Insidious: Mediocre Horror Movie with a Some Twist

This is a horror movies. Scores 7 on IMDB. And created by the people who brought us Paranormal Activity and Saw.

Jadi gak ada alasan buat gw untuk gak nyoba nonton.

Ceritanya tentang satu keluarga yang baru saja pindah rumah. Dan setelah sebuah insiden kecil, anak laki-laki mereka tidak bisa bangun dari tidurnya. Selanjutnya, keluarga –terutama sang ibu- mulai dihantui berbagai bentuk makhluk aneh. Dengan penuh paksaan, mereka pun terpaksa pindah rumah (lagi).But apparently, it’s not the
house that haunted.

All in all. Ini sebuah film horor yang cenderung medioker. Polanya ketebak. Dan dalam beberapa poin malah cenderung ngebosenin.

Tapi Insidious juga punya beberapa stand-out point. Well, at least rasa ngeri dan teror sukses muncul dalam banyak scene. Tense-nya juga ada. Dan endingnya juga shocking. Literally.

Despite that, nothing special. Lebih ke nonton Paranormal Activity dengan “sedikit” jalan cerita yang “sedikit” misterius. Penampakan hantu2-nya bisa ditebak, ngomong2-nya terlalu banyak, dan sempat dataaaar banget di tengah-tengah.

The idea was nice. The horror-feels was there.
But still, something not quite right with this movie in my opinion. Just one horror movie that will passed by and forgotten in a few weeks.

Worth a watch? Maybe. Especially if you’re looking for some thrill and horror.

If you’re looking for something special? Nothing.

Rate: 5/10

INAFFF Day 3: A Quick Review

Awalnya gw udah berencana untuk gak INAFFF-an, tapi sebuah DM di twitter bikin gw ngeubah rencana.
@nobarSIMPATI yang baik hati memberikan gw tiket gratis buat nonton ‘From Within’. Gak mikir dua kali, INAFFF day 3: here I come!
Karena ngerasa nanggung cuma nonton satu film, gw pun memutuskan untuk nonton satu film lagi: ‘Snow White’.

Here’s my Review:

From Within



Sebuah horor standar. Lumayan seru, meski tidak ada yang istimewa. Ceritanya tentang sebuah kota yang dihantui wabah bunuh diri. Penyebabnya disebut-sebut adalah sebuah buku hitam yang dibawa seorang remaja. Cowok ini ternyata punya masa lalu kelam di kota tersebut. Ibunya sempat dibakar beramai-ramai oleh warga kota karena dianggap penyihir. Apakah segala kejadian bunuh diri ini adalah ulahnya?

Banyak elemen yang coba dibicarakan sang sutradara di sini. Mulai dari guilt, pikiran sempit, hingga teror yang bisa muncul dari dalam diri sendiri. Justru, teror inilah yang paling mengerikan dan sulit untuk dihentikan.

Tapi di samping seru-nya horor dan juga twist-twist menarik yang muncul, yang paling menarik perhatian gw adalah tingkah laku para warga di kota tersebut. Mereka semua adalah orang-orang yang taat pada Tuhan. Masalah muncul, saat mereka menganggap orang yang berbeda dengan mereka adalah sesat dan harus dimusnahkan.

Sounds familiar, eh?

Anyway. This is just a typical-average-horror-movie. Ketegangannya juga biasa aja. Tapi tetap ada hal-hal menarik yang bisa diangkat. Ditambah beberapa twist –meski agak ketebak- dan ending yang lumayan oke. Boleh lah ditonton untuk bersenang-senang.

Score: 5 out of 10

Snow White


Another Thai Horror. What can we expect? Well… Seperti yang kita tonton di film-film horor Thailand biasanya. Hantu-hantu, horor psikologis, cerita yang cenderung sakit jiwa, ketegangan yang muncul naik turun, plus twist.

Ceritanya soal dua orang pemuda yang mengambil janin seorang mayat wanita hamil untuk melakukan ritual demi mewujudkan keinginan mereka (standar, pingin bisa ML sama cewek dan pingin lulus ujian). Setelah sukses, gantian mereka yang dihantui Hantu Hamil ini. Sederhana? Banget. Tapi ada satu elemen lagi yang membuat film ini sedikit berbeda. Saat mereka mencuri si janin, ada satu orang pekerja Rumah Sakit yang mengetahui tindakan mereka. Tapi –entah bagaimana- they can keep this man shut. Masalah muncul ketika ia juga ternyata ikut dikejar-kejar oleh si hantu. Kenapa?

Sepanjang nonton, I can’t help but think that this movie actually not much different with our local horror. Cerita sederhana, hantu-hantu yang hampir sama seremnya (Setan Hamil vs Suster Ngesot), ngambil bahan buat ritual (Janin vs Tali Pocong), bahkan bentuk si janin setelah dibakar bikin gw inget sama jenglot. Cuma ya entah kenapa, horor kita tetep keliatan lebih cheesy.

Oke. Balik ke Snow White. Judul-nya manis ya? But believe me, setelah nonton film ini, you’ll never look at the Snow White the same way again.

Film ini diselamatkan dari ke-standar-an film horor lain (yang bahkan juga disindir di dalamnya) dengan kehadiran si orang ketiga di luar dua orang pemuda tadi. Segala twist dan ke-sakitjiwaan film ini ada sama orang ini.

Good stuff? Kind of. Memang blom masuk pada level ‘Shutter’ tapi sudah cukup ngebuat kita bergidik, menyerengit jijik, dan dihantui image ibu hamil yang hancur-hancuran. Good enough for you? It is for me.

Score: 6 Out of 10.

'The Clinic': A Review

Kemarin gw baru nonton 'The Clinic'di INAFF 2010....

Film sakit jiwa.
Film sakit jiwa.
FILM SAKIT JIWA!!!

sebuah film thriller dari Aussie yang bercerita soal seorang ibu hamil yang tiba2 kebangun dan ngedapetin anak-nya udah gak ada dalam perut.

Dan ternyata -di bangunan tua itu- dia gak sendirian. Ada beberapa wanita muda lain yang anak-nya sama-sama diambil paksa dari perut.

mereka akhirnya bisa ketemu sama bayi mereka. Masalahnya adalah mereka gak tau yang mana bayi mereka sendiri.

And it was 1979. About 6 years before the DNA technology.

Dan satu per satu, ibu-ibu muda ini mulai dibunuh. Demi tag yang ditanam di dalam perut mereka. Tag ini satu-satunya tanda yg bisa nunjukin yang mana bayi mereka sebenarnya...

Gimana cara nya mereka survive? Atau bahkan mati semuanya?

Well... I won't spoil all in here.

Yang jelas, ini film dahsyat horornya.

Dibandingin diganggu sama hantu-hantu gak jelas, film ini lebih memilih untuk ngeganggu kita secara psikologis. Teror yang muncul bener-bener gak sehat.

Lebih parah-nya lagi, ada eksplanasi logis dari apa yang dilakukan oleh sang tokoh psikopat di film ini. Dan justru ini yang ngebuat horornya makin kerasa nyata.

Well, the term 'A Mother Will Do Anything For Her Child' took a very extreme turn here.

Film sakit. Yang saking sakit-nya justru bisa bikin kita percaya kalo hal kayak gini bisa aja terjadi.

Blom lagi twist-twist dahsyat yang muncul sepanjang film.

This is a brilliant choice from INAFF's committee...

I was literally at the edge of my seat almost the whole movie.

Sick. Bloody. Smart. Real. Terror. What else can you ask?

Inception: My Point of View

I can't stop thinking about it.

I know Inception just a few weeks ago. This movie didn't make it to my 2010's must-watched-movies (the list that include even the-i-know-it-will-be-horrible-movie called 'Eclipse')

And then boom. Maybe about a month ago, i watched some forgettable movies in Blitzmegaplex and i saw that poster while waiting.

Two things caught up my eyes. Christopher Nolan and Leonardo Di Caprio.

Nolan still amazed me with his Memento and then he made me fall in love all over again with Batman.

Leo? Well. This is the last man that make me stunned for more than two hours and still think about it after i left the theater. It was a movie called Shutter Island.

So i stood there, for maybe a couple of minutes just staring on that brilliant poster and then said to myself, "I have to watch it..."

But then again, it was what i said to every-good-looking-movie-posters out there.

Still. The Nolan aspect is what interest me the most. After reaching the peak with The Dark Knight, movie and money-wise, what else will he offers?

Then the others popped up. There's Ellen Page there -the girl that i fall in love with after watched Juno-, then Ken Watanabe -than Japanese!-, then Joseph Gordon Levitt -that guy from (500) Days of Summer, that poor guy-, and the beauty Marrion Cottilard.

All aspects completed. And my eyes itching to watch this movie.

And the day comes. 1st day Inception hits the theater. Before all the hype and all the expectations bothered me (i've been a bit traumatized with Avatar and all of its hype), i watched it.

One word. Brilliant.

A stunning experience. One hell of an idea. One hell of an execution. And one hell of a question.

The idea. Ah. An idea about an idea.

One simple idea can grows up and become whatever.

We learned it before perhaps. A butterfly effect. You change one thing, everything else change.

It's one hell of a theory. And one hell of a fact.

Next. The Dreams. The Layer.

I always fascinated with what we called dreams.

I've been success, i've been hurt, i've been happy, i've been crying, i've been exited, even i've been dead in my dreams.

And here, Nolan provide us with a land full of dreams. Where anything can happen. A land where we can go inside people's mind and fucked it up however we want.

He did that for sure. Not literally. We just need to watch his movies.

About the Ending. It was easy for me to conclude that Cobb was stuck on his so-called-Limbo.

The non-stop-spinning-thingy. Clear message. Ambiguous perhaps, but i believe it won't stop.

It was still a dream. Period. End.

And then, the other debate comes up. Is everything -from beginning until the end- was a dream?

ALL of them? Really?

In my point of view, i disagree with this one.

There were a thin line between reality and dreams. But still there WERE a line.

Means, there were two things: Dreams and Reality. TWO.

Not one linear label that we have to choose.

We might never know how everything was started, but i -personally- can sense some reality giving up to us there.

Then again. It was my point of view.

That's the beauty of this movie i guess. Everyone's can have their own judgment. Their own conclusion.

One thing tho. Inception also made me realizes that people can choose how they want to be happy.

Happiness is an abstract thing. People feel it in different way one another. And if staying in the dreams means happiness, then everyone have rights to choose that.

This movie can haunts anyone. It's been three days, and Inception still running around in my head.

Positioning itself into one of my most favorite movie of all time.

Watch it all over again? To hell i will. And i might never get bored. Just like when i watch Memento. Again and again.