Director: Rizal Mantovani
Release date: 2022
Contains spoilers
This is the third in a series that could have realistically been called Kids vs Kuntilanak. I’d looked at the first in the series under the heading Vamp or Not? as, whilst the Indonesian kuntilanak is analogous to the Western vampire, the depiction in movies is not always so. For this reason the second film was explored through its tropes as there wasn’t anything vampiric going on.
This film is vampiric – there is energy vampirism – it has also taken the franchise and directed it well away from the others in the series. It follows Dinda, one of a group of orphans, and the original actress, Sandrinna Michelle, has been replaced by Nicole Rossi (the other kids are played by the actors from the first two films). In the last film we discovered she was of the kuntilanak worshipping Mangkujiwo bloodline and she killed the kuntilanak at the end of that film. This has left her with powers and at the head of the film we see her as the siblings, especially Miko (Ali Fikry), are being bullied, losing her temper, levitating rocks and psychically flinging them at the bullies.
However, after a prank gone wrong sees her hospitalising Ambar (Ciara Nadine Brosnan) and Panji (Adlu Fahrezi), she asks their foster mother (Nena Rosier) if she can attend a special school – there is no address but as soon as she asks, the school phones. So, what we then have is her attending this school for kids with powers and the film kind of morphs into Harry Potter meets the X-Men. At home Miko and Kresna (Andryan Bima) see something online about the school, a missing kid and kuntilanak (so much for a secret school) and so find the school and sneak in. A good teacher helps them blend in as they are trying to protect Dinda from the bad teachers.
What we discover is that the wife of the (deceased) founder of the school has merged with a kuntilanak (so, to a degree, we have vampiric possession) and this keeps her young but only if she feeds on a kid. This occurs once per year. However, being the last Mangkujiwo (I’m assuming direct bloodline and not sect, which is active) and a kuntilanak slayer, if she feeds from Dinda it’ll hold her for eighty years. The school is mostly staffed by members of the sect. When the kuntilanak feeds we can see the energy drawn from the victim.
The film side-lines two of the kids and introduces some new friends at the school but really did nothing within the narrative to build a friendship – they were just immediately friends. The film also eschewed an older (adult) sister altogether. The idea that Dinda was developing into something special because of her brush with the supernatural and her heritage wasn’t a bad one – the school itself felt like a lazy amalgam of the franchises I mentioned and the plot relied on a massive suspension of disbelief (such as no-one knowing the evil headmaster was evil). Not a great ending to the series, but at least we got actual vampirism. 3.5 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon UK
 |
| demonstrating powers |
This film is vampiric – there is energy vampirism – it has also taken the franchise and directed it well away from the others in the series. It follows Dinda, one of a group of orphans, and the original actress, Sandrinna Michelle, has been replaced by Nicole Rossi (the other kids are played by the actors from the first two films). In the last film we discovered she was of the kuntilanak worshipping Mangkujiwo bloodline and she killed the kuntilanak at the end of that film. This has left her with powers and at the head of the film we see her as the siblings, especially Miko (Ali Fikry), are being bullied, losing her temper, levitating rocks and psychically flinging them at the bullies.
 |
| making new friends |
However, after a prank gone wrong sees her hospitalising Ambar (Ciara Nadine Brosnan) and Panji (Adlu Fahrezi), she asks their foster mother (Nena Rosier) if she can attend a special school – there is no address but as soon as she asks, the school phones. So, what we then have is her attending this school for kids with powers and the film kind of morphs into Harry Potter meets the X-Men. At home Miko and Kresna (Andryan Bima) see something online about the school, a missing kid and kuntilanak (so much for a secret school) and so find the school and sneak in. A good teacher helps them blend in as they are trying to protect Dinda from the bad teachers.
 |
| feeding on energy |
What we discover is that the wife of the (deceased) founder of the school has merged with a kuntilanak (so, to a degree, we have vampiric possession) and this keeps her young but only if she feeds on a kid. This occurs once per year. However, being the last Mangkujiwo (I’m assuming direct bloodline and not sect, which is active) and a kuntilanak slayer, if she feeds from Dinda it’ll hold her for eighty years. The school is mostly staffed by members of the sect. When the kuntilanak feeds we can see the energy drawn from the victim.
 |
| the kuntilanak |
The film side-lines two of the kids and introduces some new friends at the school but really did nothing within the narrative to build a friendship – they were just immediately friends. The film also eschewed an older (adult) sister altogether. The idea that Dinda was developing into something special because of her brush with the supernatural and her heritage wasn’t a bad one – the school itself felt like a lazy amalgam of the franchises I mentioned and the plot relied on a massive suspension of disbelief (such as no-one knowing the evil headmaster was evil). Not a great ending to the series, but at least we got actual vampirism. 3.5 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon UK
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