Takut: Faces of Fear

First of all I must say it's the first time I watched an Indonesian film and I think it was just possible because of film festivals like "Fantasporto" (A fantasy/horror festival that occurs every year in my hometown, Oporto – Portugal).

That said, I must say something else, I enjoyed the film a lot! I didn't know the Indonesian cinema but if all movies are like this one, I'm surprised, because it has a level of quality above my expectation. About this movie, it's a compilation of six horror/fantasy stories. All of them are nice and well done, but the ones I enjoyed better were the 2nd story entitled "Titisan Naya", the 3rd story called "Peeper" and the last story entitled "Dara". As told all the six stories are good and well produced, but I enjoyed the plot of those three better. Another detail I enjoyed in this movie was to "discover" that are very beautiful women in Indonesia! Almost all actresses in this film are gorgeous!

Definitely a good surprise! I score it 7/10.

I gave high ratings because, for what it is, an Indonesian horror film. The gore was just the right amount and not to shabby. Kind of like a cross between Tales From The Darkside and Tales from the Crypt, except without humor. I enjoyed it. I definitely would recommend this flick.

Several Indonesian folktales and scary stories are told through an anthology format.

The Good Stories: Incarnation of Naya-Heading off into the countryside, a mother and her daughter attempting to reconnect through a special ceremony stop off for a family get-together. When her intentions of seducing her long-lost cousin are inadvertently mixed up with the family's tradition of combating demons, she finds herself torn between the two worlds and must find a way of stopping it from continuing. This was quite an enjoyable and entertaining effort which has a lot going for it. Using the idea of her curiosity against their more traditional views is a solid starting point to use the ghostly haunting she soon undergoes, and once it turns out that she has interrupted the ceremony and forced the spirit world after her this one gets rather chilling. Those setups in the final half where the line between the spirit world and the real world offer some rather fun visuals, and this gives a lot of its positives from this style. There's not much about the purpose of their trip, but otherwise, there's some fun to be had here.

Peeper-Continually spying on women, a peeping tom is coerced into following a dancer at a local stripshow who enjoys being watched. When his instincts get the better of him and he tries to spy on her against her knowledge, he finds himself in the grip of a deadly supernatural force and must find a way to get out. Though incredibly predictable, there's a lot to like with this entry as it's quite erotic and traditional-feeling than in most other stories. The premise of temptation and then having it turned around on them with a darkly comic twist of fate is quite an enjoyable tale which gets quite a lot of effective moments. The central dance for the gathered hordes is insanely erotic and works incredibly well, and although the final reveal is to be expected it's still really chilling. It's about the only thing wrong here.

The List-Awaking after a strange dream, a man finds himself and his girlfriend under attack by a series of strange mystical attacks from an unknown source. When the attacks continue, he finds that they're under attack by a black magic sorcerer's power under the direction of his ex-girlfriend and must find a way of stopping the attacks. This one here was quite the fun and enjoyable offering, as the whole segment is a constant source of fun black magic curses dished out through the helping of a list. With some rather traditional affairs including attack by insects and strange marks on the body, there's plenty of gory work to be done throughout here and some even manage quite a darkly comic bent with his insistent pleading and her appearing on a TV to torment him only to have him turn it off and forcing her to spend money to have the power to go through the turned-off set. The ending twist is a little convoluted and doesn't make much sense, but overall it's quite an enjoyable offering.

The Rescue-Following a deadly viral outbreak, a team of soldiers find themselves tasked with securing a small group of survivors from the ravenous horde of zombies now roaming the city. With their personal ticks making the mission even harder, they try to find a way through the city and away from the hordes alive. This was quite the enjoyable and utterly effective entry as the fact that the focus on the traditional slow-moving zombies targeting the soldiers works incredibly well in context against the other stories. With some frenetic attacks that are chilling and action-packed with the squad forcing the issue with plenty of gunfire, there's a lot of great action here alongside the great zombie make-up and brutal gore. Though it stumbles with a hokey sociopolitical message at the end that feels tacked on due to the storyline, there's quite a lot to really like with this one.

The Bad Story: Show Unit-Following a series of strange break-ins, a man rushing to protect his home accidentally kills the younger sister of his girlfriend. Attempting to hide the incident from her pushes him into far more graphic and gruesome actions in order to keep it hidden, only for much worse situations to come once her body disappears. Frankly, there's very little about this one that reads as horror beyond the actual incident itself which is quite tragic. Tragic doesn't equate to horrific, though, and a great deal of what transpires from his having to kill off others to keep it secret or finding the mail messed with don't register as all that scary. Beyond the brutality of the kills, there's little of this one with any interest.

Dara-Consumed with violent impulses, a chief manages to keep her shockingly dark and disturbing ingredients for her meals a secret from all who attend her restaurant. When one threatens to get away, she resorts to violent and intense action to keep it safely hidden away from others. Although there's a lot to like here, it's also shockingly flawed in that the central activity is kept to a minimum which is what really works here. The scenes of her chasing after the escaped victim or forced to extremely graphic and gruesome dismemberment in order to keep her secret make for quite a fun time here, but very little of elsewhere is enjoyable. With a great deal of time spent on preparations or just dull chatter about what's going on, very little of it is interesting other than the fact of seeing the incredibly gorgeous woman on-screen engaging in these acts. Beyond that, not a lot really happens here.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Language and Brief Nudity.

I'm not really crazy about short movies, especially the ones displaying an array of types of a certain genre. A friend of mine took me to Faces of Fear, and looking at the poster I thought I was forced to watch some kind of 'scary movie for dummies' on a big screen. I mean: 6 stories, 7 directors, 1 scream: What is that, a tagline for a horror manual? I have to say that my skepticism mellowed after seeing these six stories. The animated introduction was pretty misleading though, as it gave me a middle-ages-vampire kind of vibe to the anthology. Then the first story starts and it could not be further away from the animation sphere as you land immediately in the scenery of an urban 'beau monde' housewarming party. It unfolds in a suspense drama of a man who's hiding a dark secret from his girlfriend and a cunning stranger who knows everything about this secret. An entertaining story, but not one that puts you on the tip of your scary seat.

The 'spirits' in the second story however does give you a bit of a startle. In 'titisan naya' A bored girl who shows more interest in her handsome cousin rather than her Javanese-family-weapon-cleansing ritual gets her 'lesson' from her long gone ancestors. Too bad this one had to be compressed into a short film because there were so many interesting elements and details (especially of the ritual) left unexplained.

There are two more stories that capture the Indonesian mysticism. In 'the peeper', a dangerously hot vixen who is also a Javanese dancer with a special interest in the human eye gets her grips on a sneaky peep freak janitor. Not so much scary, but Wiwied Gunawan puts down quite a show as the seductive exotic dancer-monster in disguise. Then there's 'the list', in which the performance of a dukun (the Indonesian version of a shaman) plays a main role in the game of vengeance between two ex lovers.

Gore and zombie aficionados get their turn with 'the rescue' and 'Dara'. Story-wise I think of 'the rescue' as the Indonesian short version of I am Legend and 28 days later. I'm afraid this story just passed me by quickly without leaving any further impressions. Perhaps this was meant to add some variation through action sequences in an otherwise mystically-laden anthology? Honestly, I wouldn't mind having to see a zombie filled village during a sacrifice ritual in one of the culturally rich areas of Indonesia. Perhaps that could turn out more scary or funny rather than this bland zombie story. Dara is slightly more interesting and that's mostly because of the stoic-sexy and evil man-eating chef performance by Shareefa Danish. She is hot, nasty and gross in this slaughter story and gives a whole new meaning to the word dinner-date.

So there you go, a blend of horror petit fours which is surprisingly in par with the more expensive Indonesian horror productions (think Jelangkung or the Pocong series). I would even say that this mini movie is better than the big budget ones because of its high level in potentially interesting stories. Let's hope they will highlight one soon for a real feature. One that really gets you screamin'.