Shamanic horror increasingly feels like the genre’s most badly exploited, overdone, wretched outings. There seems to be little variation, innovation, or formal experimentation in the way filmmakers tackle ancient curses that hang like a dreadful pall over a village and demand the interruption of city slickers so that a breach is attempted. Surprise and thrill are almost entirely absent in this sub-genre that tries to amp up kitschy gore and visually unappetizing excesses of grotesqueness.
In these films, you cannot expect characterization or atmospheric plot development. Things randomly happen. Characters fall into as well as seemingly remove themselves from impossibly dangerous situations, giving not a damn to plausibility. Bobby Prasetyo’s “Kultus Iblis” displays all the familiar limitations of this subgenre.
It doesn’t even remotely seem interested in pushing the needle to explore what could have been a fascinating history. Instead, what we get is a papered-over, dutifully mundane, and strictly by-the-numbers rendition of a cult that has practiced its wicked deviances for generations unchecked. Escape also doesn’t happen in its entire purity.
Kultus Iblis (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
What has happened to Hamdan?
The problem with such kinds of films is that they instantly rely on tropes older than time without attempting to shift an inch away to do their own disruptive thing. Henceforth, they are expressly dull creations, devoid of personality and the spark that makes you want to stick with them. The screenplay by Ilya Aktop and Ami Murti is ridden with the most generic revelations. I’m not even sure they can be regarded as revelations because the characters mostly sleepwalk through it. The history underpinning the spiraling events is dispensed with in a brief litany as it happens in such films.
Beginning with a man who is attacked by a malevolent spirit, the film quickly shifts to his twins, Naya (Yasamin Jasem) and Raka (Fadi Alaydrus). They return home to find their dad, Hamdan (Rukman Rosadi), horribly convulsed, his face and body turning grotesque. Hamdan dies right before them. The funeral is held off because of the rain. There are murmurs that Hamdan practiced black magic. He used to carry his charms with fierce protectiveness.
Can the Twins Unravel the Dark Family Secrets Hidden in Rangu Village?
The twins experience the spirit’s intervention again and discover that their father’s corpse has disappeared. When one of the twins pulls out an old family photograph kept by Hamdan, they notice that the name of a place is etched on its backside. It is the Rangu village tucked away in a remote corner of East Java. There’s some reluctance, but the two decide to head anyway, impelled by a curiosity about their father and family roots. Hamdan never discussed their mother and his background.
The twins set out, hoping to unravel what their father diligently maintained as a secret. Making their way to the isolated village, they manage to land on the doorstep of their grandmother, Rajimah (Alit Aryani Willems). She is a village elder. When the twins ask her about Hamdan, she tells them he is no longer her son. He chose to cut himself away from his family. Neither does their informing her of Hamdan’s death produce any shock or the slightest tremors of upset in her. The ties have long been snipped.
A series of uncanny events
However, she urges them to stay a couple of days until the harvest celebration in the village happens. On that day, Hamdan’s spirit might attempt a liberation. The twins would also get a chance to meet their extended family. Eerie, uncanny things quickly start happening. Naya has dreams of being transported to a mysterious cave.
She sees human skulls as well, but their grandmother tells her there’s no cave in the village. Naya and Raka explore the village, but the latter goes missing. Naya stumbles across a guy she had seen earlier. Now, he approaches her, whereas he used to skulk away. He advises her to return to Rajimah’s place, telling her everyone who goes missing invariably turns up at her house.
Raka is indeed back. But something about him feels weird. He has meat, which he used to swear off. Later in the night, Naya sneaks and finds Rajimah getting intimate with Raka, who behaves as if he is in some sort of spell. Naya also notices voodoo dolls under Rajimah’s bed. Raka turns even weirder. Rajimah tells Naya that Raka has been possessed.
She informs her that their father used to practice black magic and brought a curse on the village. He fled the village, leaving them to deal with his mess. The demon allied with his curse is what’s following them. They must do a ritual so that the curse is lifted. After some hesitation, the twins agree.
Kultus Iblis (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
Can the Twins Escape the Ancient Evil?
The twins are guided to a cave. They realize this is the exact one that kept popping up in their dreams. When Naya asks Rajimah why the latter denied the existence of a cave, Rajimah says they would have immediately looked for it. The ritual turns out to be of some other sort, where the twins are supposed to be sacrificed.
Somehow, Sugeng helps Naya get out of captivity. She lands at the place of Sugeng, where his mother, Weton (Mian Tiara), tells the story of the village where everyone has and continues to worship the demon Bathi. Children without deformities become part of a move to be the cult leader and the medium for the demon. Other children are sacrificed. The custom of inbreeding plays a regulating force.
Hamdan’s wife was also his sister. She urged him to flee with the babies. It was Sugeng’s mother who, possessing a fair share of magic, helped Hamdan escape and bestowed on him the charms. Raka draws Naya back to the ritual site. A bloody clash ensues. Using the charm Sugeng’s mother provides her, Naya thrusts it at Rajimah, weakening her and the other village elders.
Finally, she drives the blade through Rajimah, killing her. Weton doesn’t survive the heated scuffle and dies. Raka’s possession breaks. Staggering out, they accost a vehicle passing by and get away from the village. However, the post-credits scene reveals Raka is still in the grip of the demon. He has killed his sister and gets off a bus after brutally clobbering every passenger to death. The curse is very much intact.
