Jailangkung: Sandekala movie review (2022)

Jailangkung: Sandekala (2022) movie summary

The supernatural horror of ‘Jailangkung: Sandekala’ revolves around a family on vacation out of town. Disaster struck when they made a detour to a ghostly tourist lake.

This is where the youngest child, Kinan (Muzakki Ramadhan), suddenly mysteriously disappears without a trace as the sun begins to set. The young family is desperate to find the mysterious missing child in the area believed to have a legend named Sandekala.

Kinan’s disappearance leaves no trace, only a Jailangkung doll that they find in the middle of the search. Gradually, the small family gets caught up in a situation they don’t understand.

Build the story too fast

‘Jailangkung: Sandekala’ starts the movie with a fascinating scene where a husband and wife are seen performing a marriage ceremony in search of their missing child. Instead of finding him, an unfortunate incident happened to the family.

Then the story continues at the plot part will be displayed. A family is on vacation – something they don’t realize could lead to disaster. It is explained that the journey begins to restore the harmonious relationship between her stepmother, Sandra, (Titi Kamal) and her son, Niki (Syifa Hadju). The two of them fight due to their incompatible desires, forcing the head of the family (Dwi Sasono) to intervene.

On the way, Kinan, the youngest child, wanted to stop by somewhere. Left alone for a few minutes by his brother, Kinan then disappeared, kidnapped by an unseen being.

Unfortunately, until the conflict began, very little information was obtained during the opening. The chemical reaction is not perfect, maybe even the audience does not understand what is the cause of the mother and daughter’s fight.

The classic plot choice, in which a naughty boy disobeys his brother, is also the classic recipe for horror movies in general, so ‘Jailangkung: Sandekala’ doesn’t feel particularly human. we expect.

Kinan’s disappearance seems too early to be presented. The original still lacks the horror atmosphere, especially for lovers of mystical stories who have indulged in horror movies before. But perhaps, the director wanted to get a lot of dramatic scenes, so he arranged the plot as quickly as possible.

Maintain stress

Although the opening was quite fast, it is undeniable that ‘Jailangkung: Sandekala’ showed a stable game and maintained a tight match. In particular, some stages are expected to present fear dance, it does not show this effect.

In fact, in unexpected places, the director gives a surprising touch.

The horror atmosphere is built slowly until the climax at the end of the story. When knowing who is the mastermind behind the terrorist attack, the feeling of fear is heightened.

Fierce battles between bare hands and sharp weapons, as well as thrilling chases have succeeded, making the audience anxiously waiting for a smooth ending.

The close-up technique shows the player’s understanding emotions

One of the things that really creates horror in the eyes of the audience, is the way Kimo uses close- up techniques that express the full emotions of the player. At the beginning of the movie, when Baskara Mahendra and Taskya Namya are playing with the scary doll, their scared faces quickly convey well to the audience. Anxious, yet hopeful, both of them are threatened by new dangers.

This technique was also continued when Sandra co-starred with Pipien Putri as Saidjah. The mysterious Saidjah character ended up looking very suspicious, thanks to his face being made clear by the camera. Therefore, people are more curious about what the old woman is hiding.

The picture is too light

Unfortunately, this rather glossy cinematography is not well balanced and looks like a dull yellow. The color of the forest, trees, lake, smoke, seems pale and makes the village atmosphere lifeless. I don’t know if that was the director’s purpose, to make the village look dead and withered, to make the atmosphere more sinister, or indeed, to make the wrong choice, so it was a bit annoying.

Conclusion Jailangkung: Sandekala (2022)

With the increase of horror movies being released this year, ‘Jailangkung: Sandekala’ has higher audience expectations. Despite its shortcomings, the sense of horror and a bit of gore provided by Kimo Stamboel can be delivered to loyal fans of scary stories.

In terms of acting, perhaps the masters in this film need not doubt their skills. In particular, when they were asked to share their cruel feelings through close-up techniques this created a very tense atmosphere.