Director: Yusron Fuadi
Year: 2025
Country: Indonesia
Alternate Titles: Setan Alas!
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Traveling out to the countryside, a group of friends visit a remote villa to enjoy a relaxing weekend together, but when they discover they’ve stumbled onto a changing horror film layout from a writer stuck with what he wants, the characters must find a way to stay alive against his intentions.
Review:
Overall, this was a fairly enjoyable and likable enough effort. Among the better aspects to be had with this one is the enjoyably lighthearted setup that tries to establish more going on than expected. The central idea of the group going out to a remote villa in the countryside for a relaxing weekend and start encountering weird occurrences and events, from the retelling of a haunting past with the house’s history and creepy owner to the different intonations about not disturbing anything or having access to any kind of modern convenience, makes for a fun time here. Using this as a great starting point, the idea of the group being a fun and likable group that we have to follow comes across rather well, which is what helps to make the outlandish scenarios all the more realistic later on. The typical elements of a formulaic haunted house film being used in this manner, while also managing to get audience sympathy for the characters, allow this one to get off to a strong start.
Once it starts getting serious about something going on inside the villa, there’s a lot of fun to be had with the escalating terror the group faces. That’s mostly brought about by the meta nature of the screenplay, where they’re not just aware of their presence in a horror film but also that it’s an evolving story due to the unspecific nature of what’s going on. Making comments about each member of the group filing out the necessary character roles and personalities required for the genre to come together with the film following a specific order, and changing on the fly so it becomes a film involving murder, then a curse affecting the group, and finally a zombie survival tale throughout the evening. These changes are shown to mirror the exploits of the off-screen writer who is given a series of tasks and updates to polish off the script, turning the whole thing upside down as the group becomes firmly away from the events as they play out to signal each of the storyline changes.
That each of these storyline changes results in a slew of solid and enjoyable action helps this one tremendously as well. Featuring a series of fun discoveries in the beginning about the strange events happening in the villa or the series of interactions, figuring out that they’re in a film, as we get to see the environment change with how they’re spelling it out in fine form, this gets a lot to like rather early on. The curse segment of the story is the most fun, featuring the characters randomly being manipulated by unseen forces to pull apart their aces in graphic fashion, and the zombie sequence features all sorts of fun with the ravenous creatures being felled by rapid gunfire and other weaponry left behind in a witty take on the meta-ness of the story. The only real drawback to this one is an unsatisfying and somewhat odd conclusion that doesn’t make much sense and seems to set up a potential sequel on the face of things, rather than something that can logically end this one. However, it’s all that holds it back.
Overview: ****/5
An immensely effective and enjoyable genre effort, there’s quite a lot to like here, which manages to hold this one up over such a small series of flaws that it’s barely worth holding it down. Those with an interest in the subject matter, who are curious about this one, or who aren’t bothered by the issues on display, will have a lot to like here, while most others might want to heed caution.
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