After dozens of horror titles aired this year, there’s one that looks different. Jagat Arwah is a film based on the story of Mike Wiluan and director Ruben Adrian, featured in this year’s horror film list with the genre of horror/adventure/fantasy.
After the success of the heist genre, Visinema returned to explore various genres this year by releasing her first horror film. Billed as a horror movie with impressive CGI, here’s our review of ‘Jagat Arwah’.
Jagat Arwah movie synopsis (2022)
‘Jagat Arwah’ tells the story of Raga (Ari Irham), a young man with big dreams of becoming a famous musician. His father’s sudden death made him suspicious.
Raga learns more about his father’s mysterious life, and learns that he is a descendant of the balance between the Spirit World and the Human World, who holds the title of 7th Aditya. He must risk his dream of becoming a man. became a boy in a famous band to maintain the tradition of his family.
The family tradition he had to carry on changed his life and his big dream turned into a nightmare. Together with his uncle, Paklik Jaya (Oka Antara), Raga embarks on a fascinating adventure that exposes him to various spirits who play an important role in his life.
Jagat Arwah movie review
A new color in the horror genre
Unlike other horror films that have haunted Indonesian cinemas this year, ‘Jagat Arwah’ offers a new twist, namely horror, adventure and fantasy genres. The film follows the adventures of the protagonist named Raga, in finding his true identity, aided by 3 spirits that protect him.
Instead of just scaring the audience, in fact, the presence of 3 creatures based on Indonesian urban legends (Genderuwo, Kuntilanak, Dutch Nonik) are characters who accompany, protect and guide, or have can be said to be the superhero for the main character in learning. who is who she really is
The concept of this movie is very interesting, and of course with fresh ideas that we rarely or even only see, which makes ‘Jagat Arwah’ a new color for Indonesian cinema.
Haven’t created many highlights for the movie yet
‘Jagala Arwah’ has an interesting theme and concept that makes it very potential to build its own universe. However, it looks like futile because the execution is very weak and suboptimal.
In the hands of Ruben Adrian, who has never directed a horror film or genre, it seems that Visinema was naive to assign this huge budget and uncomfortable concept as the director’s debut. Ruben Adrian in a horror movie. .
‘Jagat Arwah’ has a slow plot, can make the audience quite boring, and the middle of the story becomes more chaotic. In fact, slow speed can be cured with a good ending. Instead, the audience really gets an old twist and a dramatic battle.
It feels like the director and writer want to jump right into the exciting scenes, without having to explore more of the story, without worrying about how to build the story to reach the end.
And it is very unfortunate that the slow plot is not even used to introduce the audience more deeply into the context of the story, introduce the characters and other aspects. For example, who or what is a hollow figure, the location of the Museum has nothing to do with mystical events. As a result, it only contains the confusion that the audience receives.
The character is too weak
As the opening act of the Jagat Arwah Universe, ‘Jagat Arwah’ should have focused more on introducing the story and portraying the characters’ personalities, especially the main character. Initially, Raga did not claim to be a descendant of Aditya. He even ignored his father’s words, and resolved to leave his father to go to the city.
However, because he did not believe in supernatural things and had never seen these figures, he could only hide behind a small pillar. And with just one fight in the car, Raga can gracefully accept her true identity in an instant.
Shouldn’t there be internal chaos and an identity crisis that the Body has to go through with announcements and sudden appearances beyond human reason? Of course, it is difficult to make the audience empathize and understand the main character well.
Still coming back with the unique concept, ‘Jagat Arwah’ carries one of the Javanese beliefs, which is sedulur papat limo pancer, meaning a supernatural friend who always accompanies humans, since conception and birth. until death.
Raga, inherited from his father’s suitcase along with his 3 magical friends. However, we get very little facts about the three supernatural beings, which also play an important role in the story. How can they follow Raga’s father, and who are their silhouettes.
The three characters are too comfortable with their human form, thus eliminating the “horror” impression they have. A more “scary” form of Kunti and Dru should be introduced at the end of the story to create the feeling of a fierce battle. Not to mention the romantic drama Raga and Kunti is a waste of time and awkward without strong chemistry.
Impressive CGI
Despite its flaws, ‘Jagat Arwah’ is still the winner in terms of visuals and CGI rendering. In fact, it is this aspect that makes the audience feel like sitting in the cinema like at home. ‘Jagat Arwah’ opens the story with an animated opening that tells the origin of the Aditya clan. The clean and smooth CGI quality made by Dreamcatcher studio has helped ‘Jagat Arwah’ rise as the champion in the Indonesian film category.
Conclusion of the movie Jagat Arwah (2022)
It’s a pity that this interesting concept is not optimally implemented. The plot is slow, the details and characters are not explored enough, many dancing scenes make viewers confused. One thing that deserves appreciation, though, is the impressive visuals and CGI rendered by ‘Jagat Arwah’.
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