Horror films haunt the Eid holidays
Psychological horror genre films like this can work well when they function as a dark mirror.
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Nell Tiger Free as Margaret in The First Omen.
Horror movies still "haunt" the cinema screens. At least there are four horror movies that people are talking about that will ambush the audience during the Eid holiday this year. Two foreign films, two local films.
The four films are The First Omen, Exhuma, Siksa Kubur, and Badarawuhi in Penari Village. The four of them are fighting in Indonesian cinemas to win over the audience.
The First Omen tells the story of the conflict between good and evil, virtue versus evil, divine power and demons that are no longer immortal. This condition occurs because controversial figures from the good forces collaborate with evil forces to create the figure of the anti-Christ.
This collaboration is driven by the increasingly secular world that is eroding the existence and authority of the church. People no longer trust church institutions. Some members of the church believe that this can only be remedied by making people afraid again. When they are afraid, they will seek protection from divine power, whose authority is represented by the church.
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Nell Tiger Free as Margaret in The First Omen.
This film, directed by Arkasha Stevenson, is a prequel to the iconic horror film The Omen (1976). This film tells the story of the birth of Damien, a child born of the devil, who is believed to be the anti-Christ figure in the future.
In The First Omen, the plot examines the origins of Damien's existence, which turns out to be the result of a conspiracy by a small group within the Catholic church, led directly by Cardinal Lawrence, with demonic forces to create an anti-Christ figure. A forbidden collaboration in the form of an "adultery" ritual between a female figure who has a birthmark symbolic of the devil and a cursed creature sent by the devil occurs.
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In The Omen (1976), from this cruel ritual a baby named Damien was born, who was then "entrusted" to the United States Ambassador couple Robert and Katherine Thorn. The hope is that with the access and background of a descendant of this important family, Damien will become a kind of "Paradoxical Savior" in the future.
"I've always been curious about Damien's origins. How could that baby end up in the arms of Robert and Katherine Thorn? Our desire is to create an eternal and contemporary horror film. Something that will display the past but also have current elements," said producer David S Goyer.
Maria Caballero (left) as Luz in The First Omen.
According to David, psychological horror genre films like that can work very well when they serve as a dark mirror. A dark mirror that reflects back the contemporary anxieties that we have.
In The First Omen (2024), the story begins with the move of a prospective nun, Margaret, from the US to Rome. Before being ordained a nun, Margaret worked at an orphanage for girls.
In the orphanage, Margaret met and was drawn to a teenager named Carlita. Margaret assessed that Carlita had similarities with her own rebellious teenage years and often hallucinated seeing things that shouldn't be there. However, the introduction actually led Margaret into darkness that even made her doubt her own faith.
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The issue becomes even more complicated when she also meets and gets to know fellow nun candidate, Luz Valez, and Pastor Brennan, a pastor who has been ostracized from the church. From there, a series of drama unfolds.
Director Arkasha Stevenson in an interview with Screen Rant Plus said that he wanted to modernize the story plot regarding Damien's origins. In addition to bringing the story closer to today's audience, he also tried to retain a number of other elements of the story as found in the 1976 version.
Nell Tiger Free in The First Omen.
Apart from The First Omen, there is another foreign horror film from South Korea that has already hit theaters and is likely to last until the Eid holiday. The film entitled Exhuma has been showing in cinemas in the country since March 2024.
The film directed by Jang Jae-hyun has been watched by around 2.3 million people in Indonesia. In South Korea, as cited by Yonhap news agency, the film has been watched by more than 10 million viewers, entering its 32nd day of screening.
Starring Choi Min-sik and Kim Go-eun, Exhuma tells the story of two shamans, a feng shui fortune teller, and a mortician who join forces to investigate a series of mysterious events involving a wealthy South Korean family based in the US. They began their journey by digging the ancestral graves of the rich family in a remote village in South Korea.
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Local horror
From Indonesia, the films Siksa Kubur by director Joko Anwar and Badarawuhi di Desa Penari by director Kimo Stamboel will fight for audiences during the Eid holiday this year. These two films will both appear on cinema screens on April 11, 2024.
The film Siksa Kubur tells the story of siblings, Sita and Adil, who suddenly became orphans at a young age after their parents died in a suicide bombing in front of their bakery. The perpetrator carried out his heinous act because he felt he had to cleanse the world of sinners after he succeeded in recording sounds which he claimed were the screams of people being tortured in the grave. As an adult, Sita did not believe in religion and was determined to prove that the torments of the grave and religion were not real.
One of the scenes in the film Siksa Kubur by director Joko Anwar, produced by Come And See Pictures.
Meanwhile, the film Badarawuhi in Penari Village which is a prequel to the film KKN in Penari Village (2022) tells the story of the most feared figure in Penari Village.
Quoting from Kompas.id's previous report, Joko Anwar diplomatically stated that he did not want to target a specific number of viewers, let alone feel like he had to compete with other horror films. For him, the more diverse and numerous in quantity and quality, the better it is for the Indonesian film industry.
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Meanwhile, Kimo Stamboel said that the film Badarawuhi di Desa Penari was a challenge for him when compared to other films he had worked on before. “The drama element in this film is quite thick. "I hope the audience here can enjoy it, especially considering the story is also about mothers and children," said Kimo.
Manoj Punjabi from MD Pictures, who produced this film, hopes that Badarawuhi di Desa Penari will be especially well received by Indonesian audiences. Moreover, the momentum coincides with the long Eid al-Fitr holiday.
Premiere of Badarawuhi in the Village of Dancers at AMC Century City, California, Los Angeles, United States, on April 4, 2024.
