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Joko Anwar's latest effort, “Nightmares and Daydreams” a 7-episode anthology of the horrific and the supernatural is currently streaming on Netflix. Considering that the episodes are separate entities, we decided to deal with each one in separate reviews, instead of a single one. “Old House”, co-directed by Ray Farandy Pakpahan and Randolph Zaini is the first and longest one.

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The episode begins with Banji, a poor taxi driver, leaving his senile mother into a rather luxurious elderly home, despite the pleas of a caretaker though, not to do so. Through a flashback, we learn that although neither he nor his wife wanted to abandon her there, after a life-threatening incident involving their infant, the decided to do so, also instigated by the fact that an acquaintance of Banji would allow them to let her leave in the particular establishment for free.

Joko Anwar, a driving force behind Indonesia’s modern film industry, is the creator of Netflix’s new anthology series Nightmares and Daydreams. The Satan’s Slaves filmmaker slips in and out of these seven episodes, with his fingers directly on the pulse of a select few. However, even when not personally directing or writing, Anwar’s unique touch can be felt in every inch of the journey. What initially looks to be a chain of unconnected stories turns out to be an odyssey with a specific and often unsettling destination.

Unlike other anthologies, there is no particular character who guides the audience in and out of the sub-stories and clarifies their experience. On the contrary, each tale kicks off with no kind of formal introduction — apart from a surreal opening sequence — thus allowing the series to access that certain sensation of nodding off and slipping into a dream. Everything appears...

Netflix’s popularity can be attributed to many different movies and shows, but, in my opinion, their horror anthology series Black Mirror was integral to their overnight success because I can remember obsessing over its brutal satire like it was yesterday. Then, the streaming platform’s Indian branch made Lust Stories, and the idea of provocative storytelling featuring Bollywood stars felt promising. Love, Death, and Robots became everyone’s favorite almost instantly, with its vivid style and precise storytelling. And then things sort of went downhill with absolutely trashy products like Ghost Stories, Ludo, Paava Kadhaigal, Pitta Kathalu, Ankahi Kahaniya, Ajeeb Dastans, Feels Like Ishq, Ray, and Lust Stories 2. The only diamond in the rough was Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities. And it seems like Netflix has learned the right lesson from it and has brought another anthology series inspired by the works of an acclaimed director: Joko Anwar’s Nightmares and Daydreams.