The concept is intriguing. The theme of local wisdom set in Saranjana, a mythical city beneath the waters of South Kalimantan, is captivating. Unfortunately, the execution is embarrassingly poor.
The film aims to blend horror, drama, and science fiction, but fails entirely. The storyline is incredibly flat-while this might work for a horror film, the execution here is so poor that the film lacks any grounding whatsoever.
The film starts without any clear direction, featuring a band concert somewhere, followed by a petty drama among the band members leading to the vocalist's disappearance. There's a hint of horror initially, but it abruptly intensifies when the vocalist seems possessed and wanders off to Saranjana (we find out after 15 mins that the film actually takes place in South Kalimantan). The band embarks on a quest before the film transitions into a horror segment as they try to find their way to Saranjana. Once the mythical city is revealed, a science fiction element is introduced, closing with a return to drama.
The horror is subpar, the drama fails to evoke any emotion, and the science fiction lacks imagination.
Let's discuss the horror first. The film markets itself as a "horror" film, but it merely throws various supernatural entities without any horror tension. Pocong appears, a supernatural baby emerges, the spirit of a dancer appears, but everything comes off as absurd. The scene with the pocong is particularly ridiculous. It seems the director hoped to induce horror through quantity-every appearance of a pocong involves a multitude (sometimes a dozen), yet there's no buildup whatsoever. The characters rely solely on screaming in fear without taking any meaningful action.
There's one absurd scene where the character floats down a river full of pocongs. Suddenly, one pocong emerges from the river (among a dozen others just watching from a distance), and the character just hysterically screams in fear, and the pocong does nothing but stare blankly. Suddenly, their boat starts moving again after they stop screaming. Another foolish scene shows a character trance-dancing due to possession, and another character suddenly becomes possessed as well when approaching. The solution for the character still in control? Get close to them and shake their body to bring them back to consciousness, even though a moment before they realized that being close might lead to possession. Strangely, only the main character avoids possession with no reason explained.
Now, onto the science fiction part. Saranjana, the unseen city with an advanced civilization. Our protagonists, after a bloody and sweaty struggle, finally steps into Saranjana (this isn't a spoiler as it's in the trailer, which is also a dumb decision). However, this mystical city turns out to be just like Dubai. The portrayal of Wakanda, which I still think lacks imagination, is miles better. Here in Saranjana the supposedly futuristic city consisting only of skyscrapers with Arabic writing (basically Dubai). The streets are paved. The cars are Toyota Avanza, the motorcycles are scoopy. It's genuinely sad and utterly lacking in imagination from the concept artist.
Whether it's a budget issue or a vision problem, I don't know. There are futuristic gadgets in the story, but they're reduced to simple smartwatches with 3D holograms to be easily comprehensible for the audience. The effects are also terrible. Despite the city supposedly having advanced surveillance, the surveillance cameras are Xiaomi brand (yes, the white ones). The police guarding the city don't use any vehicles to chase criminals; instead, they run barefoot. People wearing traditional Banjar clothing seem to be directly transplanted: in this supposedly super futuristic city, their traditional attire remains unchanged.
The irony is that there should be a contrast between the high-tech city and the low-tech traditional clothing. However, because the depiction of the city is incredibly low-tech and trashy, I don't feel anything. It's quite amusing.
Finally, the drama.
The director should have hired a screenwriter instead of writing the script themselves. The dialogues are incredibly cringeworthy. The main character has a talk-no-jutsu like Naruto that can change people's minds just by rambling and getting angry. Whoever was responsible for editing should be fired because every drama scene feels rushed. In one scene, a character is determined, and in the next scene, they suddenly cry and change their mind.
I heard that the budget for this film wasn't large. But they managed to fly the film crew to South Kalimantan and shoot on location? Instead of spending the money on shooting on location, it should have been used to hire a more skilled concept artist and an experienced screenwriter. No one cares if the film shot in a city forest in front of a housing complex or on the actual location, as long as it looks authentic. Authenticity is achieved through adept film production, not by jetting off to a set location.
The only positive thing about this film is the theme music. The Saranjana theme is mesmerizing, very ethnic. The acting is standard for Indonesian film standards. Everything else is truly... a headache to watch.
E for Effort though. Hopefully the director learned a lot from the process and someone (or the director in the future) will pick up this fascinating myth with a better project.
