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An ordinary
acquaintance between Vony and Marcell
after being introduced by their friends triggers
the old confrontation between two most deadly
mystical ghosts, the Kuntilanak and Pocong, that
actually goes back to the period of their ancestors.
When heads of their friends start rolling,
can they survive?
Kuntilanak and Pocong are two most popular ghosts
in Indonesian mystics. They've gained their
popularity in movies too, since the 1980s period of
Indonesian movie's heyday, and during the recent
resurrection of Indonesian movie industry in 21st
century. Of course, if foreign creatures can be
pitted against each other, for instance, Dracula
against Mummy / Werewolf / Frankenstein, why not
creating Pocong vs Kuntilanak? Even the poster has
the same format as Freddie vs Jason. However,
having viewed the trailer in the internet I didn’t
set my hope high on the result. Nevertheless, let’s
take a look at the positive sides first.
On the story side, I must say this one is quite
interesting, at least the maker spends quite some
time to expand his creativity. The premise of
Kuntilanak is based on the popular Kuntilanak
trilogy, where Kuntilanak is a spiritual ghost that
you can keep as “pet” to do your dirty work taking
others’ lives as well as creating wealth in a
mystical way that I think most people (including
me) still can’t get the idea of how such mystical
creature can make its master wealthy. Certainly
differ from the original Indonesia mythical folklore
where Kuntilanak is actually more like a mystical
whore who seduce perverts and then leave them in
graveyard at dawn after creating illusion as if
they were having a great time making love.
Nevertheless, apparently due to the great success
of Kuntilanak trilogy the new idea becomes more
popular than the traditional one. On the other
hand, Pocong is actually only a restless soul
wandering still in its original wardrobe, i.e. the
condition on how they’re buried, shrouded in this
“pocong” cloth – a bit like mummifying, although
not for the same purpose. The cord that ties the
edge should be unbound to let the soul free, but
if you keep it tight then the soul will not leave
this world and remain wandering. This idea has been
shown in the awful horror comedy called Tiren. So
based on these two premises, the maker manages to
establish a strong rivalry between these two
spiritual hotshots conducted by their masters
starting from early 20th century, continued to this
21st century by their descendants.
The movie flow starting from introducing these
teenagers, how they trapped into conflict with
Pocong and Kuntilanak, which relate to their
ancestors was done quite smoothly, also peppered
with fresh humor here and there that proves to be
quite effective. I must commend this plot since
most of the audience would stay on their seat
awaiting the finale. The atmosphere built is a
little bit chilling as well, especially the room
used as “Kuntilanak Altar”. The Kuntilanak appearance
is also quite good, a very tall woman, white hair,
nondescript face, white long ragged robe, an
appearance that surely would chill any person who
sees it directly. Behind the scene story said that
the performer acting as Kuntilanak is actually a
man... the tallest Indonesian man.
About the action, I see that some levels of CGI is
used quite effectively, among them is in the first
prologue sequence where the Kuntilanak is first
shown very rapidly. Unfortunately, CGI factor in
this movie also comes at the weak side, but we’ll
come to that later.
The young actors and actress perform just so-and-so,
but the good thing is they’re not overacting or
trying to look pretentious. They appear as they
are; college boys and girls. As usual, most of their
experiences are from modeling, advertising, or TV
shows. This is also one of the movies where I see
the dialogues are made in a simple, but natural way,
or in other words, they speak just like Indonesian
do daily, particularly in Jakarta, Indonesian
metropolitan city. So these guys don’t look as if
they’re coming from another planet (I’m not joking,
some dialogues in other trashy Indonesian movies
sound weird even to me as Indonesians!).
Now let’s start with the chastising. The setting is
poor, most likely they only use several houses or
office blocks in residential area. Nevertheless,
despite this weakness I see the director has given
his quite good effort to hide this poor setting,
such as creating overall lighting for this movie
as a bit dark and gloomy. So you won’t notice any
deficiencies or lack of details. The “Kuntilanak
Altar” I mentioned above, is actually only made as
completely dark room, only the altar is lit.
The killings done in this movie is mostly done
off-screen as well. The setup before killing is
standard, not bad, but without watching any scary
or shocking conclusion, say, a gruesome death or
killing scene in the end, the nice setup is
certainly ineffective. Kuntilanak’s killing method
here is not described, unlike Rizal Mantovani’s
version of Kuntilanak that has wide varieties of
methods in his Kuntilanak trilogy.
Concerning special effect, the wire used to slam
one of the actors is so lame, though we didn’t see
the wire; the movement was so awkward you’ll
certainly know the wire is not worked on
professionally. Then the CGI, although in some
scenes they are effective, the finale is very
disappointing. Indeed, it’s the biggest letdown in
this movie. Particularly since the maker has
created this set up where the main figures are
already head-to-head, all of them possessed with
mystical power of Pocong and Kuntilanak, ready for
a showdown. The CGI effect shows their face morphed,
so all the audience start the feeling of being
thrilled to see how this would go. I’m deeply
disappointed. The fights ... well, what fight? They
just choke each other, no pocong kick, no Kuntilanak
kick, no laser beam, no laser wave, no slashing,
no eye gouging, no punching, practically nothing.
And the ending is no less stupid. We’ve waited the
whole movie from beginning to end for nothing. The
director should at least design a climatic and
exciting fight between the two creatures. Otherwise,
what’s the point of creating this movie that’s
supposed to pit them against another?
That should cover most of the chastising I guess.
But then I realize that most likely the makers are
running out of money, or they are not given ample
fund since the very beginning. What a waste.
None.
Nothing special, but at least no deafening bang or
silly whirring cue every time shocking scene is shown.
The director, David Poernomo, is actually he brother
of Jose Poernomo (Jelangkung, Angker Batu, Pulau
Hantu 1-2). He has equal creativity as his brother
and other associate, Rizal Mantovani. Although
I must commend his effort in creating a rather
different horror movie despite the minuscule budget,
the final result is more or less minor as well.
Had he designed more appropriate and thrilling
climax and finale, this movie would’ve received at
least 3 or 4 stars from me since the setup is
already fine enough. Unfortunately it’s not.
Better luck next time, David.
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