movie.

The story itself which was initially promising was all over the place. By the lack of the character developments and the lack of characters' chemistry towards each other, it just made the storyline didn't go as smooth as other movies. The detaiIs of the movie were also not given out nicely. It really did start off promising, but the execution was done poorly.

At least, the background of the movie was quite spot-on especially for those who were brought up from Javanese culture. But other than that, there was really nothing good about this movie.

To be honest, I don't remember the last time I watched a movie this bad. I don't even remember the last time I rated a movie 1/10 stars. But it really is that bad. Please don't waste your time watching this.

The movie's start was like any other horror movie I have watched so I wasn't expecting to be as bad as it was. The movie stayed pretty chill and horror at the start but I was already think at this point that there should have been a horror scene but I didn't think much of it. Then after a long wait, Finally the music started to get tense so I was fully expecting a very horror scene but then it was just a Jumpscare and it wasn't horror at all as the girl had a normal face with no blood or scratches and stuff. I stared to get mad at this point as nothing too horror had happened yet. The whole movie went like this with absolutely almost any horror scenes and I think that it should not be put In a horror category but rather an emotional category as it that would suit it much better. So overall it is like a 0.1/10 but I can't rate that low, I would recommend not to waste 1 hour 30 minutes of your life on this movie, your time is much more precious.

For your information, Primbon is something that kinda like Fengshui in China. It is a Javanese system of astrology and divination that uses "weton" calculations (based on the day of birth and the market day) to predict and anticipate events in a person's life.

The story revolved around the conflict from elderly who still believe in it and the one who doesn't wanna believe in it but can't believe what just happened.

This movie doesn't have the jumpscare, nor the "sexy-looking girls" that usually exist in casual Indonesian horrors.

The cast were also good, the accent is kinda perfect (not like that the one that "forced" to read Javanese language).

But if you're looking for usual horror with lots of jumpscare, this is not for you.

What is the overarching moral lesson derived from the narrative? Are we to place our trust in Primbon? Favoring superstition over medical consultation? Should we abstain from venturing into the mountains on purportedly "cursed days"?

Despite the inclusion of renowned famous actors and visually stunning locations, the film is hampered by bad and deficiency of a compelling storyline. The narrative, intended to elicit a sense of trepidation, stumbles in its execution, rendering the purported fright factor ineffectual and contributing to an overall experience that is marked by an unanticipated awkwardness and lackluster quality. While it endeavors to instill a sense of fear, the execution ultimately falls short, resulting in a rather lackluster and awkward ending scenes.

After going missing in the woods, a young woman returns to her home a week later where everyone tries to make sense of what happened and try to get on like normal, but when more superstitious members of the family question the situation her mother is forced to confront her daughter's darkest past.

For the most part, this one is pretty solid for what it is. Among the films' better features is the involved and complex storyline that provides a wholly intriguing attempt at localizing local folklore into a more traditional genre effort. The majority of the work here revolves around the titular book and interpreting the work inside, drawing connections to a person's fate based on the sayings found within the book. Since it requires specific instructions to carry out properly and the family is trying to go against these rituals, it becomes no surprise that the sisters are so convinced something is wrong with her once she returns. This type of familial conflict where they're so sure that she's not who left them earlier which is seen as superstitious nonsense to be written off by others even if the signs might be proven right creates a wholly intriguing setup. In addition to this setup, the film is rather fun when dealing with the supernatural hauntings based on this setup. Since the aunts are so convinced that something's wrong, the series of hauntings and encounters here initially are focused on them as they're the ones who know the truth as the first scenarios are focused on them seeing or believing that something off is happening involving worms crawling over objects, maggots erupting from the skin, or other unnatural activity where she tends to appear out of nowhere scaring someone with a knowing smirk. As the superstitions in the village spread and more start to believe the stories about her true state, the build-up to the specific ritual that takes up the finale has some merit and comes off quite nicely as a result where the series of interactions with the family who are trying to put everything right according to their beliefs even if they don't go with her conviction that the daughter is fine this whole time. Once the ceremony starts, the big twist about what's going on makes for a great reveal and makes for a touching statement on the nature of what the ghost is returning for. This adds a somewhat touching core to what it's doing and all makes or a solid enough feature. There are a few factors here holding it back. The main issue is the use of a rather banal mother-daughter relationship that tries to be the emotional core of the film but feels incredibly flat. Even though there are numerous instances of the fiery nature she has trying to protect her daughter from others and get their relationship back to normal, it feels way too forced as to why she's so reluctant to do anything to ensure nothing's wrong with the daughter. Regardless of the nature of their protests, the aunts do have valid points about something not being right since the return and to outright ignore it all simply because she's got her daughter back makes the protests feel hollow as if it all could've been avoided had something been done from the start. Also, the whole point of the book is so important to determine what's going on with her that it's all but ignored throughout here in favor of just being expected to know what it is. Rather than take a look through one to compare what's going on, the assumption of what is going on and how it all connects is glossed over which is somewhat unfortunate as it's such a big part of the film. As a whole, these are the main issues with the film.

Rated Unrated/PG-13: Violence and Language.