Use of Tropes: Kuntilanak 2

Rizal Mantovani’s 2019 film is a sequel to a film that I looked at as a ‘Vamp or Not?’ and concluded that it might be Vamp if one accepted that an aspect of the film portrayed energy vampirism. The film itself was a mix of horror and a kid’s movie, about a group of orphans – 3 young boys, 2 young girls and an older sister (and her boyfriend). The sequel concerns the same family group… except that the older sister is no longer there and has been replaced with a new older sister, Julia (Susan Sameh), and her boyfriend Edwin (Maxime Bouttier). Where she has come from is anyone’s guess – though there is a throwaway mention of potentially returning to LA.

Kuntilanak Eyes

The film starts with a man entering a cellar and kneeling before what looks like a cross between a shrine and a portal, in the cellar wall, to another world (which it literally is). He performs a ritual and the shape of a kuntilanak (when we see her later, she has taken a human’s appearance and is played by Karina Suwandhi) appears within the corridor and comes towards him. Addressing her as Highness he says that he has freed her and asks for the boon of being taught black magic. She makes hand movements above his head and he dies.

the cellar portal

At a carnival, Dinda (Sandrinna Michelle) is desperately searching for youngest of the orphans Ambar (Ciara Nadine Brosnan), who has wandered off. Miko (Ali Fikry) is also searching, though Kresna (Andryan Bima) and Panji (Adlu Fahrezi) have distracted themselves at one of the fairground games. Julia is searching also, though Edwin is not so much use as he keeps trying to chill and meditate to counter the stress. Kresna wins a teddy and they get in an altercation with some other boys, who try to steal it and the head gets ripped off.

the boys

Dinda sees Ambar walking in the crowd and chases after her but Ambar seems unresponsive. Eventually we see her atop a (closed) Ferris wheel, seemingly asleep (or in a trance) a shape moving behind her when Dinda’s voice on a walkie talkie brings her round. When she is brought down, she claims a beautiful woman led her to the wheel – kuntilanak they all say, bar Edwin who is skeptical, especially when they suggest they have met one.

Karmilla and Dinda

So, a woman pitches up at the house and speaks to the foster mom (Nena Rosier) claiming to be Karmila, Dinda’s biological mother. This is our first trope, I can’t believe the name was used for any reason than to intertextually tie into Carmilla. Obviously, the name gives the viewer a red flag and she is the kuntilanak. She claims to have spoken to the orphanage but offers no documentary proof and leaves a map to her house in the forest. Dinda has overheard it all.

child ghost

She wants to go and visit her mother but foster mom says she needs to check things out. Dinda, who has taken the map, sleeps and dreams of a tree and a beating heart, on waking she resolves to sneak away but is caught by Julia who suggests that if the mom will allow it, she will go with her. All the other kids say they’ll go too. Like a diligent foster mom, permission is given for all her wards to go visit the mysterious woman, miles away in a forest, who claims without proof to be the biological mom, whilst she gets more information… well if she didn’t there wouldn’t be much of a film. The kids end up in a cabin in the woods, Edwin gets haunted and then possessed by two child ghosts known to accompany kuntilanak and for some reason Karmila plays house for a while before supernaturally terrorising everyone (bar Dinda).

claiming Dinda

The full story is that Dinda’s parents (whose family name was Karmila) were part of the Mangkujiwo bloodline, who worship the kuntilanak and, as part of their pact, they all have to offer the creature their first born (incidentally there are spin off films entitled Mangkujiwo). Dinda’s mother did not want to give her to the creature, dropped her at the orphanage and then she and her husband (T. Rifnu Wikana) sealed her in the kuntilanak’s otherworldly forest Ujung Sedo and died as part of that sealing. The kuntilanak deems Dinda as her own.

stabbing the heart

Her actions are not particularly vampiric, though on occasion her mouth splits a bit like the reaper strain in Blade 2. We do see her head chopped off and then reattached and she can float around. When she captures the kids, they are held within roots at the centre of Ujung Sedo. One could imagine that the tree will drain their life force, but it isn’t stated. If this is the case then the tree is intimately linked to the kuntilanak. Dinda is given an ornate hairpin belonging to her real mother and is able to injure the kuntilanak and ward her with it. However, stabbing in the head does not kill the creature (unlike in the first film). She sees that the tree has a heart in its centre – we can assume the kuntilanak’s heart – and staking it with the hair pin kills the creature and frees the kids. It is analogous to staking a western vampire.

warding evil

So there are our two tropes – staking in the (detached) heart and Karmila/Carmilla. There might be feeding on life force but it is a fanciful guess rather than a sure thing. The child actors are of a varying level of skill but Andryan Bima offers a stand out performance, with Ali Fikry not far behind. Like the first film this struggles with its nature as a kids facing film conflicting with the horror that it wants to portray. Some of the story is too silly (like letting all her wards just go and visit the mysterious woman she has met for 5-minutes). The imdb page is here.