Ivanna

When I sat down here in 2023 to watch the 2022 Indonesian horror movie "Ivanna", I had never heard about the movie. So I only knew that I was in for an Indonesian horror movie experience, which was actually all that I needed to want to watch the movie.

Writer Lele Laila put together a fair enough script and storyline here, based on the novel by Risa Sawaswati. Not that I am in any way familiar with the novel, so I had no idea how true the movie's script is to the source material from the novel. Clearly the writer had no concept of how decay and decomposition works, especially with about 50 years passing and having a body part exposed to such a long time.

While "Ivanna" was a watchable movie, it was by no means a particularly outstanding foray in the Asian horror cinema. And for a lifelong horror afficianado such as myself, then director Kimo Stamboel's 2022 movie was a relatively slow paced trek.

The acting performances in "Ivanna" were good, and they definitely helped to keep the movie afloat. And my limited exposure to Indonesian cinema means that I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble. Leading actress Caitlin Halderman, playing Ambar, really carried the movie quite well with her performance.

For a horror movie, then I have to say that I found "Ivanna" to be a bit on the generic side. Sure, the storyline was nice enough for a single viewing. But that is about it, a single viewing is all that the movie has to it.

My rating of "Ivanna" lands on a five out of ten stars.