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A group of
students are making a documentary film on
a deserted village as part of their school task.
It is said that the whole village dwellers were
dead by a mysterious or even mystical plague.
During this trip one of the girl in the group found
a beautiful pendant in a waterfall and decided to
keep it. It won’t take long before they have to
face the non stop terror by kuntilanak ghosts.
Can they survive?
Apparently no one had high hopes for Sarang
Kuntilanak when its release was promoted. The
promotion was minimum, no bells and whistles, and
regular Indonesian movie watchers would likely
scratch their heads watching the list of casts,
observing that none of their names ring a bell!
Sarang Kuntilanak is apparently made with minimum
budget, hence the newcomers in casts, and
speculating whether they can get decent income
when released.
I don’t want to bash this film too hard, so let’s
take a look at the good things first. Surprisingly
in choosing location of deserted village, the makers
did quite well. The forest is beautiful, and it
looks authentic, a real forest instead of backstage
or a garden in a resort. The deserted village is
also designed quite decently, exposing eerie
environment quite effectively. Unfortunately, the
producer‘s limited budget may hinder him to create
more complex set. Practically, the whole village
is only represented by one ruined house!
The cinematography is somewhat above average –
apparently the cinematographer could be someone
who has quite remarkable skill. This is not
something extraordinary he shows, but the way he
sets light, shooting angle, can deliver most of the
messages effectively, such as when exposing the
beautiful but eerie wood.
And to summarize the good parts, as usually
expected by desperate Indonesian horror viewers,
realizing that they can’t expect much from the
stories or horror factor, they decide to look for
the eye candies, the girls and the boys. In this
factor, Sarang Kuntilanak doesn’t disappoint, at
least in my taste. The girls, although only very
few, are lovely, and sexy, and most of the time
they don’t have to show in a vulgar manner how sexy
they are. Certainly different way to show
sensuality, compared to say, Pulau Hantu. Of course
some irrelevant sensuality exist, even during
early scene, when the main girl found that her
T-shirt is stained in ladies’ toilet, she determinedly
took off her tops ... to wash it! Most male audience
would certainly cheer on this scene alone.
Then a short scene in swimming pool, a bath in a
waterfall despite a chilly weather!
Now here comes the terrible parts. As seen from the
trailer, we see no new things in ghost type. The
kuntilanak is just the regular kuntilanak as we see
in most mainstream Indonesian horrors, a female in
white gown, non descript face, long hair, lurking
here and there, shocking you here and there,
appearing behind you, holding you, grab your hand,
grab your feet, even sit on you, impersonating
other people, both in reality as well as dreams.
No specific characteristics of kuntilanak here.
And as usual, their appearance are accompanied with
whirring cue sound before they appear, then
completed by loud bang when they do appear to shock
the audience, as well as sending them to ear physician.
Forget original story, forget decent script, forget
smooth plot, you won’t find them here. Of course,
due to the absence of such factors, you may as
well forget or expect any decent acting here.
Despite the good cinematography, some annoying
factors are peppered throughout this movie. For
instance, if you’re filming something do you show
your boom mike on screen? These silly teenagers do
that frequently. Alas, in fact, if you’re filming
at the woods why should you carry such boom mike
with that long stick after all? Of course, don’t
ask about logical explanation either. No one knows
why these kuntilanak haunt those teenagers, wipe out
the whole village (I wish they had shown such
scenes, it would make very different, but spookier
theme)? Are these simply by trespassing and stealing
the mysterious necklace? Why are those villagers
dead? What are the motivations of those ghosts?
O heck, I don’t even remember that in the movie,
kuntilanak is mentioned! If you’re looking for
such details that determine the worth of a story,
I’m sorry you won’t find in Sarang Kuntilanak.
O heck, how many kuntilanak actually dwells this
“den”? One thing for sure, don’t expect the whole
clan of course, since you only see one, haunting
our main actors and actresses one by one.
About cinematography, although I somewhat commend
the lighting, setting, I must say the "drizzle
effect" or whatever they call it especially during
scenes in the woods - is annoying. Now some trivia
about the makers. In 21cineplex.com site there was
news that Koya Pagayo, the notorious horror
director is making a new movie, Sarang Kuntilanak.
But he claims that he’s not the director, but
“supervising director”. The real director is said
to be someone named Ian Jacobs. But considering
the style shown, how the ghosts exposed, the music,
well, who can guarantee that Ian Jacobs isn't actually
Koya Pagayo AKA Nayato himself? If that’s the case,
what else do you expect?
Some blood, nothing more.
Regular deafening boom, and piano tune during
melodramatic moments. Nothing exceptional.
Most likely another regular Koya Pagayo’s work,
regular ghost type, regular deafening sound, hardly
recommended. On second thought, the girls are
somewhat above average if you count that as a bit
of a relief.
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