Khurafat: Movie Review

Written & directed by: Shamsul Yusof
Genre: Horror.     
Rating: PG13 or 18PL (for violence, horror and religious content).
Who's in it: Syamsul Yusof, Liyana Jasmay, Sabrina Ali, Fauziah Nawi.

The story (warning, spoilers ahead): 

This movie centers around Johan (Syamsul), a medical assistant working  in the morgue at a government hospital. After visiting his mother (Fauziah Nawi) in the village, he started seeing ghastly apparitions haunting him wherever he goes. His condition became worse when his ex-lover Anna (Sabrina Ali) suffers from nervous breakdown and blames his wife (Liyana) for ending their relationship. After failing to convince Johan to leave his wife, Anna stabbed herself to death. Johan, feeling guilty for Anna's death, volunteered to arrange for her funeral which involves transporting her body across a godforsaken road in the middle of the night, plunging down a ravine in a van, carrying a dead body across the jungle, getting chased by a horny ghost and in the end waking up from a coma only to die again after a few minutes but not before getting flash backs of his past deeds which explains the origin of the horny ghost. 

Is it worth watching? 

Most Malay movies suffers from the director's apparent lack of attention for details. Here are some of the details the director might have missed:

1. For a movie that is shot almost entirely on hospital grounds, the director sure didn't do his homework. In the  scene where Johan's mother gets admitted for having breathing difficulties, she was seen lying flat on a hospital bed (she was supposed to be propped up) and  attached to a high flow mask when the bag wasn't even inflated. The worse mistake was when Johan wakes up from a coma (he suffered severe trauma after the crash) but was not even attached to a ventilator. No hospital in this country would have all the lights in the ward turned off at night (this is to prevent the nurses from falling asleep and missing a patient in distress). Perhaps the director is trying to create an eerie setting for the movie but the whole premise just seems wrong.
2. I still can't decide on Johan's position in the mortuary. He hardly wears a uniform, in fact the only uniform he wears is a white shirt and black pants which means he's a medical assistant (MA) but most MAs i know wears their shirt tucked in. 
3. Recycling the same scenes over and over takes away the suspense in a horror movie. The director used too much of the "look behind your shoulder" and "what's that above your head" and the "i think there's something hiding in the bushes" approach that halfway throughout the movie, most of the audience were having fun guessing where the ghost is going to appear from.
4. A makcik living in a kampung doesn't go around talking to strangers like in a romantic novel. Nobody says words like "seolah-olah" or "seumpama" while chatting and the scene where the camera focuses on the picture of the makcik's son (who is supposed to look like Johan but with spectacles ) was just hilarious.
5. Syamsul Yusof should stop making himself the lead the next time he directs a movie (think Evolusi KL Drift 1 & 2 and Bohsia Jangan Pilih Jalan Hitam). He might be a talented director but I personally think, he should spend more time behind the scene (until he takes some classes to improve his acting skills).

Enough said, do i think this movie is exceptionally bad? NO, I've seen worse, I might dedicate a special post on all the bad horror movies ever made in this country including movies made by more experienced directors like Suhaimi Baba. I really hate a movie that has such a promising trailer but in the end disappoints in so many ways. I really feel that this movie has all the potential to become a new horror classic, the script needs rewriting, the horny ghost needs better make-up, the leads need better acting and Syamsul Yusof needs to spend less time in front of the camera and concentrate on being a better director and a champion for the next generation of local directors (just like his father once was).

The snob's verdict: 5/10.

If you're looking for a good horror movie, try Ahmad Idham's Jangan Pandang Belakang or if you're in for comedies with supernatural theme try Mamat Khalid's Zombie Kampung Pisang or the recent Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah or Ismail Bob Hasim's Ngangkung.