Kuntilanak

I've been watching a fair bit of Indonesian cinema lately and truth be told I kind of like what I see and for the most part that applies to Kuntilanak.

It tells the story of a group of children who are forced to battle a mysterious creature that preys on the young and steals them away.

The opening sequence immediately got my attention, it was excellent. For this reason I had high hopes, but sadly a couple of things stopped the film from really meeting its potential.

First of all the comedy. If the film isn't an intentional horror comedy then for the most part comedy should be kept clear or a horror, it takes away the fear element and just stops you taking the whole thing seriously.

Second the kids, children are the leads of the film which is never good. Five of them leading in a film of this type? Imagine if you merged The Ring (2002) with the Goonies (1985) and that is basically what you have here.

Kuntilanak's creature effects are great, they adopt the traditional Asian style of scary black haired undead lady perfectly and for that reason this should have been a scary film. The method of which they use the scares also are very good, but they're sadly watered down by the kids. Goofy child actors running away from something that is actually scary, it just didn't work for me.

If they'd played this whole thing serious, added some actual threat to the kids or better yet not have kids at all then this film would have been fantastic.

Moral of the story, kids suck.

The Good:

Incredible opening

A lot of potential

Creature looks great

Awesome scares

The Bad:

Goofy sound effects

Poor cgi

Annoying children

Inconsistent tone

At the scary scenes there was jumpy music which was a little annoying, the film is quite suspensful throughout.

The music at the joke scenes was odd.

I thought the storyline was quite new and unique. So it is worth a watch, if you like horror movies.

If you want to make a kids movie, use better theme instead of ghost. So many scenes taken from other movies, i mean please grow up and be more creative instead. Indonesian ghost stories are always good but please do not use western style of horror effect on Indonesian ghosts story. Research more and return to indonesian style instead of James Wan's style. This is fully a good critics for you mr Rizal Mantovani, i know you're a good filmmaker

It hits a low level of suspense, makes out it'll pick up, and then you realise that it doesn't change gears. The story is too plodding, and the writing is not the best. As for the kids, they do well, but they really needed stronger supporting cast members. A lack of tension and suspense make it feel slow.

Child actors pretty good, especially the girl who plays Dinda!