Dancing Village: The Curse Begins (2024) by Kimo Stamboel

Director: Kimo Stamboel

Year: 2024

Country: Indonesia

Alternate Titles: Badarawuhi Di Desa Penari

Genre: Supernatural

Plot:

Convinced it’s the right thing to do, a group of friends heads to a remote village so that a cursed heirloom can be returned to the area and supposedly lift a curse plaguing the area ever since it was removed, only to find themselves caught up in a spirit’s supernatural curse.

Review:

Overall, this was a fairly strong and effective genre effort. Among the better factors on display here is a fantastic central setup that offers several incredibly strong individual storylines that are brought together for a fun narrative. The initial premise about the cursed bangle and how it affects the village and her family since she’s now tasked with returning it there along with her cousins brings about a solid core idea that serves not only to introduce the supernatural affections disrupting the village but also to have a logical reason for their visit. As this goes through the motions of bringing about the backstory of the village and the importance of the object to the sacrificial ceremony about to take place that holds the key to the trouble affecting the villagers in the form of the seductive supernatural being targeting her mother and other locals as part of a special sacrifice that is at the center of the problems plaguing what’s going on.

This occurrence serves to make the film incredibly fun once it starts to unleash the supernatural afflictions on everyone. With the introduction of the family being haunted by everything and the first sudden bursts of supernatural action featured by the spirit as it targets them for its own perverse amusement, it starts to get quite fun early on, with the usual talk of curses, demented family traditions that must be unkempt, and strange illnesses no one can help cure. This sets up the later, more involved sequences involving the seduction attempt at the bathhouse where the sequence turned into an escape attempt at getting away from various snakes, a chilling encounter with the fabled dancers as part of the village appeasement ritual where she’s tempted to join them, or other fun scenes including the belief they’re ingesting worm-riddled bodies during an innocent meal or the villager’s mother getting possessed and taunting them for what’s about to come.

This all comes to pass in the form of a spirited and frenetic finale where the full extent of the ritual takes place, and everything comes together. When the reasoning for the ceremony finally comes into play and gives everything the context required about how this is pulled off, the performances that take place involving her and the other relatives that are dragged into everything presented here make for a chilling enough time. The intricate choreography, ornate clothing, and rhythmic style here that leads into the overall presentation of the ritual is a highly effective tale here, especially when added to the intricate backstory created elsewhere here for the context of everything, providing a brutal and bleak conclusion that goes more for lurid atmosphere than anything. While the few gore scenes are effectively rendered and manage to come off incredibly nicely, there’s a lot to like here.

This one doesn’t have much wrong with it, but there are a few minor issues with it. Among the bigger issues here is the general familiarity within here that manages to hit pretty much the entire series of cliches within the genre. The whole thing about a remote village in the middle of nowhere that has a series of legends about how terrifying something is and a tragic backstory that connects everything feels pretty redundant and predictable, especially when the whole story about her returning and carrying out a section of a fabled curse that is enacted. It’s all pretty much the same kind of thing that most others have used and tends to make this feel more familiar than numerous other entries in this style. Much like the overlong running time that comes about due to the two-hour running time that doesn’t need it, these all manage to bring this one down slightly.

Overview: ****/5

A generally effective and likable genre effort, there’s a lot to like with this one that manages to hold it up while having just a few minor setbacks that bring this back from what it could’ve been. Those with an appreciation for this style of genre fare, who don’t mind the issues on display, or who are fans of the creative crew will have a lot to like here while most others should heed caution.