This happened to me when I went to the cinema today. My friend asked me to watch an Indonesian horror movie titled “ Qodrat '' which was only released about 2 weeks ago. My friend told me it’s a hip horror movie in the country. I was sold, just because after my first cinema experience watching a horror movie, I quite enjoy it especially when it’s an Indonesian film. I would say, the horror genre in the industry has grown a lot and there are some improvements in the storyline, cinematography, and even the actors. Qodrat was somehow an impressive horror after Pengabdi Setan 2 although there are certain elements that could be improved. Personally, this movie is also Constantinesque which I will tell you the reason why.

Qodrat narrates the story of an islamic exorcist named Qodrat (Vino G Bastian )and his experience in unveiling the death of his family (son and wife). The first scene showed when he was inside the prison, almost losing his faith while reminiscing about his family and his failure over exorcising his son who was possessed by a powerful demon who attempted to break his faith. Inside the prison, he was almost killed by the demon but he later woke up after being pronounced dead. He also restored his faith and soon released from the prison. While he was on a journey to his “home", inside the bus he saw a baby girl crying and later revealed next to her was a demon sitting on the bus. He prayed inside the bus and told the demon to stop bothering the girl. His previous “home” is located in the middle of nowhere and it was actually some kind of islamic schooling. There, he met his friend “jafar”, another exorcist who was later revealed to worship the devil . In that place, the main cleric was also bedridden from a mysterious disease. At the same time, the village was plagued with drought and some of the people were possessed by demons, especially children. Qodrat, on his way restoring his faith was rather skeptical and reluctant dealing with exorcism. Until a woman Yasmin, and her daughter asked for help. Yasmin's son was often seen talking to “someone” inside the cupboard whom he believed was his father. Then, the story shift to Qodrat helping the woman getting rid of the powerful demon from the son who almost killed her daughter. During the battle with the demon, he was basically reciting some verses that eventually compels the demon away. However, before that, the demon revealed that he wants to led humanity astray and people like Qodrat was hindering their goals. The story cuts to the scene where the village was recovering from drought, the school was open and filled with students. Jafar was supposedly dead after having intense fight with Qodrat. Then, Qodrat was given a motorbike and drove away to the city to unveil the death of his wife. The ending of Qodrat noted that a sequel will be made.

If you ever watched constantine, this bears similar resemble as both main characters are exorcist and cynical. These could just be a mere coincide but certainly, both are also dealing with faith, religion, supernatural and horror that drives its narrative. Similarly, they both are also seen carrying a lot of rosary in which he prayed constantly and as far as I remember, Constantine has his own rosary in the shape of a cross. The conversation with the demon was similar to Constantine where there was such interaction in both movies. The face of the demon are also symbolic like it uses a scary dog and the demon aren’t the regular one that we see over typical Indonesian film where it has some fucked up face or just long haired and such. Since this was islamic version, there were some religious quotes about how humans are hypocritical when it comes to what they believe in much like Constantine where they also lightly touched on that . The demon in the movie were also mentioning how human are below them and many references to islamic teachings about the demon and their plans. However, unless you believe in the religion, it would be difficult to understand. The cinematography that also includes the jumpscare, the music, and the setting were worthy of praise it. There were some fighting scenes as well that was intense and left a good impression. This isn’t a typical Indonesian horror movie and it also dealt with the demonic realm with fresher perspective. Although again, to me it reminded me a lot of Constantine starring by Keanu Reeves.

This is my second horror movie that I watched at the cinema that totally changed my views about horror films in the country. Instead of being filled with jumpscares, ghosts, and local supernatural and cheap horror, these horror films are decent and illustrate what a horror genre should be. Somehow, after watching the recent horror film in the country, it doesn’t cause me any fear or anything. Instead it often makes me think about the plot, the characters and how well they combined the aspect of local culture and some aspect of modern horror that I think expect to be a bit more logical than just a strange fantasy without a causal or reasonable effect. Even the previous one I watched, Perempuan bergaun merah was also combining cultural beliefs and a mysterious revenge style horror. Stay tuned for that review later!