Affliction

After hearing of his mother's ill health, a man and his family return to her house to help tend to her, but the more they spend time together with her come upon a series of incidents that point to a startling mystery that ties together their history and forces her to race to solve the mystery and save her family.

Overall, this one features quite a lot to enjoy. Among the better elements here is the strong central setup that offers a fine storyline to play with quite nicely. The first half supports the idea of his work life taking up an extreme amount of time in their relationship and the kids needing time for themselves as well making for a grounded family drama. Furthering this is the arrival of the nurse who has claims of his mother's ill-falling health and their need to visit which provides the catalyst to uncovering the relationship at the heart of the film involving his wife and mother. There's a fantastic job created here as to whether or not the reason for the mother's hostility towards her is because she's naturally that way or under the influence of something sinister living in the house which is milked to perfection. With the relationship strained at the start and their marriage being tested by the revelations brought about, these events are woven together into a fantastic drama that's exceptionally enjoyable and carries a lot of the positive factors experienced. This setup manages to provide the framework for the film to launch into some terrifying moments. The incidents here start off rather innocently, with the claim of not knowing the nurse which is to be expected before the turn into more genuine supernatural haunts. With the son showing signs of making an imaginary friend at the house no one else sees, the jump-scares of seeing figures standing behind them unnoticed, or odd behavioral outbursts, there are the barest of hints that something is going on but not knowing what. As time goes on and the family spends more time at the house, the revelations about the ghost following them around and the connection involving the family becomes far more involved and chilling which keep piling on nicely to the rest of the experiences they've encountered to generate the kind of action here that's unexpected from what came before. This all gives everything a fine touch that's quite chilling and has a lot to like about it. There are some minor issues keeping the film down. The main drawback is the more dramatic approach present that never really kicks the pacing into a higher gear. Despite a slew of revelations and mysteries surrounding what's going on, there's never a sense that the stakes are all that high and threatening which ends up making for a slightly less thrilling time with the majority of the incidents not being all that malicious. With an atmosphere based on seeing things that aren't there and not knowing that the ghost is standing around them unknowingly, it's chilling enough to work but does need more of an emphasis on actual activity to feel even more impactful. That doesn't come about until the finale which is a bit of a wait until the film really turns into a genre-focused effort which can be a turn-off for some. As well, there are some obvious cliches present in the setup that undermines some of the action here, with the husband not listening to the wife, the children being disrespectful for no reason than to prolong the plot, and the childhood tragedy at the center of everything that leaving this one slightly problematic with these issues.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.

Suspense is seldomly used in Indonesian Horror. The majority take the formula of "apparitions x100, then one last explanation at the end" to answer all the questions. Luckily, albeit the formula is still used partially in this movie, Soeriaatmadja doesn't make his horror debut full of jumpscares and employ a better plot.

What I like the most about the film, Soeriaatmadja knows that current streaming viewers have different taste in horror. He doesn't hurry to give everything, instead he unravels the mystery in chunks one at the time. This ride isn't perfect, since the story is quite simple and left a little to imagination. But, Raihaanun, the main female character, manages to act with the depth of her background with her appearances and perils.

Unfortunately, Raihaanun's character makes other characters (even his husband, whose supposed to be a child psychologist but looks like a workaholic-dad/jerk lol), feel too one-dimensional. Much of the characters seem to be a filler to stretch the duration without any importance to the plot. If you could overlook this, I think Affliction is a nice movie, though it's indifferent to others.

Teddy Soeriaatmadja's debut horror feature relies on atmosphere and suspense rather than gore and jump-scares. Unfortunately, 'Affliction' ends up totally bland. The plot is pretty straight forward but the tone of the film is all over the place; there are moments where you really aren't sure if you're supposed to feel emotional or scared - so you end up doing neither. This film manages to make you feel nothing. Pretty disappointing because most of the performances are good.