by Aero S.
On April 30, 2022, I strong-armed my friend into watching the newest horror movie Indonesia has to offer – KKN di Desa Penari, which roughly translates to ‘Community Service in the Dancers’ Village’, on opening day. People were anticipating the movie so much that theaters had to allow advance sales, a privilege usually only huge blockbusters can afford. To give context as to why this is, the plot of the movie is allegedly based on a true story initially told by a user on Twitter. Whether this claim is true or not doesn’t matter, because that initial thread went viral on local Twitter circles, and the rights to the story were quickly sold.
To those outside of Indonesia or simply unaware of the story, the tale is about a group of college students who have to do a community service project in a rural area in order to get the credits to graduate. They decide on a village that both the Twitter thread and the film itself call B, to protect the actual location’s name. Upon arrival, a few of them notice some extremely odd things about the village, like the fact that there are no children around, and they even begin to have similar nightmares. Things continue to take a turn for the worse as people are possessed, threatened, and even kidnapped by a dancer who is revealed, after a few days of terrorizing the students, to be a jinn (an evil genie that asks you to do things for them instead of the other way around). Without giving too much away, the story’s details and the specific events that occur throughout the movie are, for a lack of a better word, absolutely insane. It makes sense that viewership for this movie is so high – I could imagine that those who had seen it immediately told their friends to watch it as well. As of writing this, KKN di Desa Penari is one of the best-performing Indonesian movies since the pandemic started, and it is not hard to understand why that is.
Despite all the anticipation and high viewership upon the movie’s release, many people, including myself, felt underwhelmed by it. I will admit, I had read the thread when it first came out, but paid no more attention to it and therefore forgot the whole story until my memory was jogged by the movie. While I did forget the contents of the thread itself, I did not forget the feelings of unease and discomfort that the thread brought me when I read it. Sadly, this feeling I so vividly remember was not replicated in the movie. One might argue that a more visual medium such as a movie should make things scarier, but the imagery and the overall aesthetic didn’t lend themselves to the horror themes. Yes, there are dark woods and snakes and old monuments, but those things are commonplace, which is fine if the movie was trying to make it scary in a way that’s fresh and exciting. However, it was ultimately hardly unsettling, especially for those who’ve spent time in rural areas. The atmosphere of the film was quite tense, but it’s nothing to write home about either. Aside from a few genuinely frightening scenes, the film was extremely lackluster in its tonal and aesthetical aspects.
Even with all its flaws and shortcomings, I would be lying if I said the movie didn’t have redeeming qualities. For one, the acting was solid. Everyone in that cast – Aghniny Haque (Ayu), Achmad Megantara (Bima), Adinda Thomas (Widya), Tissa Biani (Nur), Fajar Nugra (Wahyu), and Calvin Jeremy (Anton) – knocked it out of the park with their performances. They did their best with the material that they were given, and I imagine they could do even better with higher-quality scripts and production. No one was a weak link, which is rare for an ensemble cast, and everyone had their own strengths. Nugra, as Wahyu, was the de facto comedic relief for the movie, and he did an incredible job breaking the tension when it was needed and leaving it up to his castmates to build it back up. Everyone seemed to have a good rapport with each other, and regardless of whether that’s actually true offscreen, it made the movie more bearable to watch and experience.
On a less constructive note, it has to be pointed out that the women in this movie are absolutely stunning on top of being very talented. So many of the top reviews on the film logging app Letterboxd are people talking about how good the antagonist, Badawaruhi, looks. And I’m compelled to agree. Played by Aulia Sarah, Badawaruhi is intimidating and downright horrific at times, and her presence immediately shifted the atmosphere of the theater. Her motivation for terrorizing the group is clear, if a little bland, but she more than makes up for it with her dead-serious delivery and piercing gaze.
After sitting in the dark watching for two hours, the house lights came on and I walked out feeling disappointed that it wasn’t as good or spectacular as I thought it’d be, but ultimately not regretting the experience as a whole. That being said, I am a little mad that this movie has apparently become the highest-grossing Indonesian horror film of all time, even surpassing the universally beloved Pengabdi Setan (Satan’s Slaves) remake. The concept of deserving something is convoluted, and I can’t say that this movie deserves less money than others because that would discredit the energy and hard work that dozens of people put into it. I just hope that Indonesian, as well as international, audiences will be willing to give this same kind of enthusiasm to other exciting horror movies coming soon, such as Pengabdi Setan’s sequel coming in July, or Ivanna, set in the same universe as the Danur franchise. The future of horror is looking bright for Indonesia, and I hope that it stays that way.
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