With offerings such as 2019’s Impetigore, 2017’s Satan’s Slaves and the recently released Dancing Village: Where The Curse Begins (2024), Indonesia is fast become a pool of distinctive horror films, drawing on both its current social climate as well as its wealth of folkloric history. And director Sidharta Tata’s Respati is about to take its place as a forerunner amongst the strength of Indonesian horror cinema.
Centred around the titular character, a teenage boy called Respati (Devano Danendra) who is deeply traumatised by the tragic death of his parents, from which he suffers an incredible amount of survivor's guilt. Respati however, is not a normal teenage boy, he possesses the ability to enter other people’s dreams, yet through the use of his power, he discovers a terrible malevolent entity is murdering people through the dream world, which relates back to the waking world, as bodies pile up having been killed through mysterious means. It becomes Respati’s responsibility, along with two of his school friends, to discover the origins of this evil spirit and stop it before it takes the lives of those he holds dearest.
Despite Respati following the recent horror trend of exploring grief and trauma, rather than a slow burn with many sluggish philosophical ruminations on the human condition of death, Sidharta Tata has created an almost fantasy fairytale-esque world in which the protagonist balances between the lines of dream and nightmare, a state in which those dealing with grief regularly find themselves. The imagery is rich and immersive, reminiscent of a Guillermo Del Toro aesthetic, and the backbone of the story feels very much rooted in Indonesian folklore, adding to the dimensional element of the film.
The trio that make up the friend group in Respati, Devano Danendra, Keisya Levronka and Mikha Hernan have incredible chemistry, forging a strong bond throughout their harrowing journey that doesn’t come across as artificial or flimsy. Despite leaning more towards light fantasy horror, Respati is still a deep and visually gorgeous examination of generational trauma and how the children of the present can either choose to follow the same destructive road or deviate from their ancestors path and flourish instead.
4 Screams out of 5
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