Director: Rocky Soraya
Year: 2018
Country: Indonesia
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
After solving a deadly case, a husband-and-wife looking after their orphaned niece find that her connection to a special doll made by his company causes a sudden outpouring of supernatural activity towards them in retaliation for actions years ago and must find a way to contain the evil spirit.
For such a maligned film, this one turned out to be rather enjoyable. One of the strongest aspects here is the supernatural elements which by dropping us into this world rather early, while the eerie sequence of the daughter searching for her mother in the darkened house during the driving rainstorm after playing the board game to contact her offers up some nice imagery. Once this moves on to trying to drive the mother crazy, this one provides some outright chilling sequences that work rather well. The common trope of a child's toy being used for a ghost-finder throughout the house brings about some great scenes of her searching the house alone or interacting off-screen with what she claims is her mother are what really bring some great times to this one.
This early setup for the film allows for more fun to occur in the second half. Already fully aware of something going on, the film ratchets up the tension and scares with the explosion of supernatural activity. The fateful vacation trip to the tropical island is rife with incredible scenes, from the collection of shells along the beach where they mention the mother's presence at the location all along, a traumatic burial in the sand where they get pulled in and then quickly buried and follows that with a highlight reel montage inside the reception hall. From the piano ghost to the chase into the closet providing one of the greatest jump-scares in the film and coming back to include the final encounter with the husband. This extended and charged sequences makes for a truly chilling and creepy sequence that's far better than expected. Once back home, the seance ritual to understand the situation as well as the resolution of the opening confrontation offer up the expected setup for the action-packed finale that really works with the strong rituals and ceremonies presenting their battle with the demonic being around the factory where the doll is produced.
The cast here is exceptional and helps this tremendously. The lead Maira, played by Luna Maya, offers a fantastic performance as the woman trying to get in good stead with her niece and can't until she gets the fateful doll. Loving and compassionate while at equal turns convincingly terrified, her worried mother act is very well-done engendering plenty of sympathy until the finale where it allows her to pull off a spirited double-switch that's fun and tremendously engaging. Her husband Aidan, played by Christian Sugiono, tends to be more on the sidelines as the majority of the focus is on Maira but he acquits himself well in the action scenes and stays by his wife's side regardless of what happens to her. This makes him a fine support for the other husband-and-wife team involved here. Sara Wijayanto as Laras the mystic and Jeremy Thomas as Raynard who know how to perform the sacred rituals and actions involving the demon tormenting the family. They're great to watch and handle the action scenes rather well, leaving a positive overall impression on nearly everyone involved in the film.
While these elements work nicely for the film, there are a few problems involved. The main issue to contend with is the tolerance for cliches present, since this plays out almost exactly like other films involving this particular setup. It's not a surprise at all as to what's going on in the film because it rips so many scenes and tropes off from those films, ranging from writing off the child's stories of seeing the deceased around them, openly admitting to having disobeyed her instructions because of her mother and the disbelieving spouse who won't listen to reason due to the innocence of the child involved. Along with a favorable attitude towards jump-scares to pay off it's tenser moments, these are brought over from numerous other films all playing up this familiar concept. Likewise, the film's reliance on explaining everything through voiceover flashbacks gets rather tedious with it jumping around in the timeline and does offer up some confusion as to what's going on in the moment. Otherwise, there isn't much to dislike here.
Despite a lot of negatives out there for the film, there's a lot to like here with this one as it features a great atmosphere and some strong horror elements that make this a watchable effort. Give this a look if you're into these heavy supernatural elements in your horror films or looking for a fun streaming foreign effort who aren't bothered by it's flaws, while those looking for something beyond just heavy cliches of other films should heed caution.
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