Qorin: Is Your Teacher A Demonic Summoner?

Summary

A boarding school is turned into a portal to hell when students begin performing black arts and summoning their demonic doppelgangers.

I have a lot of love for Indonesian horror cinema, and I think that in many ways Muslim focused horror films make for a nice break away from the same old Christian tinged horror films that play every week at the multiplex. As such, I went into this with high expectations expecting another May The Devil Take You, but boy was I wrong.

This film isn’t the worst possession film I have ever seen but it is also in no way good. I would say the biggest issues the film has is that despite is premise being just different enough that it feels a little bit fresh, the way the story plays out is anything but. You have seen this film many times before and know exactly where it is going. Indeed this film clings to tropes and worn out characters as though it is too afraid to show an ounce of originality.

Additionally, the low-fi scares of the film don’t prove effective at all. Now I am not saying that low budget films, which this clearly is, can’t be scary really the opposite is true, but they do have to make an effort to do more with less and to make every shot count. This becomes an issue here as a lot of the time the effects just aren’t good enough and don’t lead to a scary scene, again it comes back to the fact that it is the same old same old, their demonic doppelgangers are in no way different to how a character from a Blumhouse movie would be and that is boring.

Overall, there is so novelty to the idea and trace amounts of originality, but the film really shoots itself in the foot by sticking far too closely to tired characters, scares and storylines.

2/5

Pros.

Traces of originality

It is unintentionally hilarious at times

Cons.

It relies way too heavily on cliches

It is bored and predictable

The scares don’t work

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May The Devil Take You Too: Yet Another Chosen One

May The Devil Take You Too is an Indonesian horror film directed by Timo Tjahjanto, serving as a sequel to May The Devil Take You. The plot follows the immediate aftermath of Alfie’s (Chelsea Islan), escape from the demon summoned by her father, we see her drafted in to help a group of wayward orphans whose guardian also made a deal with the devil; she is the only one that can stop the evil.

My biggest issue with this sequel is that it is too ambitious. The sequel adds a whole lot of lore and exposition on top of the premise from the first film and has Alfie as some sort of mythical being?, or destined to become some form of immortal being? I don’t know, and that is the problem. There is a lot going on here, a lot of set up and worldbuilding, which is crammed in and not really mentioned in the first film; the film as a whole feels overstuffed and by the end you have no idea what is going on.

The scares are still strong, and it is still nice to see the film’s very unique take on demons. I enjoyed the look of these creatures and their design especially endgame boss Moloch, I though they all looked well realised and quite menacing.

Overall, though the acting is still good and the scares still strong the film suffers from too much going on at once making it a confusing mess that leaves the world have developed.

Pros.

The scares

The creature design

The acting

Cons.

There is far too much going on

The plot easily becomes confusing

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

May The Devil Take You: Never Look Behind Hospital Medical Curtains

May The Devil Take You is an Indonesian horror film directed by Timo Tjahjanto. The plot follows Alfie (Chelsea Islan), a young woman who learns that her father made a deal with a demon to attain wealth and now must deal with her fathers end of the bargain, namely said demon wanting her and her sibling’s souls.

This is a very striking film. I have watched a lot of horror films over the years and never yet have I seen one quite like this. Whether it how the film chooses to show The Devil, or the communing ritual at the start of the film, there are multiple scenes that push the horror genre in a new direction and inject it with fresh blood.

I enjoyed the physicality of the performances of those who were possessed, as more than one person was over the course of the film. I thought seeing these demons jumping about the room, or running up walls was truly a sight to behold it was both terrifying, but also visually impressive from a filmmaking stand point.

The film had a lot of good scares both in terms of jump scares, which this film actually manages to pull off well, and scares from its atmosphere: both of these are incredibly effective. In terms of similar scares I would compare this to the TV series Marianne.

Overall, this is a very well-done horror film that is brimming with new ideas and strongly thought out scares.

Pros

The scares

The physicality

The visuals

The performances

Cons.

The ending is a slightly weak, and off the mark

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Headshot: Who Are You Again?

Headshot is an Indonesian action thriller film directed by Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto. The plot sees an unknown man (Iko Uwais), awaken in a hospital bed, he does not remember who he is or how he came to be in sad bed. However, once he leaves the hospital he is hunted down by one of the most ruthless bosses in the underworld Lee (Sunny Pang) and has to fight for his survival.

So, after seeing Uwais in several other action films I was expecting big things here, and I have to say I was disappointed. My main issue with the film was the action and the fights, they felt toned back and lacked the same excitement as I can come to know from the Indonesian action subgenre. The fights here not only felt underwhelming, they felt like they were done on the cheap.

Moreover, the story was uninspired we have seen the amnesiac waking up to trouble storyline play out over and over again and this film can’t be bothered to do anything new with it. The midway through twist, which I won’t spoil, is insanely predictable and worst of all you just don’t care after it is revealed.

There are a few cool moments, such as the prison escape scene at the start of the film, that is really all the good I can say about this film. These scenes are incredibly few and far between and the film as a whole feels stretched out for far too long, to a point where you are looking at your phone because you can’t take the tedium anymore.

Overall, a subpar Indonesian action flick, I expected more.

Pros.

A few cool moments

Cons.

A played-out storyline

Uninspired fights

Characters you don’t care about

Pacing issues in the extreme

1/5

Reviewed by Luke

The Raid 2: This Time It’s Personal

The Raid 2 is an Indonesian action martial arts film directed by Gareth Evans. The plot takes place not long after the events of the first film, Rama (Iko Uwais), has to go undercover within the Jakarta underworld to try and protect his family. His brother is also killed at the start of the film, so Rama is on a side mission of vengeance; seeking out evil rising mobster Bejo (Alex Abbad).

The Raid 2 had a hard job to do, it had to live up to the scale and intensity of the first film, while also raising the stakes and taking everything to the next level. I have to say the film does both of those things. It shows us the wider underworld that was only slightly hinted at during the first film and we get to see some interesting new characters and players. Also, the fight scenes are on a whole new level as well, the prison fight sequence is brutal and relentless.

However, while it is doing all of these things it sacrifices the personal threat and tension from the first film. For those of you who haven’t seen it the first Raid film is all set within a tower block and there are a lot of fight sequences that take place within very tight areas, this makes the film feel very claustrophobic which adds to its overall greatness. The second film really leaves this element behind.

This film introduces some new character who I found to be cool. I don’t remember their names, but I refer to them as Baseball guy and Hammer Woman, they were both very gimmicky in their fight style, but I did really like the final showdown between them and Rama at the end, I thought it was on a par with the first film’s fight sequences.

Finally, I loved the ambiguous ending this film has, it ends with Rama stood in front of a wave of Japanese gangster foot soldiers with him saying he is done. Does he die will he survive we don’t know and with no plans to do a third film any time soon we might never know, but it is a neat way to end things.

Overall, a very solid follow up that does a number of impressive things that raise the stakes and surpass the first film. My only issue is that by doing that it loses some of the things that made the first film great. Both are definitely worth checking out.

Pros.

Larger scale.

Rama’s ending.

The new characters.

The fight sequence between Rama and Baseball Guy and Hammer Woman.

Cons.

It loses some of the tense claustrophobia of the first film.

4/5

Reviewed by Luke