Review | Impetigore film review: grisly Indonesian horror by Joko Anwar pits modernity against tradition
- A city girl travels to the village where she was born, only to discover too late that a grim fate awaits her
- This supernatural thriller is unevenly paced and fails to capitalise on its grisly premise, but Tara Basro is excellent in the lead role
2.5/5 stars
Joko Anwar’s latest supernatural thriller sees the writer-director reunite with Tara Basro, star of his previous film Satan’s Slaves , for another spooky story of modernity versus tradition, but this time fails to capitalise on its grisly premise. A young woman, Maya, played by Basro, travels to the remote village where she was born, only to discover that the community blames her for a deadly curse affecting its children.
The only way to break the spell that causes babies to be born without skin is by killing the last surviving heir of a village elder, whom the locals believe to be Maya.
Raised in the city since she was a young girl, Maya knows nothing about her parents. But when a business venture with her best friend, Dini (Marissa Anita), falls through, they decide to visit the old family estate with an eye to selling it. What they find is a dilapidated old mansion left to rot by the few remaining residents of the surrounding village.
The shifty villagers eye them warily, and rather than approach Ki Saptadi (Ario Bayu), the new village chief, and explain why they are there, Maya and Dini conceal their identities by pretending to be students researching the villagers’ outdated ways.