Kuyang – review

Director: Yongki Ongestu

Release date: 2024

Contains spoilers

I do like a krasue film – and that’s exactly what this Indonesian film is, though they use the name kuyang as the Indonesian variant of the folklore. There isn’t any feeding per se in this, but we do have classic krasue imagery such as the floating head with the illuminated viscera hanging beneath, the movement as a fireball and the headless body left vulnerable to attack as the krasue (or kuyang in this) stalks the night.

waiting for the car

It starts with Bimo (Dimas Aditya) looking concerned as he reads the balance in his bank book. His wife, Sri (Alyssa Abidin) comes out of the house with a suitcase, and he helps lock the door. Soon their ride arrives. They are greeted by Tarno (Yogi Gambles) and their driver is Junai (Alam Setiawan). Bimo checks a phone app that tells him what he owes and when it should be paid.

Alyssa Abidin as Sri

The film doesn’t always communicate what we’d want to know – it is clear that there is an issue between husband and wife, he wants her to trust him again, but it is never made clear if it was an infidelity, financial impropriety (given the points to his finances) or something else. Tarno and Junai are taking them to a boat where he will travel to a remote village to be the teacher. It is suggested that he needs to do this to keep his profession – again no real answer why.

drive through the forest

As they drive through forest (with Bimo and Trano asleep) Sri notices a glow flash by the window, then a face outside the window eventually causing her to scream. They have to stop as Sri feels sick and she does vomit behind the car. There is movement in the undergrowth and a flashlight reveals a coffin and they jump into the truck, which of course stalls. The coffin is a raung – a flying coffin, which doesn’t do much bar inch along the floor to be fair. There is talk of hanging coffins, suspended from trees rather than buried, and of those containing black magicians becoming raung. They distract it by tossing it some eggs – easy prey though the occupant prefers human flesh. A hand reaches out of the coffin and grabs the eggs – the occupants are revealed to be zombie-like. The truck starts and they get away.

Tingen (centre)

They get to the boat and before they get on they meet the village administrator, Ampong (Luthfi Triadi), who travels on the boat with them and fellow teacher Tingen (Andri Mashadi) who does not as he is teaching elsewhere that day. As the boat leaves we become aware that Tingen knows their escorts and asked what happened – a kuyang and raung, they report, and Tingen confirms they have been long awaiting Sri – a figure of prophecy known as the woman from another island. This person will be pregnant (Sri is, though she seems unaware at that point) and her and the foetus will be sacrificed by a Kuyang to achieve full demonhood.

spectral kids

So you have a under-populated village (after a devastating flood there are only 7 children at the school) with locals scared of the prophecy. Visions of ghostly schoolkids, and two kuyang – one of whom is suspected to be an odd old woman, Tambi Nyai (Elly D. Luthan), who is protected by her husband, Bue Alang (Egy Fedly). We get a young shaman woman, Mina Uwe (Putri Ayudya), strange alliances, a rapidly growing stomach (Sri goes from nothing to heavily pregnant overnight), and a group of raung. It’s a strange mix.

a kuyang

The mixing it up keeps this interesting. The effects are a mixed bunch but the central ones around the kuyang work well (got to love kuyang fighting each other). The acting is passable – Sri and Bimo really do come across as fish out of water, which works. At just under 98 minutes it doesn’t really outstay its welcome and I rather enjoyed this as I watched it. There isn’t much lore bar what’s been mentioned – porcupine quills and garlic round a building will ward a kuyang as the garlic confuses its sense of smell and one character has a lock of the kuyang’s hair, which can be used to track it (it moves in its presence). 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.