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A group of
youngsters attempt to make a documentary
about the death of a ronggeng dancer whose body is
never found and causing a village deserted. After
getting a lead from a mute loony in the village,
they decide to break into the house which is said
to be the murder site. They get more than they
bargained for...
From the director of Sarang Kuntilanak. Yes, Ian
Jacobs has returned. Basically with the very same
idea, very same basic story, very same plot, and
even very same scene where a sexy girl taking off
her tank-top to reveal her bra (you don’t get just
one but TWO scenes like that - imagine , hooray!).
Only this time, the result is completely horrible.
Not just the bra matter, everything.
In Sarang Kuntilanak Ian Jacobs was said to be a
new director supervised by Nayato AKA Koya Pagayo.
O heck, Ian Jacobs could be the notorious Nayato
himself. But this movie makes Sarang Kuntilanak look
like The Exorcist or The Omen. Kuntilanak Beranak
generally tries to show the audience directly the
horror experienced by these youngsters, from the
point of view of a handycam. Sounds familiar? Well
the idea is fine all right, but surely Kuntilanak
Beranak is not Blair Witch Project or Cloverfield.
So the director thinks that by showing the main
characters running wildly like crazy, shouting and
screaming endlessly in a practically same set and
same room, and alley, portrayed by a wobbly
camera movement, it would scare the audience. In
fact it only hurts our eyes. Yes, ladies and
gentlemen, the setting of this movie practically
sucks. OK, it is somewhat convincing for an
abandoned house, but has it ever occurred in the
mind of the art director or whoever in charge of
the setting here, that the character who’s supposed
to live in that haunted house is a traditional dancer,
from a village? Even if it’s a mogul’s house, it’s
still in the village, where the owner is most likely
maintains traditional or classic interior style.
This one looks like an apartment instead!
Has it ever occurred to the maker that despite the
good technique they have in lighting setup, shouldn’t
they consider that when a scene happens at night
in a very remote abandoned house, a bright sunlight
shouldn’t have penetrated through the window glasses?
And has it ever occurred to the director that
ignoring tiny details may ruin excitement? For
instance, why the lights in a supposedly old
abandoned house are still on? OK, it’s supernatural
power, but wouldn’t it be more natural if the
characters entering the house can show their shock
in seeing that the lights are still on? I’m sure
it would create much different environment.
Has it ever occurred to the mind of the character
that when they found out something is wrong in their
house they would start scouring their rooms by
turning on the lights instead of wandering using
flashlights? OK, maybe due to the super duper
supernatural power of the ghost in their house
would cut electricity. But some lights are still
on during these scenes!
Goofs happened even in big budget movies made by
world calibre directors, but plenty of goofs shouldn’t
have happened, especially if they are so darn stupid,
had the maker thought deeper in constructing their
work. What about the ghost design? Oh, don’t expect
any new design by Ian Jacobs or Nayato now. It’s
basically the same long haired creature with
decomposed face, love to lurk here and there and
crawling their filthy hands on a girl’s back while
she takes a bath. This time its appearance is
very few. Maybe it’s meant to give one hell of a
shock once it appears. Unfortunately there are
more factors to make audience scared than just
counting the frequency. You can’t find any
extraordinary shock here.
Don’t expect to have good script, good acting by
these fresh teenagers, as usual. OK, they're sexy,
pretty, cute, but that's it, as usual again. The
only worthy appearance is only by Connie Sutedja,
a veteran actress who usually played witch in
horror movies and mean old ladies in drama movies.
But that doesn’t mean it’s an excellent one,
since the whole show sucks. They should’ve explored
more about ronggeng dancer, since the theme is
actually very promising. The traditional ronggeng
dance is an old custom that retains some mystical
element such as the use of special implanted amulet
called susuk that may attract many customers and
men, like love potion. Indeed, ronggeng is strongly
associated to a very old traditional form of
prostitution in Javanese region. But it is only
mentioned very little here.
You may finally wonder, where’s the kuntilanak,
since the main ghost here is actually a vengeful
and restless spirit of a ronggeng dancer? And where’s
her children, since “beranak” means having a baby?
OK, the director simply adds some “tuyuls” (ghosts
of children usually with no hair) in the end.
Period. And let’s just say that the movie conclusion
resembles Hantu Perawan Jeruk Purut. Then how come
it’s called Kuntilanak Beranak? How come a Kuntilanak
can have kids? Forget those questions. I must
apologize for not warning you that any brain or
thinking media of any kind should be checked at
the door while watching this movie. Looks like
Nayato aka Ian Jacobs aka whatever still can’t
find any brilliant idea until now.
Say what?
I finally find a conclusion that all Nayato / Koya
Pagayo / Ian Jacobs’ movies use very same soundtrack,
sound effects, background music, etc. with only
minor modifications here and there.
Another stale recycled story with terribly poor
execution. As mentioned, this is no Blair Witch
Project, it’s Ian Jacobs project, so there you are.
I just never thought it would turn out
to be this horrible.
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