Kuntilanak

I've been watching a fair bit of Indonesian cinema lately and truth be told I kind of like what I see and for the most part that applies to Kuntilanak.

It tells the story of a group of children who are forced to battle a mysterious creature that preys on the young and steals them away.

The opening sequence immediately got my attention, it was excellent. For this reason I had high hopes, but sadly a couple of things stopped the film from really meeting its potential.

First of all the comedy. If the film isn't an intentional horror comedy then for the most part comedy should be kept clear or a horror, it takes away the fear element and just stops you taking the whole thing seriously.

Second the kids, children are the leads of the film which is never good. Five of them leading in a film of this type? Imagine if you merged The Ring (2002) with the Goonies (1985) and that is basically what you have here.

Kuntilanak's creature effects are great, they adopt the traditional Asian style of scary black haired undead lady perfectly and for that reason this should have been a scary film. The method of which they use the scares also are very good, but they're sadly watered down by the kids. Goofy child actors running away from something that is actually scary, it just didn't work for me.

If they'd played this whole thing serious, added some actual threat to the kids or better yet not have kids at all then this film would have been fantastic.

Moral of the story, kids suck.

The Good:

Incredible opening

A lot of potential

Creature looks great

Awesome scares

The Bad:

Goofy sound effects

Poor cgi

Annoying children

Inconsistent tone

If you want to make a kids movie, use better theme instead of ghost. So many scenes taken from other movies, i mean please grow up and be more creative instead. Indonesian ghost stories are always good but please do not use western style of horror effect on Indonesian ghosts story. Research more and return to indonesian style instead of James Wan's style. This is fully a good critics for you mr Rizal Mantovani, i know you're a good filmmaker

This movie is about 5 kids discovering that their orphanage is haunted by a spooky ghost attached to a mirror that was brought to their residence.

The Tldr: A super cliche horror "comedy" about 5 kids attempting to prove and defeat the hindi demon that is haunting their orphanage. The antagonist is as cliche as it gets, acting is mediocre, and it's some weird Indonesian Goonies stuff. Skip it, and just watch the damn Goonies. And it's not funny BTW. They attempt to make it a "comedy" by using the same stupid cartoon sound effect 30+ times throughout the movie.

Now for a more detailed criticism. Let's start with the plot. As I have stated, it's basically a C-list Indonesian Goonies. Mixed with Oculous. Nothing fun or original about it. The antagonist, well, it's your typical "spooky woman" with awful CGI and it doesn't even attempt to look scary or original. The acting is terrible. Well... I don't speak Indonesian. But my buddy Aziz says it's pretty bad.

It was okay enough to barely keep my attention for it's short runtime, but if I were to ever watch this movie again, it would be far too soon.

I have been finding a lot of gems as far as foreign, Asian directed movies go, but this ain't it.

Kuntilanak (2018) delivers a horror story with a more teen-friendly approach, blending supernatural elements with adventure. The film successfully creates a spooky atmosphere with decent visual effects and effective jumpscares. The performances, especially from the child actors, are solid, though some dialogues feel unnatural. However, the storyline is quite predictable and lacks depth, making it less gripping for hardcore horror fans. Despite this, Kuntilanak remains an entertaining watch, especially for those looking for a light horror film without overly disturbing scenes or excessive violence.

This has been my first experience with Indonesian horror, and while Kuntilanak is far from a masterpiece it made for quite an enjoyable watch. This is the sort of film for which one would have to lower their expectations and take the cultural differences into account. While obviously made for younger viewers (and yet containing certain features and scenes I personally wouldn't want my young ones to watch before their tweens) Kuntilanak has some pretty great qualities:

First, it feels like a nightmare, but an actual authentic one, "realistic", unlike many Hollywood attempts of portraying scenarios allegedly originating from nightmares that simply break immersion and suspense of disbelief.

Second, it takes normal everyday things from children's lives like a mischievous laughter and twists them, deforms them into a cacophony that combined with the dark eerie mood becomes truly terrifying.

Third, one would think the exaggerated comic reliefs presented by the children's infantile interactions with each other and with the other characters (made all the more apparent and dominant by changes in soundtrack and sound effects) would damage (if not completely ruin) the dark mood and fear factor, as well it should! But it somehow doesn't. On the contrary, it makes the following scary scenes that much more terrifying.

All in all, while I can't ignore the film's shortcomings (for instance, I went to sleep before the final 30 minutes and continues the next night, which isn't a very flattering thing to say about a film from the horror genre which is supposed to be suspenseful and compelling) I must admit that I enjoyed it quite a bit. Far from great, but definitely good (in my opinion) for anyone willing to momentarily change their standards and open their minds.