Movie Review: 'Impetigore' is Indonesia's Oscar Hopeful

Impetigore is a creeptastic horror movie from Indonesia that is competing to be Best Foreign Film at this year’s Academy Awards. The film is Indonesia’s official entry into the awards season and it is not your typical Oscar movie. This is a blood and guts shocker about curses, babies born without skin, and two innocent women whose desire for wealth overwhelms their good judgment.

Impetigore stars Tara Basro as Maya and Marissa Anita as Maya’s best friend Dini. When we meet the two, they are working as tollbooth workers. While Dini’s booth is on a busy stretch, Maya’s booth has seen few cars and she’s concerned they will close it for lack of use, leaving her without a job. The two are chatting on their phones when Maya notices the approach of a familiar and frightening vehicle. .

According to Maya, this older man in a black car has driven through her booth several times and she doesn’t like the look of him. She’s right to be suspicious, the man claims to know who she is even though she doesn’t recognize him. After calling security and relating more creepy details to Dini, Maya sees that the man has pulled over just up the road from her booth. When he gets out, he goes to the trunk and retrieves a very large sword.

This is a phenomenal opening sequence filled with character building, exposition that doesn’t feel forced, and a superb set up for the mysterious story that is about to unfold. Impetigore was written and directed by Joko Anwar who won the Indonesian equivalent of the Academy Award, the Citra, for Best Director for Impetigore when it was initially released in his home country. The film is impeccably directed with a strong pace and suffocating intensity.

After figuring out who the man was that attacked her, Maya finds that she had a family that was very prominent in a small Indonesian village, one not on any map. Seeing a photo the man had of Maya with who she assumes are her parents, Maya notices they had a very large house. Dini points out that there could be an inheritance for her and that they should travel to the village and claim it or the house which they could possibly sell to fund the clothing business they have started.

Maya is skeptical at first but eventually she relents and the two take a bus ride to the jungle where they have to hire a horse cart to take them to the village. There are no roads to the village, just a narrow path. The village has no electricity and strangely, there are no children. Maya claims to have seen three little girls but they’ve only appeared to her, no one else claims to have seen them.

In the village, Maya and Dini decide to stay at the home from the photo because there are no other places to stay. They must wait for the village elder, Saptadi (Ario Bayu), to return so that he can tell them whether there is an inheritance or not. However, it’s not long before the girls start to get the creeps about this place. The eerie atmosphere permeates the whole village and that complete lack of children in the village strikes a frightening chord with Maya.

I don’t want to describe any further so as not to give away the excitement of Impetigore. The film is really effective at building suspense and continuously upping the ante on the horror. The reveals are shocking and queasy and the secrets revealed left me shaken. Joko Anwar has a fearless approach to telling this story and he’s not afraid to take you to some awful places. And yet, Anwar is also smart enough not to make the film too unappealing.

Choosing a horror movie as an Academy Award contender is a bold move by the Indonesian film board. Horror doesn’t get a lot of love from the Hollywood Academy. It’s a strong indication that Indonesian film leaders know just how good this movie is. They have confidence that this is the countries’ best film and they aren’t afraid to stand behind it. Impetigore is available now to watch for subscribers to the horror streaming service, Shudder.