When this movie was released few days ago, I did not seem to be noticing it. Not until it showed up when I was looking for new movies to watch and I was immediately intrigued by the premise and the promotion from Netflix. Without further ado, I'll just get right on it.

Brief Story Line

Two primary students Alana (Anantya Kirana - Pamali: Dukun Pocong etc) and her friend Rabin (Sultan Hamonangan) were just playing around after school. Unfortunately, they were kidnapped by a stranger later on revealed to be Jack (Alex Abbad - My Stupid Boss, Jatuh Cinta Seperti di Film-film etc).

Alana had to use all her wits and kept her voice down to escape the house where they were placed in before Rabin was taken away by Jack's partner (Marsha Timothy - Kembang Api, Qodrat etc).

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

OK the reason I was intrigued by the movie was the words "This Feature Does Not Contain Dialogue" that were put by Netflix. Something that reminded me of the fantastic movie A Quiet Place, although that one was not completely without any dialogues. Anyway I started watching this with high anticipation and the beginning was actually pretty exciting for me, even if I found something odd on the action by the kidnapper related to Alana.

As the story progressed, I still thought it was quite OK and the suspense was maintained quite well. It was thrilling enough with one or two jump scare scenes to add the intensity. However, after an interesting twist, I gradually felt that the no dialogues thing became a bit of a stretch. It was making no sense for me with the kidnappers and the persons kidnapped would stay quiet, especially after something occurred towards the end. Plus the ending was not too convincing for me either.

However, I still kept an open mind and thought that I should appreciate the creativity of the film makers. That was until I saw the closing credits which showed that the movie was a remake of the American film titled The Boy Behind the Door. It made me less impressed as apparently it was not entirely from the awesome mind of the Indonesian movie maker. And after further reading on the original movie (and saw the trailer), I realized that it had some conversations. So looks like the no dialogues was the idea from the Indonesian film makers.

The main cast were actually quite OK, with Alex Abbad pretty convincing as a creepy person while Anantya Kirana showed great potential as a child actor. Marsha Timothy to my personal opinion was not that great here, probably due to the way her character was written. I think she was supposed to be quick witted but her actions only showed the opposite. Meanwhile Sultan Hamonangan did not have room to impress at all. The movie itself was directed by Rako Prijanto who was nominated and won several awards in the past for his films such as Sang Kiai, #Teman Tapi Menikah etc. He was also experienced in making remake (Perfect Strangers) which was probably the reason to appoint him as director here.

In the end, this was supposed to be something great and thrilling with creative idea for a remake. However it was clear that it could not be applied completely as it made the movie a bit illogical, not to mention making the characters behavior seemed out of place. The suspense was great up to a certain point, but the second half was the part that let me down (which I think did not happen with the original). Although I value the effort of the film makers and producers which should be applauded to give audience counter program instead of the many terrible Indonesian cash grabbing supernatural horror movies, it would probably be more satisfying if it's just a simple remake. So if you want to see something different from Indonesia, you could certainly give it a try, and who knows you might be able to completely enjoy it. But if you are a bit more critical and expect something great, then it probably would feel short. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars