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Impetigore Movie Review

Impetigore is a 2020 Indonesian horror film directed by Joko Anwar and starring Tara Basro. It’s a disturbing, but truly terrific, very underrated flick.

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“You are a mistake that I need to erase!“

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A woman inherits a house in her ancestral village, but she’s unaware that members of the community have been trying to locate and kill her to remove the curse that has plagued them for years. This storyline is something else. It’s disturbing and utterly crazy, but also genuinely well told, meticulously detailed and intriguing from start to finish. The many immediate Indonesian details made it a true exotic treat to watch and those include a prominent use of black magic and also golok (a type of Indonesian machete) as the weapon of choice for the villains.

Above all else, the movie is simply insane. I was truly appalled, but also fascinated by its gore and violence as some of the imagery here is instantly memorable and difficult to shake off. The most striking is the sight of those poor skinless babies. That entire flashback in the third act may be too convenient for some, but for me it tied up all of the loose ends into a very coherent whole while also being genuinely artistic and creepy in its execution with the use of sound and odd shot compositing perfectly complimenting its archaic feel.

The highlight for me was clearly that ending. The beginning was also very intriguing and it instantly made me invested in where all of this was going, but the movie becomes better and better until it lands on something truly spectacular in that gory, but disturbing and incredible ending where many die and utter chaos ensues.

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This is the major strength of the movie – unlike most US horror flicks, this Indonesian chiller actually is unpredictable and it truly feels dangerous in every single scene due to its incredible atmosphere and a willingness to go there in terms of violence and killing off major characters. The gore was excessive to me and sometimes the movie was difficult to bear, but ultimately it was all worth it due to its increased tension and the feeling of hopelessness.

Maya is such a memorable protagonist and you root for her from beginning to end. The acting is strong across the board with Tara Basro being among the standouts, but Saptadi’s mother was not only superbly performed by the actress, but also a genuinely horrific, imposing character whom you fear in every single scene. Dini was so much fun, but what happened to her was quite disturbing and also unexpected, which made that scene even worse and more effective.

There is a lot of this crazy, over-the-top family drama going on in Impetigore, but to me it was superbly depicted and so much fun. The flashbacks actually help us understand the plot more while the mystical elements were uniformly fascinating. The movie explores the dangers of myths and believing in curses, which is its biggest theme and also the catalyst for all of the horror elements.

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Impetigore is also gorgeously shot, so well scored and intense in execution throughout. This is clearly a big improvement over ‘Satan’s Slaves’, a previous horror movie from Joko Anwar, so he is definitely improving, and I can’t wait to see what he does next as his direction here is outstanding.