Ritual

The movie starts you out confused but interested. It gives you a chance to put all of the pieces together as you watch the main character attempts to solve the mystery and save his siblings. Finally you think you have the plot down and you are ready to label the film "slasher flick involving dummies not looking for help, but fighting the battle themselves in the woods". Same lost in the woods genre movies" The director takes you on the twist of the epic proportion. This movie is a classic and a must see for true horror/suspense fans, but you have to be patient,. All will come to light prior the credits rolling and you will rewind it at leas once, if you are like me. ENJOY!!!

I'm not sure why this film is receiving low scores as I really enjoyed it. Basically, a guy wakes up in a shallow grave in the woods with amnesia and has to work out what's going on. He finds a cabin and the mystery begins to unfold. Or does it. It's not until the final scene where the plot takes a huge leap and, in my opinion, it's worth watching it just for that.

There are hints of Korean film-making in it, like Old Boy. It's atmospheric and tense throughout and it's quite an original film. I think what makes the film a cut above the rest is the sound. You really need to watch the film in surround sound as the sound is one of the strong points that adds to the tension. The mystery kept me guessing until right at the end. It's a very dark film on retrospect and I'd recommend you go into it without any expectations. Just enjoy the ride and wait for the awesome final scene. As I said, it's very original. I hope we see more films from Joko Anwar as he's certainly got talent and the potential to bring Indonesian film into the limelight.

A luckless individual wakes up from being buried alive in the forest with no memory of who he is or how he got there. Stumbling across a cabin he finds a horrific snuff film. From there on, he slowly regains his memory and realises he and his family are being stalked by a mysterious killer. So begins a murderous game of cat & mouse as he attempts to save his family and stay one step ahead of his pursuer...

Let's face it, this premise sounds pretty generic and bog standard, doesn't it? Well... it isn't.

And I'm not gonna tell you any more except to recommend you stick with this unusually shot in English Inonesian offering as it's a smarter film than it appears to be. While standard in set up at first, director Joko Anwar cleverly pulls the rug out from under your feet with a surprising and smart little revelation.

So horror fans, have patience with this one, as its payoff is well worth it, and while the eagle eyed and sharp listeners may realise what's going on, it's still a satisfying film that puts a nicely innovative spin on the survivalist horror sub genre.

7.5/10 a decent little horror and what with 2009's Dara, Indonesia are showing themselves a force to be reckoned with for horror cinema.

At first, after seeing the trailer, I was like a little bit not surprised about the genre, thriller, or let's say noir movie. As we know that Anwar's two recent movies took the same genre (Dead Time : Kala (2007) and The Forbidden Door (2009)). But as always, Anwar succeed to made me interested.

Well, this is sort of movie which thriller fans will enjoy and I am on of the fan. It was a great experience watching this movie. You'll get a very tensed atmosphere which supported by astounding shooting angle. It is also supported by the score which wasn't excessive, like another typical thriller movie, and still precise.

The actors was quite awesome particularly Rio Dewanto as the leading role. His expression was quite convincing.

The negatives about this movie is a little bit seam computer graphic at one scene. Yeah, just one scene. Also, considering that the actors are all Indonesians and this movie uses English as the language, stiff conversations frequently emerged though their pronunciations was very good.

All could I say, I am proud as Indonesians! Joko Anwar has made such a good movie in the middle of those crappy-cheesy-cheap horror movies invasion in Indonesia. I'm moved how a few Indonesian film-makers still try to raise the Indonesia film towards a better future.

Well, i've gotta say that i was interested to watch it because of its catchy title and the idea about an English spoken film made by Indonesians (i reckon it's the 1st Indonesian film which used English as the main language in it).

The 1st 50 minutes, the film seems to be so dull with the shallow explanations, barely interactions from one character to another (unlike other previous Anwar's films), how kid characters ruin it with the way they converse in the forest poorly shows lack of thrilled & anxious expression, seemingly to be a shallow no-background story plot, and unsynchronized & unexplained details(necessarily prepared for the ending). All can lead the audience to a boredom and sleepiness.

Endure it, then the film will show you the worth of Joko Anwar as a writer-director and Rio Dewanto as an actor.

Anwar prepared an unexpected suspense plot mixed with some thrilling horror ingredients blending them all in the perfectly fit location, and served it to the audience with some quite decent cinematography. Dewanto as the leading actor made convincing enough expression and acting (great pukes as well) so that his performance made "John Evans" becoming a more interesting character.

After watching it, some questions may show up in mind regarding the background story that causes things that happen in "Modus Anomali" and how the story goes after the film ends. Generally it's a recommended nice flick to spend the evening with.

8/10.