THE HAUNTED APARTMENT "MISS K" (Indonesia 2024) - MINI REVIEW

Is there anywhere in Indonesia that's NOT haunted?

Alma and her sister relocate from Jakarta to Surabaya where she takes up a job as manager of an apartment complex. After attending to a water leaking complaint from a tenant, she explores the forbidden 6th floor - specifically apartment 610 - where the source of the leak is originating from.

However, this apartment has a horrible curse. A woman bathing her child exclaims to Alma “Four Day, Sunset” then disappears. Over the course of the next four days, a series of supernatural incidents occur, leading Alma, her sister and Alma’s police officer boyfriend to uncover the deadly truth hidden in apartment 610.

Would you believe me if I told you this was based on a true story? I am not sure how much of a selling point this is with Indonesian horror cinema anymore, as every second movie seems to proclaim this phrase, hoping it attaches some kind of validity to its rather generic story.

Thankfully this is not a direct sequel to the rather bland first film - confusingly called Haunted Hotel in English, which has now ruined the naming conventions of the series. Along with the blandness, that first movie also starred Luna Maya, complete with her bored, wooden acting and lack of enthusiasm.

But the premise is unfortunately still the same. Literally identical. So, if you liked the first film, then you will like this one. It’s almost as if the writer, director and producers were hoping you had forgotten about the first film, because all they have done is change the names of the characters, the location and what floor the spirits live on. Almost everything else feels like a carbon copy. Almost.

One of the biggest confusions I had with this movie was why the spirit was so determined to kill Alma and her sister before the four-day time limit was up. They were trying to help the spirit, yet with the exception of the car accident, the spirit is trying it’s absolute hardest to kill these two girls and the boyfriend.

Now you might think all I do is pick on Indonesian horror movies and talk about the doom and gloom. And I’ll be honest; the last year of Indonesian horror cinema has been utter crap. But thankfully I don’t think this movie belongs in that pile.

For one, the movie has an impressive use of a drone shot in a cramped hallway, coupled with my favourite shot in cinema - the Hitchcock Zoom, made famous in the film Vertigo - when the camera moves back while simultaneously zooming on the main character. The effect of this shot is the character remains static on the screen while the background zooms out. It’s such an awesome shot and it is used to perfection in this film.

Yeah, I am a sucker for cinematography. And this movie needed it to keep my attention, alongside the tilting pan shots and underwater scenes. I found myself more captivated by the idea of making this film - especially some of the practical effects used in the body dismembering scenes - than the film itself.

That means, for me anyway, it’s not a complete waste. But if you are not a cinema nerd like me, you’ll probably just throw this movie in the average pile, where it doesn’t really deserve to be. Well not all the time anyway.

I’ll give this movie 3 ghosts out of 5, because it’s better than the first film, but only just.

Genre Horror Thriller
Director Guntur Soeharjanto
Starring Cinta Laura Kiehl, Arifin Putra, Callista Arum
Original Title Panggonan Wingit 2 “Miss K”
Alternative Title The Haunted Apartment “Miss K”
Country of Origin Indonesia
Release Date 20 December 2024