Director: Rocky Soraya
Year: 2018
Country: Indonesia
Alternate Titles: Mata Batin; Zombie X
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Following the death of their parents, a teenager is forced to take care of her younger sister and move back into their childhood home together only to realize that the claims of it being haunted are true and must rely on the wisdom of a paranormal expert to put everything in place for them.
Review:
Overall, this one serves as quite an enjoyable supernatural effort. One of the film's better qualities is the strong use of classic haunted house tropes for the supernatural scenes throughout the film. This one offers up numerous shock scenes with the ghosts walking behind someone suddenly with a piercing musical sting afterward, flash-cut sequences of ghastly inhuman figures interacting with characters only to disappear suddenly as well as a tendency to focus on intense and vicious attack scenes. Opening up with a vicious attack on the daughter where she's visibly and graphically slashed up along her legs is a great start, much like the later exorcism scenes or the possessed seeking revenge on the guilty party amongst them. On top of this, the film's strong atmospheric touches provide several chilling encounters. The first encounter in the house offers an eerie ambiance with it obviously not being lived in for a long time while the later scenes featuring them wandering through the darkened house during the thunderstorm provide strong atmospheric touches. There's so much to like here with the bloody, deformed ghosts appearing to her in the hospital which set up the scenes of the ghost family attacking in the house that night as we see them interacting with her in quite brutal manners.
The other impressive aspect here is the strong supernatural overtones implied through their physical gifts. Much is made about the fact that they're only able to see the ghosts around them due to the supernatural gift the sister has in having her third eye open. The visit to the witch doctor who informs them about the gift and what it means serves as a fine turning point in the film with the ghostly incidents switching focus for more conventional and commercialized shock scenes. Since these scenes are based on the newfound experience she has with being able to see the spirits through the supernatural process of accepting the ability to see ghosts and spirits, the change in character and focus is quite impressive leading into these supernatural sequences. Exploring not just supernatural-inflicted ghost scares but also moving into outright possession and exorcism through the on-screen actions, none of this feels out-of-place or tacked on as the storyline manages to build a solid framework for these scenarios. Even a last-minute trip into the underworld complete with more ghosts and strange visuals that emerge.
Still, the film does have a few issues. One of the problems is that this one focuses so heavily on cliched ghost scenes that so many of them miss their mark due to the over-familiarity of the sequence. The attack by the ghost in the bedroom when it appears under a white sheet and charges forth fails miserably since we're expecting it based on the circumstances since that's always the case with that setup. The influences are also quite readily apparent in the finale where the two venture into the spirit world to retrieve a character lost inside and the colored lighting for the entire sequence comes off as a retread of other films and ideas. Other scenes are just as associated with familiar setups and scenarios, from the sudden ability to see the ghost girl in the hospital to the crazed reactions to things no one else knows about, have very little impact because it's all quite familiar and repeated here by virtue of the story forcing them into action. That's also hurt by the instances of utterly woeful and abysmal CGI present for these scenes as the ghosts crawling over trucks or objects with inhuman speed and ability look laughable rather than scary. These here are what hurt the film overall.
Overview: ****/5
Despite this one focusing way too long on cliched shocks and setups from other films in this style, the fact that it’s competent and highly enjoyable as is makes for a fun offering overall. If you’re mindful of the familiar elements and enjoy these sort of chaotic Indonesian and Asian horror efforts then give this one a look, but viewers not really appreciative of this style should go with caution.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
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