Needless to say that I wasn't familiar with the 2019 Indonesian movie "Si Manis Jembatan Ancol" (aka "Bloodlust Beauty") prior to stumbling upon it here in 2024 by random chance. And with it being an Asian horror movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I had to watch it. It combined two of my favorite things after all; that being the horror genre and Asian movies.
I didn't know what to expect from writers Isman H. S., Anggy Umbara and Fajar Umbara when I sat down to watch the movie, so they had every opportunity to entertain and impress me.
However, I was expecting this to actually be a horror movie. But "Si Manis Jembatan Ancol" turned out to be more of a 50% drama and 50% horror movie, and that was a major disappointment. And directors Anggy Umbara and Bounty Umbara spends an unfathomably long time on establishing the characters and setting up the story, but it comes with the cost of losing the audience in the process, because about one-third of the movie is squandered in this manner. You have to venture more than 50 minutes into the movie before it starts to resemble a horror movie, and it is easy to give up on the movie long before that.
The only performer in the movie that I was familiar with was actor Arifin Putra, having seen him in "The Raid 2". It should be noted that they had a good cast ensemble put together for the movie, and the acting performances throughout the course of the movie was good.
The effects in the movie were adequate, though the CGI animated red fabric was a bit questionable at times.
"Si Manis Jembatan Ancol" was a disappointing attempt at making a horror movie, and it is not a movie that I would recommend for fans of Asian horror to rush out and get to watch. Nor is it a movie that every will grace my screen a second time.
My rating of "Si Manis Jembatan Ancol" lands on a four out of ten stars.
