Director: Bram Ferino
Year: 2024
Country: Indonesia
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
After visiting her friends, a woman decides to go hiking in a local forest rumored to be haunted by a vicious spirit looking for human blood, but when they get lost inside the forest with no idea how they got there, they find themselves being haunted by the bloodthirsty spirit and must get out alive.
Review:
Overall, this was a decent and enjoyable genre effort. Among the better elements of this one is a more engrossing, somewhat chilling setup that offers more chilling elements than expected. The majority of this is based on the solid background information presented here involving the backstory of the particular stretch of the forest said to be haunted by the killer, focusing on the kind of logical enough series of urban legends about people splitting up in the forest and finding themselves lost, which puts them at the mercy of the spirit within the location. With the build-up coming together with the idea of the group coming together and meeting up again as a reunion that brings them contact with each other again and bringing up the idea of going into the forest, this first half is a fun way of getting things started by going into the history of the location and getting to know who the main group is so they come off as a warm, sympathetic group to follow.
This all sets up the actually chilling and wholly enjoyable series of encounters in the cursed woods with the ravenous spirit. As the main series of exploits opens with the group trying to work their way through the forest but unable to do anything because it’s getting darker and they're unfamiliar with everything, this creates a genuinely chilling beginning, with the creepy location used to maximum effect. Once the group realizes that the confounded forest isn’t the only problem, as the bloodthirsty demon is running around as well, this turns into a far more likable and creepy effort where the group is separated and killed off one by one throughout the night, oftentimes resulting in someone stumbling upon the killer devouring the flesh of his latest victim. The stalking scenes here are just as much fun as the whole thing is mixed with the psychological turmoil of the situation and the fear her cousin has about not being able to save them like he could’ve before, offering up some wholly likable and enjoyable factors here.
There aren’t too many issues within here, but there are some factors to be had here. The biggest factor in the film is a decidedly obvious repetitive nature of what’s going on in the first half, where, for all the good it does at providing a great build-up to the group of friends and the cursed part of the forest, there’s not much deviation from what happens in this part. Once they arrive at the woods, the film devolves into a series of scenes where they go around yelling each other’s names in the middle of the darkened forest as they try to figure out where everyone is. It’s got some chilling moments here with the inability to figure out where everyone is, keeping this one on such a wholly familiar route with the overused nature that it could’ve used a bit more change-ups to give this something else. As well, the finale is a bit confusing where it’s trying to be this philosophical conclusion about her overcoming her fears, but it ends so quickly it’s hard to take seriously, which ends up bringing this one down.
Overview: ***.5/5
A surprisingly effective and chilling genre effort, there’s a lot to like here that helps make this stand up enough against its minor issues and be a surprisingly fun genre effort. Those with an interest in this subject matter or who are curious about it will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed some caution.
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