KM 97

ARCADIA PICTURES

Directed by: Jose Purnomo

Starring by : Restu Sinaga, Feby Febiola, Zidane, Agust Melasz, Tya Maria

Many weird things about Cipularang toll road made many Indonesian movie maker inspired by it. Adjacent to the day of KM 97’s released, there’s a movie call Tol Cipularang put in theater. When I saw the title, KM 97, it reminds me that I also wrote some story about Cipularang three years ago call KM 70. 


No kidding, but I used KM, instead of Kilometer’s because KM is much better to remember. And my story had been adapted to television’s program name Oh Ternyata on TransTV, by title B 666.

My interested for this film not only by the title (for coincidence almost the same title as mine) or the name of Jose Purnomo, but by the female artist, Feby Febiola. KM 97 is her second horror film, after her appearance on Witness (2012), but in this film Febiola got the main role as Lidya. I know Febiola because she’s my junior on high school. She’s a best friend of my brother. Her family also closed to mine. So, everything about her made me excited to found out.

To be honest, I enjoy the film because Febiola was there…and my o my…she’s still pretty as I remembered and looks sexy as Lidya. The film itself, well it rather made me bored. Predictable story, slow tense, and it rely on loud noise to scare the audience made this film nothing to Rumah Dara or Belenggu.

Start with a couple, Anton and Lidya whose return to Indonesia from Italy to mourn the funeral of Anton’s mother they stopped at KM 97, which known as the sacred place on Cipularang and almost lost their boy, Bintang. A little bit confuse why the writer pick Italy, is it Lidya Italian? If it’s yea, why she can’t speak a little bit Italian but choose Indonesian conversation instead. No one knew because the film doesn’t explain much about Lidya’s or Anton’s family background.

A lot of strange things happen around the arrival of Bintang in the house of Anton’s parent, ranging from Bi Leha, woman maid in the house, who always terrified to see Bintang, Lilis that almost choked by invisible hand, and Lidya that see bad ugly woman ghost everywhere. At the end, I know that Bintang is behind all of this. I also know that the bad ugly woman ghost is the spirit of Anton’s mother who wants to warn her family that the boy they carried to the house is not Bintang, but a supranatural creature from KM 97.

The boy did kill Lilis for the first victim. Actually, I’m confused to see the character of Lilis, is she Anton’s girlfriend? He says that she’s his past, but not every parent would invite an ex-girlfriend of their boy to come to family dinner, right? She’s fit as a cousin but cousin can’t leave old romantic story. The funny thing, I thought Lilis is Bi Leha’s daughter that had been considered as child by Anton’s dad. Another fiew, movie synopsis tells that Lilis is the employee who works on Sucipto’s garden. But again, daughter’s maid or garden employee... those can’t allow her to join the family dinner easily. Its only belongs to the family member, the flesh and blood, and this rule would stick by an old-fashioned guy like Sucipto who adore Javanese culture.

Talking about culture, there’s some contrariety occurred on this film. Sucipto who expected his daughter in law, Lidya, do some manner and orthodoc stuff from woman like serving coffe to man, not prohibited Widi, his daughter, who wears tank top or short pants and playing her phone cell to often on the dinner table.

Mang Ule’s death is ackward number two. The monster scares him to death so he smacked the tools drawer. The drawer drops. Shackle that put on the top of it fell, and stab the maid’s neck. By my experience as a house husband, I never put something dangerous like that on the top of anything. Better put it inside the drawer, its saver there. Further forward, when Anton finds the body of Mang Ule in a warehouse you can see that shackle butt facing slightly upward. I think it should be facing downward because it was falling crescent around his neck to kill him.

Like always, I’ve monitor the survivor of the film, and there was two people who escaped from the killer monster. Widi, Anton’s sister, who goes to Jakarta to faced her final exam and Bi Leha, who brought to hospital after the appearance the ghost of Anton’s mother who told Bi Leha about Bintang.