There’s nothing quite like the thrill of piecing together a terrifying puzzle, only to have the final piece shatter your carefully constructed theory. Indonesian horror, with its mastery of atmosphere and suspense, often sets the stage for a mind-blowing climax, but alas, the endings can sometimes feel like a deflated balloon. Pemandi Jenazah (The Corpse Washer) is a prime example of this. The film’s oppressive atmosphere and haunting imagery had me on the edge of my seat, crafting elaborate theories about the sinister force at play. But when the final credits rolled, I was left feeling more perplexed than satisfied.
So, let’s dissect this cinematic disappointment together. What specific elements of the ending left you cold? Did the revelation feel underwhelming, or did the resolution simply not align with the established tone and themes?
Spoilers Ahead
The Corpse Washer (Pemandi Jenazah, 2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
“The Corpse Washer” opens with Mrs. Siti cleaning a corpse while her daughter, Lela, stands beside her. Siti shows Lela the proper ways of doing it because, after Siti’s mother and herself, Lela is the only one in the village who is responsible for performing this task, which is considered to be a very pious job. Lela, however, is unable to look at the faces of the dead people. She wants to be a makeup artist. But, Siti emotionally forces her to carry on as a corpse cleaner to keep the heritage of the family.
Siti has a few close friends, including Ida, Terry, Ana, and Tutti. One of these days, during Ida’s son’s circumcision festival, Siti observes that something is troubling Ida. She goes to talk to her. Later that night, there is an announcement that Ida has died. Siti goes to Ida’s place, looking all suspicious, as she tells Lela to lock herself in and not to let anyone enter the house. Nobody particularly knows the reason behind Ida’s death. Siti sees her covered in blood, and right beside her dead body, there is a picture that terrifies her.
What Happens to Siti?
Siti finishes cleaning Ida’s corpse. She takes all her belongings at the time of her death and heads back home. Meanwhile, Lela hears someone walking on the roof. Suddenly, a big portion of the ceiling falls, creating a hole. Arif, Siti’s son, arrives at that time, and he goes to the roof to take care of it. Soon, he sees Siti losing her nerves before entering the house. Later that night, Lela is surprised to see that Siti has brought Ida’s clothes with her. Now, she is all set to burn them. Siti gives advice to Lela that she should never keep anything to herself that belongs to the dead.
As the night approaches its ending hours, Siti sees the shadow of a couple of hands trying to reach out to her. Siti had felt the souls’ presence around her before. But this time, it is completely different. She is haunted by the look of it, as the hands look very scary as well. After a while, when Lela looks at Siti, she sees this horrifying image of her mother lying dead, blood coming out from everywhere on her face. Lela is forced to clean Siti’s dead body as she finds a small portion of barbed wire inside her mouth.
How does Lela Learn about Nur?
After Ida and Siti, Ana dies right in front of her son, Bimo. Arif comes to tell Lela that she needs to clean Ana’s corpse, but she resists. Bimo is their close friend. He even comes to beg Lela to perform the rituals. But Lela decides to stay inside the house as she has already started feeling a supernatural presence around her. Moreover, she does not want this torture to continue. Meanwhile, the police want to take Ana’s body for an autopsy because of these random deaths in the village, but Bimo resists. He says that he does not want his mother’s body to leave the house premises before cleaning.
Arif comes home and tells Lela that Ana has died the same way as their mother, by vomiting blood. This intrigues Lela’s curiosity as she finally comes to clean Ana’s body. However, her main objective is to find the barbed wire piece to connect the dots. She finally finds it, but this time, Ana’s body suddenly wakes up and points it out to Lela. The following morning, Bimo tells Lela that before Ana died, she whispered Nur’s name. Bimo tells Lela that Nur used to be in the group with their mothers. But something had happened to her long ago, and she does not live in the village anymore.
How is Nur Related to the Killings?
One night, Lela goes to the graveyard to find out whether Ida’s death was the same kind as the others. Lela lifts the soil up and finds the same barbed wire on Ida’s knee as well. She is now quite sure that getting to know about Nur can lead to the solution. The following morning, she visits Tutti’s house, where she ignores talking about Nur, saying that she is an evil woman who is responsible for destroying their household. It is interesting that all these women do not have husbands. Tutti tells Lela that Nur had seduced their husbands.
Later, Terry overhears Lela talking to Arif about Nur and the possible curse that is killing these women. Terry spreads the rumor all over the village, resulting in a confrontation between her and Lela. However, Inspector Drajat tries to stop them. After he is gone, Nur’s spirit possesses Terry’s body, and he is seeking help from Lela. Lela does not know what to do as she wishes to learn the whole story from Nur’s spirit. Eventually, Lela realizes that Tutti’s version is somewhat true. Lela, too, tells Nur that it is right that she is dead. Soon after, she leaves Terry’s body without harming anyone.
The Corpse Washer (Pemandi Jenazah, 2024) Movie Ending Explained:
Why does Lela Try to Protect Rika?
After a horrifying nightmare where Lela sees herself being attacked by Nur’s spirit, she goes straight to Rika’s house. Rika is very familiar with Lela because her brother, Arif, mostly spends time at her house doing what is needed, as Rika trusts them very much. Since she travels all the time, and if anything needs fixing while she is away, she has given Arif a set of keys. Lela grabs them and runs to her house, and finds that she is Nur’s daughter.
It was just her intuition that brought her here. Now, she believes that Rika is the one who is responsible for all the recent deaths, including her mother’s. She goes straight to Terry’s house. But finds her possessed body, praying to Allah. Lela thinks that Terry will be the next target. In fact, it was Tutti who got killed on that night. Everyone gathers around Tutti’s house. The police stop Lela from cleaning Tutti’s body as they will take it for autopsy.
There comes a time when Tutti’s body falls from the stretcher, and a couple of women get possessed all of a sudden. Right after the situation comes to normal, Lela finds Rika in the crowd and lets everyone know that she is Nur’s daughter, who is responsible for all the killings. Rika leaves the place, whispering in Lela’s ear that she should not get involved in someone else’s sin. Lela is not in a position to understand anything, as all she wants is to seek revenge for her mother’s death.
So, when a couple of women try to confirm whether Rika is responsible for the killings or not, she says yes. All the village women go to Rika’s place, break open her door, grab her by her hair, and start hitting her. She protests, saying that this is the same thing they did to her mother, leaving her to spend the rest of her days in horror and pain. We see glimpses where Nur is being dragged to a barbed wire fence, and the whole village hits her ruthlessly.
Nur even seeks help from Ida, Ana, Tutti, Terry, and Siti, but no one stops the villagers from hitting her. We see little Rika is locked in the house, she screams at the villagers to stop hitting Nur, but nobody listens to her. Even now, the villagers do not stop as they continue hitting Rika. In the end, Siti’s ghost asks Lela to stop this from happening once again, as she feels guilty for letting Nur get killed. Lela jumps into the chaos, embracing Rika and asking everyone to stop hitting her. Even Arif comes to save them. But unfortunately, he is hit in the back of his head, dying while protecting his sister.
Does the Curse Ever Leave the Village?
It is safe to assume that Nur was not guilty because, on one of these occasions, Rika once said that if her husband cheats on her, the blame will be on the husband. This purely suggests that the husbands of the dead women were somehow involved in a secret relationship with Nur. She was helpless because perhaps she was too afraid to lose the friendship. Terry remains unharmed because she is not married. This is why when Lela comes to save Terry, Tutti is attacked, not Terry.
Another hint is that just like Rika is not responsible for the deaths of the women, it is a lie spread by Lela that intrigued the villagers to attack her. The same might have happened in Nur’s case. Terry or someone from the group must have triggered the rumor, which leads to such a conundrum, resulting in Nur’s untimely death. Anyway, the ending is so bizarre and rapid that many questions remain unanswered.
These are just a few guesses that suggest that Nur was never guilty of anything. Even we can’t say whether Rika has survived the beating. But at the end of the film, we see Lela cleaning Salim’s daughter, Miss Murni’s body, and finds a pin-like thing on her cheek. It suggests that the curse still lives in the village. Since it is also killing unmarried women, we can assume that Rika died on that night as well. Since that pin-like structure replaces the barbed wire, it tells us that Rika’s ghost is now haunting the village.
Lela had understood her mistake and tried to stop the villagers from attacking Rika that night. This is perhaps the only reason why Lela is still alive, cleaning corpses in the village and removing the clues from them so that even the police do not know about it, eventually helping Nur or Rika in one way to get their revenge on the villagers who have killed them ruthlessly. If you find these guesses bizarre, you can write your thoughts in the comment section. Again, I am only guessing this because the ending is very rushed. It is hard to gather the reason behind the events that take place in the mid-credit scene.
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