Siksa Neraka

As someone who was raised Pentecostal, hearing about what awaits sinners in hell was a staple of my childhood. In fact, the reason I stopped going to church was because the older I got, the more I realized that each sermon dedicated a lot of time to the cost of sin and instilling the fear of an eternal of torment, even in Sunday School. So when I heard about this film, it piqued my interest, as I have never seen religious propaganda quite at this level before, and Indonesia has been on a roll lately with its horror offerings. Although I watched the movie in its entirety, I can't confidently say I enjoyed it. But as an exercise in religious control and how it affects the people most susceptible to it, it really does crawl under the skin in a wholly different way than traditional horror.

The first half of the movie is a touching family film about a father and a mother of 4 children who seem to love and honor one another. The music is sweet, the interactions are very "After School Special" and it seems like the kids are going to grow up to be respectable and well adjusted individuals. But below the surface, the children all lead double lives. The thing is, you'd think they were murderers or drug traffickers or something along those lines. Aside from the oldest male child, the rest are literally just teenagers doing teenage things, but that didn't stop the film from showing the repercussion of their actions (not matter how relatively tame they are).

The second half of the film is basically spent in hell, and for 40 of so minutes, we see people being tortured in many unique ways, the next more horrifying than the last. The SFX were well done, although you can tell its SFX so it takes a lot of the sting out of the visuals, but the torture is creative, unique and absolutely demented. The fact that anyone would believe God, in all his benevolent glory, would allow his children to suffer this was for eternity, is what really makes the story that much more horrifying. The fire and brimstone religious fanaticism that is responsible for this type of belief is the real terror to be found here. No one in the main cast deserved this level of absolutely barbaric punishment, and I shudder to think that anyone would watch this movie and think, "That's exactly what's going to happen to me if I don't repent."

I've always been under the belief that God wants you to come to him of your own free will, because you want to welcome him into your heart to change your life out of LOVE, not because you fear the eternal damnation of hell. I mean, why would any supreme being want someone to come to Him solely because they fear the alternative? That's what this movie ultimately does; it makes you want to lead a better life because you fear going to hell, not because of your love for God, and that's where these types of films ultimately fail.

I watched this movie as a moderately religious person and I wasn't scared, I just felt pity. If it takes the fear of hell to make you accept God into your life, then it's not the right reason to do so. As a form of entertainment, it just didn't do enough to truly make it a successful horror film.