TAKUT - FACES OF FEAR

Whilst we so sibuk about making movies global lah, movies that can sell overseas lah, Indonesia has been doing it without having to depend on entities like FINAS and such. There has been one project in Indonesia that caught my eye, especially when a top Hollywood filmmaker lends his name to the project.

This movie is entitled Takut: Faces of Fear. Listed as producer is Brian Yuzna. If you are a horror movie fan, you know who Brian Yuzna is, so I’m not going to elaborate.

Getting a name like Yuzna attached to your movie, albeit an Indonesian movie, gives the movie credence in the world horror market. How the Indonesian filmmakers did it I’m not sure, but I do remember writing about the Screamfest Film Festival franchise that was taken to Jakarta and Brian Yuzna was given a retropective during the festival a few year ago.

Most probably, during his stay in Jakarta, Indonesian producers sat down with him and thrashed out a plan and actually executed it.

The easiest way to explain what Takut: Faces of Fear is, is to compare it to Thailand’s 4bia. But Takut has six short stories in antholigical format. No links, just six short horror stories directed by young Indonesian directors. I actually only recognise one name off-hand from the seven directors listed in the movie – that of Riri Riza. How come six short stories with seven directors? Well, one of the shorts had two directors who call themselves the Mo Brothers (trying to be Indonesia’s answer to the Pang Brothers of Thailand?).

Surprisingly, most of the horror in Takut is not supernatural. I think only Riri’s Incarnation of Naya can be consider a ghost story. A few are slasher shorts with the Mo Brothers’ Dara being my favourite. It is quite evident the brothers are influenced by movies like Audition and Saw.

Each story is about 15 minutes long, and the performances will exceptionally good. As a horror anthology Takut works, though I find the scare meter low but the violence meter quite high.

Like my current anthology telefeature 3 Cerita 3 Sutradara: Pontianak, Takut has its hits and misses. That’s the beauty of anthology movies. Some works. Some don’t. If every segment works, that’s a bonus. Unfortunately, Riri and gang had creative freedom. Didi and gang didn’t.

Que sera sera.