OCULUS

Intrepid Pictures

Directed by: Mike Flanagan

Starring by: Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, Katee Sackhoff, Rory, Cochrane

Oculus…the title is very catchy…and when I look on dictionary, I find the meaning that Oculus came from Latin word, the eye. One of the wisdom words I remembered is beware of your eyes, it glance with shine when your heart is clean but it glance with darkness when your heart is dirty… and I think the title was quite fit with the story about mirror…

It start with the tragedy that happened on Russell family about eleven years ago, when Allan Russell, the father, shoot Marie Russell, the mother, in madness and some strange phantom lady show herself in office room of the father. The tragedy put young Tim, the little son, to mental hospital and separation with his sister, Kaylie. But after eleven years, Kaylie still chase for the mirror. When she finally found it, she also picks Tim that by coincidence got his release from states, and asked the brother to settle things back by destroying the mirror.

I like the tense when Kaylie got the chance to see the mirror again after years, face to face with the mirror that’s try to defend itself by scaring her with weird condition. I don’t know what will happen or what she’ll get if the man who owns the gallery doesn’t come. Obviously not third sculpture because there are only two of them in reality.

The film pace is slow but I understand the reason, the writer tries to build strong story by explain all thing in details. And I think it works well. The tense increase every minute, not by shocking performance of the ghost or loud noise but by the story and all possible situations that would terrifies you when you try to reveal some mysterious thing that could endanger your life. I’m in love with the character of Kaylie, she’s a woman who put everything in detail, from investigation about the mirror and set up her plans to destroy the mirror.

Shamelessly, I though she talks too much about her plan, over confidence that ceiling jack ram will do her purpose without distraction, and it makes the mirror, as individual if it is, think so hard to counter the plan. I mean, in logical, what will you do if someone set up some plans to kill you and he make words of it?

Moreover her motivation was weak, if she want to destroy the mirror why she try to prove her theory by letting the mirror drawing energy from living thing, gain the negative influence and take risk of her own death. In logical, just set up the timer and let the jack ram smashed the mirror in the first place. She doesn’t have to prove anything because all proves has been seen when she was a child. Or, if she finds it necessary to prove her theory, I think the dead plant is enough to show Tim that he’s wrong and after that just let loose the jack ram without setting up the timer.

Despite that, I liked the story, it was original idea, came up with back and forth plot that describe present and past, in the middle of it the story mixing present and past in the same plot. Excellent! It’s not only creepy but also confusing the audience for the end of the story. This story not also scary but fill with psychic drama, something that wouldn’t always like by major audience, for example in Indonesia, but it would get positive credits. And I think it’s paid when Oculus grossed $4,940,000 on its opening day, nearly equaling its production budget of $5 million.

Also, from the movie I’ve got fresh understanding why Kaylie and Tim didn’t get hallucination when they were young, it’s because the child has a pure heart. They were 11 and 10, by that age you would not think about evilness in you but when we’re grown up all hatred, anger, madness, and evil thing grows and like I said on the first line here, beware of your oculus when you looked back at the mirror, probably you look at the devil itself…

MALL KLENDER / THE MALL

Hitmaker Studio

Directed by: David Poernomo

Starring by: Sandy Aulia, Denny Sumargo, Igor Saykoji, Tasya Kamila

I know this movie before it's released on the cinema. Why? Because I’m about to writes about ghost at the mall. One that I know is Mall Klender, the place was on fire in 1998 cause by a riot and many victims get killed inside. When the internet said this film is about to launched, I can’t wait to watch because I need resume for my story.

7 years old Mila had prophecy that her supernatural sight will be reveals in age 23, like what her grandfather had. That prophecy makes Mila very curious about supernatural things. She and her friends becomes ghost hunter, come to many place that being haunted by demons but find nothing until they accept the challenge that come from newspaper to prove there’s no ghost in some mall.  What made it interesting is Mila is about 23 when they enter the mall.

The story was mixed by romantic relationship between Panji (Denny Sumargo) and Mila (Sandy Aulia) and the scary event when they’ve been locked up for 24 hours inside the mall. I like the bicycle scene, it’s when she joins Danang to ride a bike and circling the mall with it and in some dark alley they’re separated.  When the bicycle come to itself from the end of the alley, I thought it’s very cool effect…at last, Indonesian horror movie can make something like that…also when the foot print shown beside the vehicle, and Mila’s necklace hung in the air, and Mila thrown from the height and fall to the box that save her…it’s a fantastic series of scary things. I also like the idea about jalangkung doll inside the dolls box and grabs by grips of the box, when Pandji try to get some of it in order to give Mila a present.

But the fantastic series become suck at the scene when Pandji got thrown by a baby stroller that chasing them. How could he also fall over to a box that hold him from smashing the floor like what happened to Mila? Once is cool, but twice? I merely said that it’s lack of fantasy from the script writer…

It also said that there’s a lot of anger come from the supernatural creature that buried under mall’s foundation but awkward when Mila and her friends only take less skeleton from the storage at the basement, and it turns out that only one grave was prepared to bury the corpse that they found there. How come it only one corpse that they took while Mila was told that there’s many?

And once again, the top of the scene when Mila and her friends are being chased by a lot of monster before the morning come was cool for final scene but the make-up of the monsters bothered me for the umpteenth time, as always when I saw Indonesian horror movie, the makeup was awful.

But I admitted that the film had a good story, though the storyline got very slow, because it surprised me at the end when found out that Mila’s friends, Danang and Karina are ghost. They were killed by their best friend and lost their thrust in friendship until they meet Mila. Their relationship heals their pain and they accompany her anywhere when she becomes ghost hunter with Pandji. And Pandji, who warned by Danang and Karina not to tell Mila about them was nice because he continues to stands beside her no matter terrifies the situation goes.

The fact that Danang and Karina is ghost actually could predict because I’m questioning about their part. There’s no conversation between them and Pandji. And when Pandji got possessed by demon, they do nothing to help Mila except watch, as if they were beyond all the events. And it’s true…they are outsiders for reality world.

The word that can’t be forgotten on this film is when Pandji said to Mila, “The supernatural creature finds their way…they will revealed themselves to people when they want it. But when they do, the people who had supernatural sight couldn’t realize that they were ghost because he/she can’t distinguish them from the living.”