Kimo Stamboel’s “Dancing Village: The Curse Begins” (Badarawuhi di Desa Penari, 2024) has strains of over-familiarity, especially for those well-acquainted with trends in the horror genre that indicate leanings to occult practices and shaman rituals. These visual practices are simply too broadly padded most of the time, inserted in the narrative without the makers caring to infuse a depth of authenticity. As a result, a lot of the disturbing rites and out-of-body experiences come off as terribly hokey and unconvincing instead of gathering specific rooted textures. Silliness creeps into the narrative, and the plenitude of crowding contrivances starts grating quickly into the film.
Moreover, it doesn’t help that most of the characters are thinly written. The focus swivels to the central plot, and in the pursuit of gearing it into motion, many sequences skate close to being mere puppeteering tools for advancing the narrative agenda. Characterization takes a backseat. There’s a lot of screaming, shrieking, and horrifying discoveries. But the crucial backstory is dispensed with in such a reckless, slipshod, and hasty fashion that the film undercuts its own sober mood.
Dancing Village: The Curse Begins (Badarawuhi di Desa Penari, 2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
What Secrets Does the Dancing Village Hold?
The film opens in the eponymous ‘Dancing Village’ in 1955. It’s a scene of vigorous dancing. A woman seems to have taken possession of the girls. One of the girls is requested to hurry away and entrusted with taking the box out of the village. At this point, the film doesn’t delve into explaining who the characters are or underline the tension of the circumstances. We will return to this setting later and find out what actually transpired here in detail. The gravity of the situation is, however, unmistakably heavy and intense, with massively high stakes.
The film jumps to 1980. We are transported to eastern Java. Accompanied by her cousin Yuda (Jourdy Pranata) and a friend Arya (Ardit Erwandha), Mila (Maudy Effrosina) is on a quest to a particular village. She has just some sketches as a touchstone and guide. Jito (M. Iqbal Sulaiman) becomes their principal guide. He suggests the village would be in the middle of a forest. They follow his lead. He himself hasn’t been to the village. Somehow, they make their way.
A Mysterious Illness: Can the Dancing Village Hold the Cure?
The village’s setting is decidedly remote and isolated. Dense forest cover surrounds it. One could easily be lost in it. As they start enquiring around, they are told the village elder, Putri, has died. When Mila informs she is supposed to return something, a local woman, Ratih ( Claresta Taufan Kusumarina) tells them their best bet would be Buyut ( Diding Boneng). But he is presently away, and it’s not known when he’ll be back. Mila insists on staying for a couple of days and awaits his return. The boys take shelter in the guard post while Ratih allows Mila to lodge in her house.
Ratih has an ailing mother. Mila realizes that Ratih’s mother suffers the same indecipherable illness as hers. What could be the reason behind the dreadfully frightening condition? In fact, it defies medical diagnosis. The doctors couldn’t account for the sickness that overtakes Mila’s mother. So, a shaman had been called. It was he who instructed her to return the bangle stowed away in the box to the village and its rightful owner. Only then could her mother hope for recovery. When Mila shows Ratih the drawings of the place, the latter supposes it looks like Tapak Tilas, a neighboring village, going by the gate sketched in.
A Sinister Deception: Who is Controlling the Village?
A series of uncanny events occur in quick succession, establishing there’s more than something severely untoward about the village. Mila sees snakes curl up in the pool, where Ratih takes her for a bath. The same mysterious woman who had appeared previously to Mila resurfaces. At night, Mila and Ratih both hear loud sounds. On her insistence, Ratih guides her to the origin of the sound. They land at the neighboring village, particularly a site where people have assembled and are dancing.
The mysterious woman appears once again and asks Mila to hand over the bangle, which she does. The woman promises Mila’s mother will be cured. But of course, it takes no canny viewer to realize that both Mila and Ratih have been duped. Returning to her house, Ratih’s mother turns out to be in a worse condition than she was before. Ratih, on the instruction of the malevolent spirit Badarawuhi, had engineered circumstances for Mila to hand over the bangle. When the boys who had looked for them all day finally met up with Mila, she realized she wasn’t just gone for a brief while. Strange and peculiar are the ways of the village.
It is then that Buyut makes his appearance and unravels the story of the malevolent spirit and her connection to Mila and Ratih. Mila’s grandmother was none other than the village elder, Putri. Putri didn’t want her daughter, Inggri, to take the dancer’s curse. So she switched the fate of her twins, pushing the non-chosen to be scapegoated by Badarawuhi while she arranged for Inggri to flee the village with the bangle and never return. Buyut had helped her in the covert mission.
Dancing Village: The Curse Begins (Badarawuhi di Desa Penari, 2024) Movie Ending Explained:
Is Mila chosen as the dancer?
Buyut arranges for the elaborate ritual under the aegis of village elders, guiding Mila and Ratih to the ceremony where a dancer is chosen. In a trancelike spell, the two are transported to the other realm of Angkara. Both don’t stop dancing. The ceremony goes on for hours. Mila resists Badarawuhi’s wishes to join her, where she would be united with her mother.
The climax is a drawn-out scene depicting the tussle between Mila and Badarawuhi as the latter tries to exert her control over the former. It is Mila’s mother who steps in and gives herself up as a sacrifice to whet the phantom’s appetite so that Mila can be spared. This breaks the grip of the deadly spell. The village starts recovering after the spirit’s evildoings have caused massive ruin to the crops and killed every cow. The curse of the chosen dancer on the village lifts. Mila returns home to find her mother dead. Buyut hopes the village will no longer be marred by evil.
