Mangkujiwo

Rizal Mantovani started to build his version of Kuntilanak back then in 2006. Then he ruined it himself through his remake/reboot of 2018. Now I appreciate Azhar Kinoi Lubis in terms of his effort of the franchise with this remarkable spin-off/prequel vision. I found some plot holes indeed yet I don't mind to see the upcoming sequel if there's any for further explanation. I mean, not sure whether Mangkujiwo is more to 2006 or 2018 version one.

Another higher level for indonesian horror. Mangkujiwo shows us the origin of Kuntilanak, trying to answer all the question about 'what Mangkujiwo is' in the Kuntilanak universe from 2006 to 2019. Azhar Kinoi Lubis gives a story instead of a jumpscare-thing to a horror movie. This is what a real origin means.

Past to present to past and to present again. unfortunately, as an origin movie, Mangkujiwo failed to tell us about their world. There's lack of dramatical value, only torture everywhere. We have no feel to anybody, there's relationship between one character and another, the only we see is just hostilities, and rivalries.

Thats all.

You get the answer about 'what Mangkujiwo is'?

I cannot vent enough, how much I felt like leaving this movie in the cinema.

I do support archaic and traditional flairs to Indonesian horror movies - in fact, I'm quite a proponent to it. But this movie in specific, created mostly only one thing out of the wide-spectrum of background it has: nothingness.

This movie is just over-elongated build up of nothing. There's barely any sense of a climax to the movie, and I cannot stress enough how inconsistent it is with everything: Tone, Plot, Characters, Scriptwriting, you name it. Anything to do with the plot is in fact, garbage. Convictions and motives are usually just thrown out of the window to be replaced with even more baffling decisions.

There's also just, so much redundancy in this movie. Shots that have no effect to the overall experience and plot are everywhere- I don't get the point of watching three different torture scenarios when they end up practically the same; And with nothing to move the movie forward. Yeah I know that's a pretty taboo and old critique for a movie- there isn't an inherent need to move the movie forward with everything, pretty sure Tarantino is a great testament to that. This movie in particularly though made it awfully painful when you are fed with 7 different shots of a hunchback deciding whether he should enter a room or not.

At the very least, Performances, Editing, and Colouring, were tolerable. Sure they were still inconsistent, but the effort was made with some degree of competency.

That's about it I suppose. Got nothing much to say when this movie is exactly just that: Nothing.

Even though the story is not perfect, the foundation to enter Kuntilanak universe quite make sense. Sujiwo Tedjo as Broto is most of the character make this film different. I don't say this horror film, this is thriller movie with covered by javanese culture which a lot of mystical ritual.

Awful, fail plot-twisted, i cannot enjoy the film. Thank you