Fantasia 2019, Movie Reviews
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[FANTASIA 2019] ‘DREADOUT’ Review

Watching Kimo Stamboel’s DreadOut is equivalent of jumping into a sequel where you’re already supposed to know what’s happening. This is due in most part to the fact that it’s based on the two-game series (2013 and 2015) of survival horror games from Indonesia — the first-ever adaptation of a game for the country. It appears to adhere closely to the general conceit: walk through some haunted halls in an apartment complex and use the flash on your phone to make the ghosts go away. This, in fact, plays an (exceedingly very silly) prominent role in the film. It’s about par for the course because nothing translates well to the screen; from the story to the action, everything is weak and lifeless. If this is indeed a faithful adaptation, what might be fun to play is in no way fun to watch. Turns out video game adaptations suck no matter where they come from!

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The story of some kids breaking into a supposedly haunted, empty apartment complex to livestream and gain followers isn’t even fresh — it is, in fact, part of Sadako from Fantasia 2019 as well. One of the kids (it doesn’t matter, you won’t possibly care about any of them) seems to have a psychic connection to the place, which we witness in the kinda cool opening of the movie. She can see and read a conjuring spell of some sort on a page that appears blank to the rest of the kids. This opens up a whirlpool in the middle of the floor, which somehow works as a dimensional door. Also, ripped straight from Evil Dead is a possession of one of the kids as a  result of the incantation…who even has the same voice modulation as Sam Raimi’s deadites. Things happen, nothing makes any sense. The movie ends on a darkly comedic beat.
There’s no tension and no suspense because you’re not given any reason to care about the interchangeable characters…and even worse, there’s not a body count to at least satisfy the fact that you don’t care about them. There are a couple of creepy moments and a camera trick or two, some of the sets are nice, but there’s barely any evidence of a director that I’ve respected for many years now. See, this one stings especially bad because I was really anticipating the solo debut for Stamboel, one half of the directing team The Mo Brothers. Together they’ve made some great stuff, including 2014’s Killers and 2016’s Headshot, and Timo Tjahanto has made some badass stuff on his own like last year’s staggeringly violent Fantasia featured/Netflix released The Night Comes For Us. I refuse to believe that Timo is the sole talent of the two, but based on this I would say that’s how it looks so far. Kimo definitely deserves better.

Unfortunately, there’s no word on when a stateside release will be available, but the title for the U.S. release Dreadout: Tower of Hell.

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Spielberg, Hill, Verhoven, Cronenberg, Landis, Carpenter, Lucas, Friedkin, and many others built my taste in youth. Then filmmakers from Italy, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Spain crept in. Now I'm an unstoppable film fiend, and living and breathing ALL the visual mediums you can find. I'll take any excuse to talk movies or TV, so writing and podcasting are my outlets!

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