Crazy Classics - SUNDEL BOLONG (Indonesia, 1981)
One of Indonesia's scream legend Suzzanna's finest movies!
Crazy Classics is about rediscovering older horror movies that have long been forgotten by a modern audience. But the catch is that the movie has to be crazy! Wild scenarios, wild plots and outrageous practical effects - they’re all here in this 1981 Indonesian classic called Sundel Bolong, which is the name of a female ghost who used to be a prostitute, who is out for revenge.
And who better than Suzzanna, Indonesian’s favourite scream queen and the star of some of the most classic Indonesian horror films ever made such as The Queen of Black Magic, which was made the same year as this film, The Snake Queen and its many sequels and Santet, amongst many, many other legendary titles.
What’s this movie about?
Suzzanna plays the role of Alisa, an ex-prostitute who gets married to Hendarto, a sailor who appears to be extremely wealthy. Yes, this is the Pretty Woman plot before that movie was even a thing.
Alisa’s husband is called away for a nine-month tour of duty, and she decides she needs to keep her mind busy, so she creates some embroidery patterns that she hopes to sell to a dressmaker.
Unfortunately, this dressmaker is also in cahoots with her ex-Madam, who desperately wants her best worker back. The dressmaker, named Rudy, offers her a modelling job, but she refuses. On her way home, the road is blocked and four men kidnap her and take her to an abandoned factory.
At the factory they are met by Rudy and the Madam, and Rudy has his way with Alisa. Once he is finished, the other four men take their turns with her.
While waiting for the courts to deliver justice against her perpetrators, Alisa discovers she is pregnant. A local doctor refused to perform an abortion, so she does the worst thing imaginable - she aborts the baby herself after having one of the creepiest and nightmarishly scary nightmares you’ve ever seen about parenthood!
But the resulting blood loss also takes her life.
When her husband returns home, he is visited by Alisa’s twin sister Shina - who apparently died at the age of 10, but here she is standing in front of him!
And now Alisa’s revenge begins. Reborn as the Sundel Bolong, she shapeshifts into various different women and slowly takes her revenge on every person responsible for her unwanted pregnancy and subsequent death. This is very reminiscent of I Spit On Your Grave, but without the excessive nudity and intercourse.
Alisa’s husband realises that Shina is actually an apparition created by Alisa, and after making love to her - let that sink in, he made love to a ghost - he teams up with the local police force to try and stop his dead wife from killing Rudy and the Madam.
Why is this a Crazy Classic?
This is such an insane plot made more insane by some of the wild practical visual effects in the latter half of the movie that will really make you miss the good old days of horror filmmaking when creativity ruled the roost.
The end scene needs to be seen to be believed. There are some crazy effects that remind me of the time I was making a short movie in high school and I needed a character to disappear - I just paused the camera, told the person to get out frame, and then un-paused it. The same technique is used here in various scenes.
There’s also the awesome use of partial exposure of the negatives to imply Alisa is a transparent ghost. I love it.
But when the wagon gets smashed up in the warehouse - that’s a scene that you need to watch with your own eyes. This poor car gets absolutely trashed yet still manages to drive away.
And then we’ve got the plastic-looking skeleton when Alisa is trying to scare her victims. Now I get it, back in the early 80’s, these effects would have been cutting edge and very creepy, but in this modern CGI time-frame, it just looks campy. But good campy. On a side note, the best Indonesian horror movie ever made - Satan’s Slave from the same time frame - also employs very similar techniques. The 1980’s were certainly a campy time for horror.
It’s not just the effects that make this a crazy movie. It’s the idea of a ghost haunting a bunch of country hicks that also contribute to it. When Alisa convinces one of the men to follow her to white bricked room, and then blocks him in there, you’re just screaming at the camera telling the guy not to go there! It’s a clear example of a man following his junior brain rather than his senior brain.
Suzzanna is a charm in Indonesian cinema. She pulls off the role really well, but one can’t help but wonder if she truly enjoyed her time on this film or if she was just there for a paycheck. But then again, I get the same feeling from Eihi Shiina when I watch her in Tokyo Gore Police - there’s just a skill in being completely stoic on film that borderlines a quality performance over an amateur. Suzzanna cannot be accused of being an amateur.
So what about the film itself, is it something that you should watch? Well it’s a refreshing change from a lot of the crap that comes from Indonesia now, whose filmmakers have decided to bombard audiences with slickly produced religious horror movies. This movie keeps the religion to a few short scenes at the end and there isn’t much dwelling on it at all.
It’s also a rough looking movie, which is clear hallmark of the late 70’s and early 80’s horror cinema from all over the world, Indonesia is no exception. But that roughness - or grittiness or rawness, depending on what you wanted to call it - adds to the atmosphere of the film. It’s certainly aged the film, but after watching it, I would take this movie over countless dozens of new Indonesian horror movies shot on digital, full of CGI and over produced.
And on that note, I would recommend that you watch this film for the slice of history that it is, featuring an absolute darling and superstar and reminding the audience of the better days when creativity and problem solving were important skills to have when making a film.
Genre Horror
Director Sisworo Gautama Putra
Starring Suzzanna, Rudy Salam, Barry Prima, Ruth Pelupessy
Original Title Sundel Bolong
Alternative Title N/A
Country of Origin Indonesia
Release Date 2 August 1981