Film Review: Macabre
Fantastic Fest ’09 Review: Macabre (2009)
Studio: Gorylah Pictures
Directed By: The Mo Brothers
Cast: Ario Bayu, Julie Estelle, Imelda Therinne, Shareefa Daanish, Arifin Putra
Review By: Kayley Viteo
I knew next to nothing about Macabre when I walked into it, save for what I read in the Fantastic Fest program guide. That being said, the bloody picture advertising it was all I really needed to know. I love slow-burning character horror like no one else, but I also love blood and gore and Macabre delivers violence to the extreme.
Macabre is an Indonesian horror film – the first I’ve ever seen – about six friends on their way to Jakarta. Unfortunately, the good deed they thought they were doing by saving a helpless young, beautiful girl (but of course) turns out to be the worst idea they’ve ever had.
Macabre is perhaps depressingly predictable, following the typical slasher formula down to the details. Less than ten minutes in, I knew how the script would play out and further along, I felt as if I was watching Indonesia’s take on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The addition of a pregnant woman to the group at first gave me pause, and I wondered if I’d perhaps get some wonderful blend of Inside and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but there’s nothing unique about Macabre’s plot; yet, what’s great about Macabre is that I didn’t really mind the predictability because I was having so much fun watching it.
The film does have its problems – among them, the fact that the acting has several cringe-worthy moments, particularly that of Shareefa Daanish (Dara) and Arifin Putra (Adam). The former is fairly good as the evil mother (for starters, I don’t think she ever blinks), but she also goes too far and ends up in laughable territory quite a few times. The latter is always bad even though he barely speaks (which is actually kind of amusing). The camera work is, for the most part, effective in building suspense, but occasionally feels amateurish and breaks the anticipatory mood. The script is also less than stellar, but that’s mostly in the beginning when the dialogue is particularly heavy and later, orphan sub-plots are easily forgotten. One the butchering starts, the fun really begins, even if the violence does lose its realism towards the end (particularly in relation to Adam).
Macabre is a surprisingly good romp through old-school genre conventions that leaves no gorehound unsatisfied. The film doesn’t overplay its hand or explain away all the mystery (we know next to nothing about why the family does what it does), which makes the genre clichés easier to stomach when they stand next to nothing unique. Although I can’t say the film is particularly refreshing, it is damn good entertainment practically soaked in blood.
