The 2010 horror film Macabre is a real Indonesian slasher gore fest. It is written and directed by Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto aka “the Mo Brothers.” Macabre has the dubious distinction of being the first Indonesian film to be banned in Malaysia. All because of its overabundance of gore and violence.
Despite this mark against it, the film nonetheless won quite a few awards. Plus, lead actress Shareefa Daanish won the 2009 Best Actress Award at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival. Once you’ve seen the film you won’t be surprised at this little fact. She is terrifying as Dara, the murderous Mum to a group of violent offspring.
The Macabre Story
The film starts with a group of five friends in a restaurant/nightclub. One of the group, Adjie (Ario Bayu) is there to try a reconciliation with his estranged sister Ladya (Julie Estelle). He wants things right before leaving the country with his pregnant wife Astrid (Sigi Wimala) to work in Australia.
Ladya is a waitress at the restaurant. Another customer insults her and one of the group, Alam (Mike Miladro) steps in. He gets a beer bottle broken over his head for this intervention. He gets kicked out of the place and Ladya almost gets fired. After all this she agrees travel to the airport with her brother. As it begins to rain, they spot a girl acting strangely in front of their van.
Eko gets out to help her and talks Adjie into letting him drive her home. The girl is Maya (Imelda Therinne) and once they arrive, she asks that they all go into to meet Momma. Mom’s name is Dara and she is an imposing woman. She insists that they have a meal with them to repay their kindness to Maya.
Only Dara’s definition of “repayment” isn’t a nice one. Before the night is through, the entire group will be fighting for their lives. Dara and her brood savagely start murdering and cutting up bodies for retail sales. They will “help” desperate people who want to stay young.
Brilliantly Savage
This was a brilliantly savage film. It is the first Indonesian film that I’ve seen that falls solidly into the slasher category. The prosthetics are impressive and the gallons of blood and gore look pretty darn good. One shot (Pun intended.) where Eko gets part of his ear torn off by a crossbow bolt, looked real.
With villains that fall into the “superhuman” realm of the traditional slasher, the film delivers struggles and violent clashes galore. It also had me bobbing along with each fight, tussle and skirmish between the victims and the killers.
While the film may have been too much for Malaysian film audiences, I quite enjoyed it. I felt the plot was pretty original. The message seems to be that if you are too polite, you could wind up being murdered. At least by that deviant sicko that you delivered to their doorstep.
*On hindsight, it does make think a bit of the murderous Firefly family in House of a 1000 Corpses (2003). With Dara as Mother Firefly.*
The Verdict
I have to give this 4 stars for being the first impressive slasher film from Indonesia that I’ve seen. Dara is bloody frightening. If I were in a room with her, no amount of good manners would stop me from bolting out the moment she entered.
The “Mo Brothers” are currently making another film. From the title; Killers, it may be more of the same. Apparently you can watch this on Youtube.
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