I've been talking about Macabre for several years now, one of the finest and most brutal modern horror films - and from Indonesia. One of the directors (they're brothers) Timo Tjahjanto also wrote the best part of V/H/S 2, Safe Haven! So we're dealing with talented people here. Brian Yuzna, a producer/director I have have a love-hate relationship with ended up in Indonesia in his hunt for production money and Takut: Faces of Fear was the first, the fun monster movie Amphibious 3D the second - and now I understand he's in the UK, one country after another. I like the guy. As a producer he have a wonderful sense for new and fresh talent. I hope Tarot will be good. Anyway, Takut is an anthology movie - six short stories without any real connection, they're just short horror films.
First out is Show Unit. A man accidentally kills his new girlfriends daughter... and then everything gets fucked up when he tries to solve the problem. For me this seems more like a black comedy/satire, in the same vein as the Hong Kong masterpiece Dream Home. It looks quite cheap, and the ending is a bit too ambigious to make complete sense. But it's not bad.
Incarnation of Naya is a way more edgy and controversial story about a city girl, Naya, who travels together with her mother to some kind of spiritual cleansing ceremony at the countryside. She sees a strange strange child on the way, but forgets it fast when she meets her male cousin for the first time in many years - and she wants him. Badly. I sense a morality story here, modern values vs old ones. It's a good story with lots of atmosphere. But I'm not sure I agree on the morality behind what happens.
More traditional is Peeper, starring Epy Kusnandar (who also appears in V/H/S 2 as the sect leader in Safe Haven) as a peeping tom. One day he gets a ticket to a dance show and the janitor tells him that the lead dancer likes to be watched... quite traditional and with a twist you can see a long way, but effective and very well acted. Not bad at all.
I understand The List is written by Yuzna, and it's a typical horror-comedy... kinda. It begins with a young couple watching Bride of the Re-Animator on TV. The woman is asleep and she won't wake up. In the meantime the man is terrorized by insects of different kinds! It's a jealous ex who put a curse on them both, but maybe she tries it a bit too much! It looks good and the actors are alright, but somehow the script never works. It could have been funnier, but except a few gross scenes it never comes together properly in the end. A pity.
The point with The Rescue is the monologue told over the episode. This might be the first zombie movie from Indonesia, at least in a classical, modern way, and it looks extremely good. Very classy production with some violence and some intense acting. I wasn't sure I liked it the first time, but after rewatching it I liked it more... and even got goosebumps. But still, not the powerful ending it should have.
Dara is the last film and it's clearly visible that this is the star of the anthology. Not only does it star Shareefa Daanish, one of the coolest Indonesian actresses ever (she's just fantastic!), it's a pitch-black, violently funny and macabre (it also spawned a full-length feature, Macabre) story about cannibalism. It looks stunningly good, violent and just plain awesome. A winner and a perfect ending to Takut: Faces of Fear.
Not perfect, but a good and almost poetic collection of short films. I liked it. A lot.
"Brian Yuzna, a producer/director I have have a love-hate relationship with ended up in Indonesia in his hunt for production money and Takut: Faces of Fear was the first, the fun monster movie Amphibious 3D the second - and now I understand he's in the UK, one country after another. I like the guy. As a producer he have a wonderful sense for new and fresh talent."
I haven´t seen that much by him, but what I´ve seen, I like.
"I understand The List is written by Yuzna, and it's a typical horror-comedy... kinda. It begins with a young couple watching Bride of the Re-Animator on TV. The woman is asleep and she won't wake up. In the meantime the man is terrorized by insects of different kinds! It's a jealous ex who put a curse on them both, but maybe she tries it a bit too much!"
From your description this sounds like a remake of Creepshow(1982), you know, that segment when a guy gets a bug problem......
"Not perfect, but a good and almost poetic collection of short films. I liked it. A lot."
I´m not surprised......for me, most anthology film are usually uneven, but very entertaining.
Good review and thanks.
Posted by: Megatron | July 28, 2013 at 02:11
Nah, it's very different from the Creepshow segment. And this one is inferior to what Romero did.
Posted by: Fred Anderson | July 28, 2013 at 07:41
Fred: Oh yeah...?
Tom Savinis stuff is hard to beat.....
Posted by: Megatron | July 28, 2013 at 13:22