EssenceStory Well Deserved Praise

Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

ShazaliSharaini I approached this movie with so much hostility. I loathe (still am) Malay films because of clichés, overacting, unnecessary comedic acting, bad scripts - all the no-nos you can think of in movie making. Many Malaysian movie makers don't learn from any good movies on how to make one. They think commercially beautiful performers are sufficient to garner profits. Throw in a dose of slapstick humour, and voila, you get yourself a hit movie. But, I can't blame them because Malaysian audience WANTS all these slapstick humour, shouting, overacting and clichéd romcoms.The film makers brag that the quality of Malaysian movies are on par with those of Hollywood's, but they know they are lying. Anybody who's watching any Malay films will know, most - I SAID MOST - films are similar to another. Or rip-offs from Hollywood movies. Look at the stunts in Cicak-man. The somersault was a Spider-man2 rip-off.OK, back to this film. This, I believe, is the best story-telling EVER. Please, tell me others that can match Susuk. There are hardly any overacting. I was holding my breath waiting for some idiot trying to be funny. But, thank God, there wasn't any.I don't wanna label this as a horror, because the scary scenes are quite sparse. It is the mystery of this beauty talisman - Susuk - which intrigues me. Then, how it is told. I don't want to to spoil anything here, but it requires me a second viewing to comprehend what is going on. Now, that is GOOD.So, find this movie. It is THAT good!! They should bring this movie out internationally.Shazali

ThornIs A friend from the US sent me this film to watch via snail mail. (This is in no way strange for me) It took me a while to get to it. It looked legit and had extras on it, but I would have some problems with the DVD and I don't know where she picked it up. So some of the problems I had the film I can't be sure if they are a product of the film or of this particular copy of the film.It's a horror film from Malaysia. I had not heard of it until now. I do live pretty far up north and it sometimes takes an adventure just to find films out of the mainstream.I had not seen a horror film from Malaysia before - actually I had not seen a film from Malaysia, so this was kind of a treat.For some reason the DVD didn't work in my DVD player and would only work on my crappy laptop in the cold basement. This is a little strange, but it might be just this particular DVD. So I watched it in the basement with a sweater and cup of tea. This all added to the atmosphere.Not going into the plot too much the movie is about Susuk, which is a ritual where talismans are inserted into the body through needles. It's a practice really looked down upon in Islamic cultures. It is associated with witchcraft. Well in order to get more powerful Susuk the characters have to do some horrible acts - I think any horror fan can start to figure this out.There really is this conflict between traditional values, traditional superstitions and a distrust of modern western culture. It's not overly preachy but it does border that line. It seems the characters are conditioned by modern society for this burning desire to become "Idols", and it takes soul destroying black magic and the eating of flesh to achieve this. As a westerner I could say, "Trust me, it could be worse... well at least much more annoying." The dialog is a bit wonky and there is some confusing errors in the subtitles - which also have this strange shadow effect. The film has two different languages, so you get badly done subtitles on top of badly done subtitles.It's very slow paced, and almost lost me during the second act.The western style music isn't annoying, but did nothing for me. There possibly is too much of it too. What I really liked is occasionally they have some traditional music scored in these country side scenes. I found myself really intrigued and in love with these parts. For a horror fan from Northern Ontario both the music and the imagery in these scenes were very dark and very exotic.The ending is presented as a revelation, which at first lost me due to the poor translations - but after a second viewing it makes perfect sense.This is one of those films which is decent on the first viewing but better on the second.It's not so much a horror movie as a really ambiguous eastern film. If your fan of these films, and could look pass the poor translations and a very slow second act it might be worth checking out if you happen to see it somewhere...I'm feeling generous, so I give it 2 sweaters and 2 cups of tea out of 5.Thank you for reading.

kidkumar333 I won't go comparing to any Hollywood film, but i'm seriously impressed by the storytelling of this movie. Possibly confusing to some M'sian viewers as the guy beside me had a blur look on his face as he tried to piece the plot together! The effects were okay and the actors were excellent especially Ida Narina! So love her acting!Gotta say that the one sexually explicit scene was a bomb, expect to see some government body commenting on that particular scene!Maybe even BANN or EDIT the scene off!lol...No but overall, it was a good movie! I hope to see more good stories from our local industry. You don't need great effects and make up specialist or crawling (almost dead) bodies to make a horror film, but a good script, excellent actors to deliver and possibly (one) sexual explicit scene!LOL! Hope those plannin to watch the film will enjoy it as much as i did! (warning its a little bit slow...)

Julya O I'm not a big fan of Asian horror movies since I have had my share of watching disappointing ones since way back when. I still haven't found one which I could honestly say I enjoy thoroughly in this genre because most of them are predictable and rehashes from the great ones, except for Shutter (2004), The Eye (Gin Gwai - 2002), Dark Water (Honogurai mizu no soko kara - 2002) and a few others.I almost liked Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam until the second half marred what could have been a much better classic horror tale. As for Susuk I liked the overall presentation which I thought was quite a treat but still, it's not all there yet to make it the superb horror film from Malaysia.Of vanity and the suggestive powers of sexuality, it does bear a stark resemblance to the exploitative movies of the sixties whether intentionally or not. The sensuality that oozes out from the female characters are undeniably blatant, while the rest are like undercurrents of a raging river.When the movie ended it took me a while more to lock in the jigsaw pieces that makes up the whole story, which takes a bit of mind unraveling effort to completely grasp the plot. There's nothing much else I can say without coming close to exposing the spoilers except the vampire creature-like thing could have been more terrifying in design.Besides the bevy of beauties all in a row, other stars who made their cameos include Yasmin Ahmad, Yasmin Yusoff, Romona Rahman and also Amir Muhammad, the director and writer, himself.I thought it could have done without the gore and shock tactics that gives it the essence, but hey, what's a horror movie without them? Susuk is a superstitious believe that gold or silver needles inserted into the body enhances one's desirability and appeal.Amir Muhammad also has a new movie 'Malaysian Gods' in the process of being released, I'm sure it has nothing to do with Neil Gaiman's American Gods though.