`Tusuk': Plenty of ghosts but few thrills

Joko Anwar, Contributor, Jakarta

While other Asian countries have been unleashing their great horror movies across the globe -- changing the genre of horror movies worldwide, Indonesia must wait a little longer to do the same.

Billed as an "exotic horror" (whatever that means) with an "enigmatic ending" (again, whatever that's supposed to mean), Tusuk Jelangkung is a highly disappointing follow-up to the surprise hit, Jelangkung, which attracted some 1.3 million viewers last year.

Shot under a shoestring budget of Rp 300 million on video, the first Jelangkung made an entertaining horror movie that borrowed many scenes from several American movies and effectively mixed them with local horror elements.

Though corny, with actors who ran the gamut of expressions from A to B, the movie was made tongue in cheek -- an attitude that largely contributed to the movie's success.

Its sequel, made with a larger budget of Rp 2.4 billion (quite huge for an Indonesian film), takes itself too seriously and offers no sense of humor. It simply fails to match its modest, crowd-pleasing predecessor.

The so-so story revolves around five young people who are haunted by ghosts after one of them has an idea to play with an ouija board or whatever. They then seek advice from a psychic, who then tells them to go to a place to break the curse.

While the movie does not even try to make us care for the five characters (whom are they, anyway), the pedestrian script adds in two more.

By the end of the movie, most of the audience may as well wish for the characters to be dead as the script is preoccupied with the shots in which the ghosts can be placed.

The movie's promo materials contain a so-called "horror graphic", which supposedly shows what parts of the movie have a high- or low-scare quotient. The graphic may as well tell the audience when they should pay attention to the movie and when it's OK to fall asleep.

The misdirected movie proves that an experienced music video director cannot easily cross over to direct a feature film.

Director Dimas, a prolific music video director, seems to think a movie will not be boring as long as the camera keeps dollying.

Unfortunately, the irritating camerawork becomes a major distraction from the story (let's assume that there is one) and hints that the filmmaker has little appreciation of cinematic sense.

For the sake of the number of beautiful pictures per frame, Dimas has abandoned the logic required for a movie. For example, we often see bright backlighting in the middle of a wood. Even the least discerning audience will question where the light has come from.

Try not to giggle when two characters sit down at sunset with a mellow soundtrack playing in the background.

As expected, the movie plays like a long music video (but we are not talking about Alan Parker's Pink Floyd The Wall here) which becomes tiring after the first 10 minutes.

Dimas, who also served as director of photography and editor in this movie (and we are not talking about Robert Rodriguez's multiple credits in El Mariachi either) sacrificed character development for abundant ghost sightings, which soon become numbing.

Whether it was meant as a credit or an excuse, the film's producer keeps mentioning that Dimas has never watched a horror film. And it shows. He has no sense whatsoever of horror timing.

Dimas seems to think the success of a horror film depends on how often ghosts appear in a film: Anyone who has watched The Blair Witch Project or Rosemary's Baby will certainly disagree.

Unfortunately, the frequent ghost sightings in Dimas's horror movie generate almost no sense of fear. We see the ghosts show up while a character is taking a shower, while another is sleeping, or while yet another is picking his nose. So what? It's not as though the movie hints that the ghosts are putting the characters' lives in danger. Too bad, as the makeup department has done a good job in giving the ghosts an appearance that could have been disturbing.

What's more frustrating is the movie has big production values that many other local filmmakers can only dream of. Plus, production designer Adrianto Sinaga has built some very impressive sets that are sadly wasted.

The verdict is, Tusuk Jelangkung will not please horror fans, nor movie fans, except for providing some unintentional giggles, of which there are only a few.

Tusuk Jelangkung; Horror *1/2 (out of four stars); Starring Marcella Zalianty, Iqbal Rizantha, Dinna Olivia, Samuel Rizal, Thomas Nawilis, AA Gde Wipra, Ians Bahtiar; Directed by Dimas Djayadiningrat; A Rexinema Presentation