Arini, who moved to a small town to start a new life, instead faces terror after finding an ancient mirror in a secret warehouse.
The film opens with a harrowing scene and then cuts back to the past. Arini (played by Luna Maya) has to deal with a mentally unstable husband who is a threat to her and her son. He leaves. Soon after, she marries someone else and moves to a new place. This new place is an old, mysterious house where things start to happen. The film has the right idea about building suspense. But the execution of this idea is heavily flawed. It takes too long for the dread to occur. This remains an issue throughout the whole film.
But you do feel for Arini since she is subjected to events that are definitely too much for a person to deal with. Although I do want to point out that Arini, in my opinion, is overreacting. She should take a minute and compose herself. Instead, she is in full panic mode after a few seconds when she realizes that things concerning her son might not be in order. Arini also isn't that bright. After finding out something important, instead of being cautious, she looks up the danger. And I would have been fine if this resulted in something positive for her. Unfortunately, this leads her to further trouble. I wished some other characters were smarter too. They are undoubtedly going to aggravate you.
I have seen a review where it was stated that the twist was nice and surprising. That must have come from someone who has never seen other mystery horror films before, since all of the twists and turns in this film are predictable. There is one character in this film who is hardly subtle. You even get to see this character in action in the opening scene, telling the audience this person can't be trusted. Why did they do this? It had me thinking that everything is not what it seems and that more surprises were on their way. It's not.
The ending is immensely unsatisfying. I don't mind dark endings if it really has an impact. But it doesn't. The people involved were very optimistic and probably were going for a sequel. I don't think that is in the cards. Don't get me wrong, with better pacing and direction, this could have been a better viewing experience. Thanks to the actors, except Christine Hakim, Sukma is relatively decent. But to me, it looked like Christine doesn't want to be there. Like it is beneath her. I am aware she is an icon in Indonesia. But her role was of such significance that she had to give it more effort than she did. Still, I could have overlooked all of this had the film delivered horror goodness. But it's barely there. Don't bother with this one!
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