Pernikahan Arwah

Stumbling upon the 2025 Indonesian horror movie "Pernikahan Arwah" (aka "The Butterfly House") by random chance here in 2025, of course I needed no persuasion to watch the movie, given my love of horror cinema and Asian cinema.

And since it was a movie that I had never heard about, nor knew anything about, except what little information the synopsis provided, then I would say that director Paul Agusta had every opportunity to entertain me with this movie.

However, writers Ario Sasongko and Aldo Swastia put together a rather sluggishly paced narrative. There was next to nothing happening throughout the course of the narrative, and that made it quite a struggle to sit though this movie. And believe me, it is a test of wills to suffer through the insanely prolonged 101 minutes that the movie trotted on for.

I was not familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, and that was actually something that spoke in favor of the movie. I do enjoy watching unfamiliar talents on the screen whenever I watch a movie. And despite the fact that the storyline was a snooze-fest, then the acting performances were still fair.

As much as I enjoy Asian horror, then I have to say that there are far, far better horror movies available in the Indonesian cinema. "Pernikahan Arwah" just simply failed to stand out or prove particularly entertaining or watchable.

My rating of Paul Agusta's 2025 movie "Pernikahan Arwah" lands on a generous two out of ten stars.

The concept is about Chinese-Indonesia culture, specifically about 2 worlds: the death and the living, and the haunted old house. Typical, but interesting enough. The ambiance was well built: the old Chinese wooden house, spacious courtyard, separated rooms and arch accent on the backyard. Even the furniture were illustrating the 1920s really well. But, something are missing here. The acting. The expression was just...blank! The actors and actresses didn't absorbed the characters, it seems like they only read the script. The male lead character looked like a brick, and the female lead character looked like she was stunt after doing drugs, her gesture was always so tense and uncomfortable. Seriously, they didn't look like they're getting married, instead they're getting divorced. The supporting characters were only good at shouting "anjing" lol. The best part of this movie is the ghost/dead body's make up.