Santet Segoro Pitu

This movie is based on the old (or the original) Javanese culture pre-Islam. The depictions of various ghosts and curses are quite accurate despite some adjustments to cater for the bigger audience (not just Javanese).

The movie plot is centered around the hustle and bustle of life in a traditional wet market in Semarang, Central Java. Most javanese merchants believe that a certain kind of magic can be used as a tool to attract customers, but it always come with a price. This movie quite accurately depicts how the rituals are done according to the old ways.

Don't trust the negative reviews, as a native Javanese, this movie is the closest you get to understand the old Javanese supernatural world.

Granted, while I was not familiar with the 2024 Indonesian horror movie "Santet Segoro Pitu" (aka "Curse of the Seven Oceans"), as I stumbled upon it here in 2025, of course I opted to watch it, given my love of horror movies and Asian cinema in general. I had never heard about this movie, so I virtually had no idea what I was in for, nor what to expect. And on that note, I suppose director Tommy Dewo had every opportunity to entertain and impress me.

Writer Riheam Junianti put together an interesting script and storyline. Sure, one might argue that it was it was a bit generic, but it still proved to be enjoyable and entertaining. It was a pretty straightforward storyline, though.

Of the entire cast ensemble, I was only familiar with actress Sara Wijayanto. The acting performances in the movie were good.

Something that definitely impressed me and added a lot to the overall impression of the movie was the special effects. The special effects in the movie were good, and the designs of the various apparitions and Hellish entities were good. I certainly liked that part of the movie.

I was surprised with the blood and gore in the movie, as there were some pretty visceral scenes. And the death scenes are nicely made. I like how writer Riheam Junianti didn't discriminate against characters both main and supportive. No one in the movie was essentially safe, and there were some surprising death scenes. That certainly added a nice twist to the movie.

My rating of director Tommy Dewo's 2024 movie "Santet Segoro Pitu" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Look I wasn't expecting the exorcist or the witch but damn the only good thing about this movie was the kills. The special effects were laughable. There was no chemistry with these actor's and the performances were bad. I hope I'm not cursed for having watched this movie. This movie I've had so much potential. It's not normally hard to follow a movie when trying to read the subtitles but this was def a challenge. Overall there were no good jump scares. The monster was tall but not intimidating at all. This movie failed at everything it was trying to do except the kills. This is 90 minutes of pure torture. Tim Treakle.