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Kazman has just
bought a bungalow by a small lake where
he plans on taking his wife and two daughters for a
vacation. Well, this won't be a relaxing vacation as
mysterious things start happen the moment that they
arrive and it seems as if the youngest of the daughters,
Lisa, has started playing congkak with an imaginary
friend. But is the friend really imaginary?
Oh man. The people of Malaysia must have a really bad
taste in films. About a year ago I reviewed the most
successful Malaysian movie ever, Don't Look Back
(Jangan Pandang Belakang). It had received brilliant
reviews from every Malay site I went to and the
general audiences seemed to love it. Well, I'm not
sure if any of you remember this but I gave it a
negative review saying that it was incompetent and
ridiculously over-rated. Now the same director has
come back to make another successful horror flick,
and believe you me, Congkak was a big hit in both
Malaysia and Singapore and once again it received
outstanding reviews hailing it as the best Malay horror
flick ever made - even trumping Don't Look Back (like
that's a difficult thing to do). Well guess what?
Congkak doesn't trump Don't Look Back, they're both
equally bad - and once again not a single person dies
in the entire movie. And they call this horror?!
Congkak is another family-friendly ghost story with
an unoriginal and uneven plot about a family who
goes on vacation in a bungalow that they've recently
bought. Now, I'm not sure about this but I don't think
that supernatural events happen constantly in Malaysia,
but in Congkak they basically treat the mysterious
events like nothings. First of all the mother of the
family has creepy nightmares constantly, first sign
to leave the house. Second of all, the youngest daughter
sees a scary woman in the window. Then the mother finds
out that the woman that they asked for directions is
in fact dead, then the older sister, Eli gets possessed,
then Lisa disappears and so on and so on and still
they have no plans of leaving the house. Come on, are
we supposed to buy this crap?
You'd think that with so many "horrific" events taking
place, you'd find at least one or two scary or mildly
suspenseful scenes in it. Wrong. There's not even a
dash of suspense to be found in this so-called horror
movie. It's so generic and by-the-numbers that you
can predict every little thing that's going to happen.
Oh, and it brags about the fact that it was recorded
in Dolby Surround sound (hahaha) but the only things
that are in fact in surround sound are some bad sound
effects (like screams that were added in post-production,
or marbles from the congkak game being moved - I bet
you this was the reason why they decided to make a
movie about a haunted congkak in the first place, such
a freaking stupid idea).
As far as the acting is concerned, it's decent but not
much more. The movie also looks technically okay, even
if it's a bit over-saturated at times, making it look
rather cheap. Then we get to the special effects. Oh
man, when the wife was floating above the bed (yes, she
also gets possessed at one time, don't tell me that
you're surprised), it was so poorly done that it wasn't
even funny in an unintentional way. The ghost isn't
very scary either, an old woman with some bad skin
issues isn't really that creepy if you ask me. Give
her an extreme makeover and she'll be fine. Anyway,
in the end, Congkak kind of sucks. Sorry but it does.
It doesn't offer anything new, it's not scary and it's
certainly not very entertaining. If you for some reason
liked Don't Look back, maybe you ought to watch this
one as well and tell me what's so great about it.
No.
Extreme use of the subwoofer and some cheap strings.
This was just bad, you know? I don't really get why
everyone is raving about this horror flick, which can
barely even be called a horror flick. The story is so
uneven and ludicrous that not even the most gullible
person in the world would believe it. Don't waste your
time, hopefully Malaysia will learn how to make proper
horror flicks in the future because with movies like
Jangan Pandang Belakang, Orang Minyak and this, I'm
quickly loosing faith. Oh and now I'm off to see another
one called Anak, let's see how that is.
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