Name: Jelangkung
Genre: Horror
Released: 2001-12-19
Duration: 1 h 42 min
Rating: 6.5
Cast: Winky Wiryawan, Melanie Ariyanto, Rony Dozer

a rushed work that could be good yet wasted

Ok, this piece is not really really terrible ,it is just Bad, and such a shame too, since as the film makers have the guts to scavenge the urban legends of Indonesian ghost myths ....yep, Indonesian Ghost myths, the dragging nurse, the jungle infant,headless priest etc.. im telling you, if youre an indonesian or even a foreigner who have a knack for exotic folklore,urban ghost occurrences, this stuff are extremely creepy, not only because the fact that so many sighthings have occured , but also because these subject are extremely supernatural AND also Murderous in nature, hence its not just the ghost who seeks a tag team human buddy to get lifted so that they may R.I.P. These are ghosts who hangs around in darkest corners and toying with your sanity , that is if they're in a good mood, alas being a ghost was never about dying in a state of bliss,so they're just being themself and drag you in to hell and out and so on.

I realize that this supposed to be a semi guerilla low budget work, however based on my knowledge what makes a low budget film good is the effort that was squeezed on it.Try , El Mariachi, that one film inspires me to endure eating instant noodles so i can buy my digital video cam. This film lacks the torture, it looks as if all the scenes of each location are done in one day, and since the actors are buncha green unknowns a multiple rehearsal might be done, but ironically the worst acting came from the only recognizable name in this picture, yep, you guessed it, the lead actor, who is supposedly a known radio Jockey, this dude could probably set a record of being the most calm human being to ever encounter Evil ghosts, ok maybe he did some body movement yet his face remains the same, heck, try imagine the Facial expression of R2D2 if he is about to be light sabered to scrap pieces, yep, we got a commander Data here. The female role was given nothing more than to be the main guy's girl, and when his disturbing fetish of visiting creepy places in order to see Ghosts becomes too much , it is only normal for her to began her whinning and muttering, of course in a cute way, also there's your usual rambo tough guy, been done, this dude carries a sickle and a tiny knife , he probably thinks them ghost aren't that skillful to catch his throwing knife, thus might be defeated in such way.... One acting of a cliche chubby eating-machine-cowardly type of guy is particularly effortful, he supposed to be the loser in this film and i ended up rooting for this character so that he might live to see the credits roll.

Another thing i couldnt help noticing that the use of lime green colored water in a jar to represent something of a mad scientist left overs, was shown multiple times, and also that annoying.."oh-look-this-place-has-been-abandoned-for-years-yet-theres-a-liza rd-in-an-aquarium-still-alive" shots..yes shots, that same amphibian actor was used twice in a same type of scene. ok enough criticizing for now, the location use was good, i give them that, its not like hollywood teen horror genre where obvious use of sound studio is unashamingly shown, old hospitals,abandoned mansions, and crummy corners...then again in Indonesia , theres heaps of those places which are usually left overs from the Dutch invasion, i leave the forest scene out since the lighting in the night scenes are so amateur, this supposed to be an isolated far away bush areas like those in Blair witch project , yet it looks as if theres a walking street lamp behind the shiny head bald head of one tough guy actor, this supposed to be where the creepiness are highlighted but that ghost in form of one walking street light..is one spoiling happy ghost which brings to much hope in the word terror. Editing; choppy as hell, one is so embarrasingly flawed is where the kissing scene appears,again i mentioned in my other review that kissing scene in teen films are such a black pearl in ocean in Indonesian film industry, you just have to watch it to believe how bad it is. I think the two directors put an adequate effort on bringing this project to its shone, however their intimidation to make this film in less than two weeks (?)ruins the whole potential that lies within. one particular interesting scene is actually where the commander data lead man was discussing the theories and psychological reactions of ghost stories within a circle of society, this scene accumulates around 7 minutes and pure well written dialogue, now that was probably harder to make than most of the special effects in this film, since the friend of Commander Data did a good job,so the scene should be intriguing and thought provoking right? yes.. if its not for Commander Data whom i can only assume has a malfunction on his topographic cyberchip and decided to read out the script pages on his lap below the frame *(prior to this scene, commander Data also shows a supposedly shocking image from the Net, well bad job from the film maker not to try at least make their own photo manipulation, since this the only people who hasnt seen this image from their email accounts are certainly people who doesn't have e-mail account, hell its like telling that Princess Leia is Luke's sister to any current Star wars fan and expecting them to be surprised) * My conclusion; a scary film lacking depth of scare, greatly burdened by bad acting, rushed development and repetitive special effects that at most would probably scare you for its shock value if not for the cheesy music video shakey shots, after that.. its all snore and unintentional laughs, yep the word is Neo-shlock.

Four young people spend their time looking into supernatural phenomenons.

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