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After the
mysterious disappearance of two Korean
reporters, a news team from Voice of Korea goes to the
small town of Angkerbatu in Indonesia to investigate
what happened to their colleagues. When they arrive,
they quickly realize that they're the only ones there.
There's not a single person in sight. What terrible
things occurred in this town, and will they be next?
After just having laughed my way through Terowongan
Casablanca, I wasn't really looking forward to seeing
another Indonesian horror flick. Angkerbatu also did
provide a couple of laughs along the way, but this time
they were intentional. This surprisingly good spin on
the ghost town concept is both clever, funny and even
occasionally suspenseful. The jump scenes won't
necessarily scare anyone but I think that these guys
deserve a big applause considering how atrocious most
Indonesian horror flicks are.
The movie takes place in the small town called
Angkerbatu, thus the title, where Asia’s biggest golf
course is currently being built. What no one knows is
that the place where they're building the golf course
is haunted - and not just by one ghost. Two reporters
from South Korea who are on the site go missing and a
news team from the same TV-channel is sent out to
investigate the mysterious disappearances. When they
arrive, the town is completely deserted, only a young
woman in a state of shock is found. After investigating
further into the matter, they soon start to realize
that the town is indeed haunted - and they're right in
the middle of the ghost season.
There are many factors about this movie that surprised
me as they are clearly up to par with higher budget
productions. Angkerbatu can almost be described as a
low-budget mix between 28 Weeks Later and Severance.
It's got the concept from 28 Weeks Later and the
wittiness of Severance - something which is very
unusual to find in Indonesian horror flicks. The jokes
are actually both subtle and funny. Unfortunately, the
horror aspect of the movie doesn't work quite as well
though. The scares are obvious and far from shocking.
The tension isn't thick enough, even though there are
some suspenseful scenes in here (the scene at the
supermarket is to die for). And the ghosts just don't
look very creepy to me. Had I run into one of these
ghosts I would probably have said "Oh, excuse me,
you gave me a little fright" and then moved on as
I wouldn't have reflected on the possibility that they
might be ghosts. I'm not sure if you understood that
part but it's not important.
I also want to applaud the director for using some
very innovative and effective angles, he's clearly
seen a lot of horror flicks in his days. The chaotic
panic scene towards the ending is also extremely
well done and I'm sure that with a higher budget,
this could have been something great. Unfortunately,
the acting is bland, the movie looks cheap and the
scares simply don't work. I'm sure that all of this
could have been fixed easily with some money so I hope
that this promising new talented director will get
to do some more horror flicks in the future.
Despite my average rating, I'll still have to recommend
this movie since it's not too often that you run into
an Indonesian horror flick of this caliber. It may
have more than a few flaws in it and it's not the most
original movie in recent time but it's witty, it's
entertaining and it's not a movie that you will have
forgotten all about after it's done.
Not much to say here.
Very competent adrenaline pumping score accompanied
by some classy piano music. Great stuff.
Every once in a while, Indonesia produces a horror flick
that doesn't suck to the extreme, and Angkerbatu is
one of those movies. It's clever, it's funny, it's
got a great pace, it's extremely well directed and
with a higher budget, this could have been something
brilliant. Unfortunately it lacks in the horror
department and watching a grainy picture with pale
colours isn't all that fun. Still, I'm going to go
ahead and recommend this despite its flaws.
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