Synopsis: A young college student moves to a new boarding house in a very haunted area. Rumours had it that a Kuntilanak (the she-demon) lived up in a hundreds of years old tree near the house. Soon, people around her died one by one tragically….
My Quick Review: Kuntilanak, based on a local urban legend, is a very popular horror franchise in Indonesia. The always gorgeous Julie Estelle (Macabre) stars as Sam, the young college student with a “gift” for the occult, and Rizal Mantovani directs, as he will for all subsequent sequel.
Kuntilanak is a very creepy movie with quite a few “jump out of your seat” moments. Each and every appearance by the Kuntilanak has managed to raise some hair on the back of my skin. It’s interesting that I did watch The Conjuring the night before at the theatre and was not as easily scared as I was when watching this film (The Conjuring is definitively the better movie but not the scarier).
The whole visual art of the movie adds to the spooky feeling and the haunted boardhouse is nicely shot as well. The acting, while not stellar is above average and there is plenty of eye candy from the cast (Julie Estelle and Ratu Felisha in particular). The gore is low key and while not entirely original, Kuntilanak is one of the Best Indonesian Horror movie I’ve seen so far.
My Rating: 6.5/10
Director: Rizal Mantovani
Origin: Indonesia
