Macabre Review


Movie: Macabre
By: Maniac E
Date: September 24, 2012

Everybody bleeds...

Macabre knocked me on my ass. I know a lot of my blogging buddies are sticklers for good horror and I also love blood and gore and Macabre delivers violence to the extreme. I felt as if I was watching Asia’s version of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Of course with every great horror movie comes the lame, stale set up. You’ve seen it a hundred times before. You know, the one about a group of naïve twenty somethings who pick up a stranger who needs a ride home. Of course that stranger, provides just a wee bit problem for the gang.

The plot is basic and involves a group of friends who help a young woman by giving her a ride to her home. Things get nasty when her family turns out to be homicidal maniacs. In this sense "Macabre" follows a similar route taken by films such as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974) and "House of 1000 Corpses" (2003). There's nothing new here, but in this genre it's the execution that counts and in this film there's a healthy dose of gritty, nasty, bloody violence and gore to keep most horror fans satisfied. It doesn't reach the glorious blood overload of "Inside" (2007) (one of my top 10 favorite horror films of the decade), but it holds its own. After the brief setup this is a non-stop mix of suspense and bloodshed. A few of the death scenes are certainly memorable and will help "Macabre" to carve out its own little identity in the genre.

Macabre

The script is also less than stellar, but that's mostly in the beginning when the dialogue is particularly heavy, but luckily once the killing starts this complaint becomes irrelevant. There's not much to say about the story for it beautifully follows the guideline of the genre. Although I can't say the film is particularly refreshing, it is damn good entertainment. It had a lot of momentum being produced as well which is why it ended up being a success. Rumah Dara or Macabre is the extension from a short movie, Dara. Because the responses for this short movie is so good, the filmmaker then tried to extend the story of this film.

Macabre

One major problem that I have with loony, murderous family movies is obnoxious antagonists. Just because you're a ruthless, sick family unit doesn't mean that you have to yap your mouths all the time and act like juvenile lunatics. (One of the reasons why I'm not a huge fan of Rob Zombie's movies.) I much prefer the quiet, intelligent, menacing killers who calculate and go about their business with a twisted calmness. You know, the seemingly normal folk that are serving you tea and biscuits one minute and then slicing you in half with a chainsaw the next minute. In "Macabre" that's exactly what they are, and in some ways those quieter qualities help to muffle the bad decision-making that frequently creeps its head in movies such as this. What I mean by this is that the intelligent antagonists quickly handicap the protagonists, which limits their options and creates an entirely realistic scenario. The filmmakers loosen the reigns later on through and eventually the sense of realism recedes until you're left with some unrealistic elements. There are a few bone-headed decisions, but not enough to significantly detract from the positives. In addition, some of these characters take an incredible amount of brutality without kicking the bucket. On the positive side this provides for some long-lasting showdowns as well as some sweet death scenes.

Macabre

All in all I did enjoy this movie it ended up being vicious beyond what I expected. The blood soaked walls and carnage that remains at the end somewhat discredits the supposed craziness of the family given how meticulously clean and white everything is in the beginning scenes of the home. If you are a horror fan, don't miss it. If you are a fan with international taste, you may be a bit turned off by the repeated themes and copied scenes throughout.


3.5/5




Movie

Macabre

Title

Macabre

Director

Kimo Stamboel, Timo Tjahjanto

Country

Indonesia

Year

2009

Cast

Ario Bayu, Shareefa Daanish and Julie Estelle