Kimo Stamboel’s Janur Ireng: Sewu Dino the Prequel

Sabdo and Intan Kuncoro are like the poor relations of a gothic novel. After their father dies and their house burns down, their wealthy Uncle Arjo takes them into his home. The hyper-class-conscious might suspect the hardscrabble siblings will never be considered full members of Arjo’s family, but their uncle and his wife Lasmini are only too eager to accept them. Of course, there are terrifying reasons for this in Kimo Stamboel’s Janur Ireng: Sewu Dino the Prequel, which just opened in Cambodia and Vietnam (with EST N8 currently repping other territories).

Don’t worry if you haven’t seen Stamboel’s Sewu Dino. This is the prequel, so newcomers can easily follow the story, based on SimpleMan’s online story (just like Stamboel’s Dancing Village: The Curse Begins)—at least until the final scene somewhat bafflingly links it back to the prior (subsequent) film.

Regardless, orphaned Sabdo and Intan are rather intimidated by their stately new home. Indeed, despite the luxury, the Kuncoro manor absolutely drips with bad vibes. The decidedly gothic set-up soon takes a rather folk horror turn when Uncle Arjo forces Sabdo to sacrifice a goat. In fact, such ceremonies become a bizarrely regular thing.

It turns out their late father had good reasons for cutting ties with his brother’s branch of the family. These Kuncoros are scary people and Sabdo’s prospective role will be especially ominous, involving rites and literal demons. What transpires probably holds a great deal of tragic irony for those who have seen the original Sewu Dino (which currently streams on Prime). However, it probably lands with even greater force for those who haven’t.

Either way, there is an extended scene of third act lunacy that is so jaw-droppingly over-the-top, it ought to make Janur Ireng a cult classic and a perennial favorite for midnight movie screenings. You’ll know it when you see it. Yet, before that, Stamboel crafts a moody folk horror film, rich with atmosphere and foreboding.

Kimo Stamboel’s Dancing Village: The Curse Begins

They hold a dancing contest in this small Java village that is a lot like the 1930’s dance-offs seen in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They. However, in this case, the sooner dancers collapse, the safer they will be. The lucky “winner” will be damned to dance with demons forever. Mila will be lured back to her mother’s ancestral home, just in time to see the sinister ritual revived in Kimo Stamboel’s Dancing Village: The Curse Begins, which opens this Friday in theaters.

Rather suddenly, Mila’s mother was stricken with a mysterious, debilitating illness. According to a shaman, the affliction will lift if Mila returns the ancient bangle her mother took from the so-called “Dancing Village.” This would be the same village seen in the KKN films, the top-grossing Indonesian horror franchise based on SimpleMan’s novel. Since this is a prequel, you don’t need to worry about those earlier later films.

With her cousin Yuda, his friend Arya, and their reluctant guide, they find the village, but they do not receive much of a welcome. The village headman has inconveniently passed away and their spiritual leader, Mbah Buyut is out of town. Almost immediately, Mila starts having visions of Badarawuli, the demonic femme fatale. Rather ominously. The mother of her host, Ratih, also exhibits similarly severe mystery symptoms.

There is some blood and guts, but Dancing Village depends more on mood and atmosphere for its scares. This is folk horror and its folkiest. It is chillingly effective in a slow-burn kind of way. In fact, Dancing Village is probably Stamboel’s most suggestive and quietly eerie film to date, either as a solo director or working with Timo Tjahjanto as the Mo Brothers. Admittedly, some of the dancing damnation scenes are almost campy, but in a way that is still deeply creepy.

Fantasia ’19: Dreadout

You can think of it as the Indonesian Silent Hill. Doesn’t that inspire bushels of confidence? It is the first Indonesian video game movie-adaptation, based on a locally produced horror-survival game. Staying alive will be no easy feat, but it never is in a Mo Brothers film. This time around, Kimo Stamboel helms on his own, bringing Dreadout to bigger screens, including Concordia’s SGWU theater, where it had its North American premiere during the 2019 Fantasia International Film Festival.

This will be a case of live by the smart phone, die by the smart phone, or vice versa. To score more followers than their upstart juniors, a group of well-heeled high school seniors decide to break into an abandoned apartment building that was the scene of a notorious crime. Super idea kids. Nothing could go wrong with that plan. To enter, they need the help of Linda, a financially strapped classmate.

Of course, we can immediately tell she was the terrified little girl who witnessed the disastrous exorcism during the prologue. Soon, she also starts regaining memories of that night when the entitled Scooby-Doo gang break through the old police tape cordoning off her former apartment. It had changed since she lived there. Much to everyone’s bafflement, there is now a deep pool right in the middle of the floor. Naturally, it turns out to be a portal to a sinister nether realm that pulls Linda and Jess (the queen bee) through to the other side.

This world is populated with demonic creatures, who all want a piece of Linda. Fortunately, she discovers the flash on her phone will keep them at bay—and possibly even vanquish them. Yes, much game-play-inspired demon flashing will transpire.

As half of the Mo Brothers tandem, with Timo Tjahjanto, Stramboel has jointly directed some pretty extreme movies, like Killers, but this time he goes it alone. The results are strangely ordinary, but the atmosphere is genuinely creepy. In fact, Silent Hill comparisons are indeed apt.

The set design and art direction of Dreadout are genuinely quite striking. The film looks good and Caitlin Haldman solidly anchors the film as down-to-earth Linda. On the other hand, the rest of her classmates are just generic horror movie teens. Only Mike Lucock really stands out from the pack, to any extent, as the older, more corruptible security guard.

Dreadout moves along at a respectable clip, but it has none of the visceral intensity of a film like Killers. It is mostly just okay, which is really the film’s biggest surprise. Still, by the standards of video game movie adaptations, it ranks up there, largely from lack of competition. Recommended for game fans, Dreadout had its North American debut at this year’s Fantasia.