Director: Aidilfitri Mohamed Yunos
Release date: 2017
Contains spoilers
Aku Haus Darah Mu in its original Malay, this 2017 horror film had a really interesting central premise that promised to offer an intriguing and potentially atmospheric film. Unfortunately, a really unsophisticated approach to composing a horror text let it down.
The film starts with a car and the Walkman worn by the sleeping Lia (Nad Zainal) establishes the decade the film is set in. In the front seat her friend Ezza (Farhanna Qismina Sweet) takes a snap of her. The driver is Arin (Zoey Rahman). Lia is writing a book on traditional dance forms in Malaysia and Arin’s dad is bank-rolling the project, Ezza has agreed to take pictures for the book. Lia wakes but suddenly there is a bang and they come to a stop – they have a flat.
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| Nad Zainal as Lia |
Arin does have a spare tire but has no idea how to change it and so Lia has to get to work. Through the film he is drawn as a buffoon and a scaredy-cat – one might call him the comedy character, though he isn’t that funny. They reach the homestay and are impressed with it. Lia approaches the door and is greeted by a woman, Kenanga (Amalia Syakirah), who is working the garden and takes her to the householder Miss Cempaka (Deanna Yusoff).
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| the friends |
Lia has arranged to visit to see a traditional dance, the radjasa singasari, that Cempaka is the guardian of. She tells them that Kenanga will take her to the place where it is performed after the sun has set. Getting there involves a drive, a river crossing (that Arin tries to avoid, as he can’t swim and despite it being by boat) and a walk through the forest. Arin notices odd things happening, like Kenanga being in front, than appearing behind and in front again – which the others seem to miss. They get to what appears to be a bamboo palisade leading to an area where the dance takes place. They are told to stay where they are and so, of course, follow the palisade.
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| the dancers |
The dance is interesting to look at with the masked dancers and their deliberate movements proving interesting for the viewer and it is the aspect around the dance that could have been massively capitalised on. Lia seems to be entranced by the dance and her friends seem to have vanished. Lia’s entranced state continues on the drive back and Ezza starts seeing weirdness starting with Lia appearing to become Kenanga and, when going for a shower, being attacked by what she calls a ghost that looks like Kenanga again but with wild hair and fangs – the ghost strangling her but vanishing when Lia barges in.
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| Farhanna Qismina Sweet as Ezza |
The film then follows some amateurly employed tropes, with moments like tucking into food prepared by Kenanga but us seeing her preparing it from bugs, worms and frogs and when Arin vomits later the vomit crawling with mealworms. A trip to the village by the friends, whilst Lia interviews Cempaka, leads to them being told that the homestay doesn’t exist. Lia becomes obsessed with the dance and Ezza finds a pit of bodies (that was produced in such a PG way that I couldn’t see the alleged bodies).
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| Deanna Yusoff as Cempaka |
Yet despite the low-grade horror beats employed, and the fact that the friends didn’t react how one might expect a lot of the time, the dance continued to be a highlight in the way it was choreographed for the film. The backstory we get is that the dance was connected to black magic and was called a curse that dated back to a noblewoman who was obsessed with youth and would blood sacrifice virgins to keep it – using the dance to hypnotise victims. In many ways this is reminiscent of a Bathory story, therefore, and wouldn’t you know it, the three friends are virgins.
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| reminiscent of Théâtre des Vampires |
Cempaka tells Lia that those of the bloodline are compelled to learn the dance – though it might have been good if they established Cempaka as the noblewoman – and offers to make Lia her pupil. We do see the dancers (still masked) descend upon a victim – in a moment that brought the Théâtre des Vampires from Interview with the Vampire to mind. We do see a mouth of fangs at one particular point of the climax and some obvious blood drinking.
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| blood drinking |
The film had so much promise, the dance worked so well but it needed a more competent horror script and a more experienced horror-hand at the tiller. The kids were too Scooby-Doo for a horror film though Amalia Syakirah did a great line in menacing and Deanna Yusoff was suitably enigmatic as the keeper of the curse. Not your obvious vampire film, I really wish this had maintained a bit more horror oomph. 4 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
On Demand @ Amazon UK
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