GRAVE TORTURE - A Contender For Horror Movie of the Year... (Indonesia, 2024)

...but let down by a seriously disappointing ending.

This review is going to come across as a bit of a contradiction.

Why? Because for the first 90 or so minutes of this film, I thought this was going to be the best horror movie of 2024.

There was a real opportunity to discuss something serious with the movie, but instead it took the easy way out.

I love Joko Anwar films - but I usually dislike the way he ends his movies. Satan’s Slaves 2 (Pengabdi Setan 2: Communion) was brilliant, but the ending was a bit a confusing mess. Impetigore (Perempuan Tanah Jahanam) was so creepy and full of tension, but then it ended with an implication of a sequel.

Probably the only horror movie of his that I felt the ending was awesome was The Forbidden Door (Pintu Terlarang).

But that’s how I felt with this film. There was a real opportunity to discuss the linkages between religious radicalisation and terrorism, in exploring someone’s faith and their connection to religion.

And most importantly, there should have been an emphasis that, if you’re religious, God should be loved and not feared.

PLOT

After her parents are killed by a suicide bomber who was carrying out the action in the name of religion, Sita discovers a recording left behind by the terrorist.

The recording proports to be the sounds of a grave torture, where the body of a sinner is tortured by the angels of hell in the grave for their misdeeds in real life.

Desperate to disprove that grave torture exists, she finds the most evil person in her world - a man responsible for sodomising dozens of young boys including her brother - and buries herself alongside him with a video camera when he dies. Her intention is that the recording will be blank.

ABOUT THE FILM

Religion is a very testy subject and I realise I am potentially poking a bear that I don’t want to poke with this review, but I feel there needs to be an alternative perspective to this film.

The obvious caveat is that I am not Muslim, and thus my beliefs are different to the characters in the film. However, I am partly religious, so there is an element of familiarity with the concepts here.

But as a citizen of the world, I can be critical of using religion as a form of violence. And I honestly thought that this movie was going to explore that theme and attempt to provide some rationale about why that’s a bad thing.

In the end, the movie instead seems to reinforce that concept. And that’s where I feel it missed its opportunity. I believe Sita should have had a spiritual re-awakening and reconnected with her faith and religion, but the way its done just left a bad taste in my mouth and won’t do anything to change people perception of religion.

The real shame about that is the movie is brilliant. The first hour of world building done by Anwar is some of his finest. From the opening scene which appears to be one long take until the incident occurs, to the scene in the tunnel where we first learn about hallucinations, the movie just builds and builds and builds the world around it so effortlessly.

We understand Sita’s disconnection with religion and we, the audience, ride along with her as she plots her revenge. We see how religion consumes her life, from her relationships with her brother and with Wahyu.

And then I love the way that Anwar starts to make the audience question what’s going on in the film after the burial scene. There is some fabulous and suitably unsettling music used - this type of industrial grunge similar to the game Silent Hill - and the horror really kicks in after this point. Indeed, one of the best death scenes I’ve seen in Indonesian horror cinema occurs with a washing machine.

But the movie chose to take the easy way out and just solidify it’s message rather than subvert it and give the audience something to think about. Just like a similar movie - Siksa Neraka aka Hell Torture that also came out this year - the movie decides to hit the audience on the head with a heavy fear hammer, rather than leaving them with something to ponder.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

If this movie had ended 20 minutes earlier this would have been a 5 out of 5 and my pick for horror movie of the year. It would have been brilliant. But unfortunately that’s not what it did.

Using my patent pending GHOST rating, which stands for Great Horror Or Stupid Trash, this movie gets 3 ghosts. This is a tough rating because I wanted to give this a lower score, but I just felt that it would be unfair to ignore the first 90 minutes of the movie and how brilliant it is.

Yes, the ending was a big letdown, and yes, the ending stopped this film from being the best horror movie of the year.

But Joko Anwar is still a genius, and I will still look forward to any movie with his name on it.

As always, if you’ve seen it what did you think?

Genre Horror Drama
Director Joko Anwar
Starring Faradina Mufti, Reza Rahadian, Widuri Puteri
Original Title Siksa Kubur
Alternative Title Grave Torture
Country of Origin Indonesia
Release Date 11 April 2024

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