I've been watching a fair bit of Indonesian cinema lately and truth be told I kind of like what I see and for the most part that applies to Kuntilanak.
It tells the story of a group of children who are forced to battle a mysterious creature that preys on the young and steals them away.
The opening sequence immediately got my attention, it was excellent. For this reason I had high hopes, but sadly a couple of things stopped the film from really meeting its potential.
First of all the comedy. If the film isn't an intentional horror comedy then for the most part comedy should be kept clear or a horror, it takes away the fear element and just stops you taking the whole thing seriously.
Second the kids, children are the leads of the film which is never good. Five of them leading in a film of this type? Imagine if you merged The Ring (2002) with the Goonies (1985) and that is basically what you have here.
Kuntilanak's creature effects are great, they adopt the traditional Asian style of scary black haired undead lady perfectly and for that reason this should have been a scary film. The method of which they use the scares also are very good, but they're sadly watered down by the kids. Goofy child actors running away from something that is actually scary, it just didn't work for me.
If they'd played this whole thing serious, added some actual threat to the kids or better yet not have kids at all then this film would have been fantastic.
Moral of the story, kids suck.
The Good:
Incredible opening
A lot of potential
Creature looks great
Awesome scares
The Bad:
Goofy sound effects
Poor cgi
Annoying children
Inconsistent tone
It tells the story of a group of children who are forced to battle a mysterious creature that preys on the young and steals them away.
The opening sequence immediately got my attention, it was excellent. For this reason I had high hopes, but sadly a couple of things stopped the film from really meeting its potential.
First of all the comedy. If the film isn't an intentional horror comedy then for the most part comedy should be kept clear or a horror, it takes away the fear element and just stops you taking the whole thing seriously.
Second the kids, children are the leads of the film which is never good. Five of them leading in a film of this type? Imagine if you merged The Ring (2002) with the Goonies (1985) and that is basically what you have here.
Kuntilanak's creature effects are great, they adopt the traditional Asian style of scary black haired undead lady perfectly and for that reason this should have been a scary film. The method of which they use the scares also are very good, but they're sadly watered down by the kids. Goofy child actors running away from something that is actually scary, it just didn't work for me.
If they'd played this whole thing serious, added some actual threat to the kids or better yet not have kids at all then this film would have been fantastic.
Moral of the story, kids suck.
The Good:
Incredible opening
A lot of potential
Creature looks great
Awesome scares
The Bad:
Goofy sound effects
Poor cgi
Annoying children
Inconsistent tone