Indonesia, 2012
Review:JA Kerswell
A psycho in an ornate dragon mask, supernatural apparitions and … fart jokes? Five young people on vacation in the countryside stumble across a fun fair, but are unaware that people have been vanishing inside the spook house. After one of them witnesses a murder, they all find themselves in danger from the hooded killer. A real grab bag of genre conventions, this Indonesian effort sadly doesn’t excel at any of them.
Andini (Rebecca Reijman) is plagued by visions of a ghostly woman and a young girl with black eyes. She even sees them in her dreams and wakes to find scratch marks on her arms. Her boyfriend Ramon (Rocky Jeff) tries to comfort her, and her other friends Vanska (Imey Liem), Papang (Awan Sogi) and Sandra (Amel Alvie) suggest they take a trip to the beach for Andini’s birthday to take her mind off seeing dead people.
After the requisite cheesecake posing and lounging around in swimwear to cod reggae, the friends spot a fairground near the hotel and go to explore. There, they meet the owner Wangsa (Billy Chong) and his mysterious girlfriend Intan (Uli Auliani). Unbeknownst to the group, a man was hunted and killed by the dragon-masked killer in the spook house the night before. The man’s widow makes a scene at the fairground in front of the crowd and accuses Wangsa of having something to do with her husband’s disappearance. Later that evening, Andini witnesses the women being murdered by the masked killer near one of the fairground’s rides. Soon the group find themselves faced with different murderous threats …
I’ve got to admit, I’m a sucker for fairground-set slashers. Afterall, what are popcorn slashers really than extended Boo! rides? Sadly, NIGHT MARKET HAUNTED HOUSE is no THE FUNHOUSE (1981). On the plus side, the film has some nicely evocative camerawork, but little else is convincing. The supernatural elements offer nothing new, and the slasher action is particularly threadbare, which is a shame as the killer’s mask is a knockout. What elements of suspense there might be are undercut by juvenile comedy about farting, someone getting their cock caught in the zip of their trousers or someone else mistaking an old woman for a ghost whilst taking an emergency shit in a graveyard. Even at just 74 minutes, it threatens to outstay its welcome.
Billy Chong (the stage name for actor, martial artist and stuntman Willy Dozan) might be a familiar face to Western fans of Indonesian cinema. He has been active in the industry since 1977 to the present day. Here he gives the proceedings a jolt it sorely needs, but can’t rescue the project on his own. Uli Auliani was also in the similarly cut-price slashers NAUGHTY YOUNG PEOPLE and BLUE BEACH BRIDAL (both 2010)—and both inspired by the much more fun box office smash BRIDE’S WATERFALL (akaAIR TERJUN PENGANTIN). Director Arie Azis is much more comfortable with supernatural horror, and it shows. Although it was released theatrically in Indonesia, NIGHT MARKET HAUNTED HOUSE unsurprisingly bombed at the local box office.
Perhaps it plays better for a local audience, but there are a lot better Indonesian slashers out there than this wafer-thin effort.
BODY COUNT 7:
Female 3 / Male 4
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NIGHT MARKET HAUNTED HOUSE trailer