'Titik Hitam': A failed attempt at horror

Joko E.H. Anwar, Contributor, Jakarta

Titik Hitam (The Black Spot); Starring Winky Wiryawan, Aurora Yahya, Enditha; Directed by Sentot Sahid; An I Sinema/Prima Entertainment Production; Horror, ** (out of ****)

Noted film editor Sentot Sahid whose excellent work includes the art-house favorite Pasir Berbisik (The Whispering Sands) makes a big-screen debut with a horror movie which is said to be based on his real-life experience.

While the movie shows signs that he will get better the next time, Sentot would be well not to stray from his specialty just yet.

At time when local audiences desperately need another movie to keep their faith in the newly reborn local film industry, Titik Hitam is likely to end up on the viewers' disappointment list.

The story about a young man who can see ghosts, while dangerously derivative, is lacking in scary or thrilling scenes.

Since he was a little kid, Heru (Winky Wiryawan) is blessed (or cursed) with an ability to see ghosts. His cousin Retno (Aurora Yahya) has always believed in him while nobody else does.

When they are in college, Heru has a relationship with a girl even though he knows that Retno loves him very much and always imagines that someday they will get married.

Meanwhile, Heru keeps seeing ghosts which have little to do with the story. Heru is then also involved in making video clips and movie projects (talented film director Riri Riza appears in a cameo).

However, none of it really takes us anywhere.

The supposedly interesting "The Black Spot" theory which becomes the title of the movie itself is never explained and only appears on the cover of a book.

Oh, there are also some sequences which involve our main characters flying around, which will immediately prompt a "what was that?!" response from the audience. Hmmm...

Just like most of the recently released locally made movies, Titik Hitam suffers from a lack of adequate storytelling and should make a good example for scriptwriting classes about how not to write a script.

The screenplay, surprisingly written by Jujur Prananto who co- wrote the highly successful Ada Apa dengan Cinta? (What's Up With Love?) last year, is so poorly-structured it falls apart before finishing its second reel.

There is no real story to push the movie forward, we do not know what the main character's real goal is in the film.

As a result, the audience has no motivation to keep following the story and will start counting the number of speakers in the theater, instead.

It is unlikely that Titik Hitam will follow the commercial success of another local horror flick, Jelangkung, which created long queues at local multiplexes last year.

While Jelangkung benefited from a straight-forward, simple plot, Titik Hitam is tangled in its own attempt to create a complex storyline.

What could have been the main plot, about someone close to the main character who dies and tries to tell him what it feels like to live in the spirit world, comes too late near the end.

As a result, we are presented with a movie with a very stretched-out setup which stops when the real problem arrives.

The scary moments are also poorly staged here while the ghostly images often appear in poor computer-generated graphics which often look like figures in video games.

Too bad, since horror fans would spot that there are so many potential moments in the movie which should have been able to make the audience jump off their seats.

The fact that the movie is being released at the same time as another Asian horror movie The Eye, which is still being shown at local theaters, could seriously hurt Titik Hitam as it will draw a direct comparison.

Of course, The Eye which is a worldwide hit and is already hailed as one of the scariest horror movies of all time is far superior.

Shot in digital video then transferred to celluloid, Titik Hitam pales in comparison.

However, The Eye's success does not solely rely on its relatively greater budget, but on the filmmakers' good judgments, including using real images instead of computer-generated ones.

Titik Hitam is not without quality. The performances are mostly believable while there are moments that you would think that there is a future ahead for Sentot as a director.

He just needs to pursue his storytelling skills.