Penunggu Istana
My rating:




Is it true that local film producers have no say in their films' release dates? That it's entirely in the (entirely arbitrary) hands of FINAS? Jika ini benar, maka nampaknya filem Penunggu Istana telah disenggama, i.e. got screwed. Tagline dia "Realiti Seram Paranormal Pertama Di Malaysia", tapi satu minggu lepas filem ini mula ditayangkan, Seru pulak akan keluar, dan jika dilihat dari trailernya ia juga memakai formula "found footage". (Tolong guna nama ni boleh tak? Calling it "realiti" is just plain false.) So it's "Pertama Di Malaysia" by a week. But never fear, TMBF is here to review them both and make entirely factual and objective judgments on which is the better movie!

Sad to say, right now it doesn't look likely to be this one.

Mus (Mustaqim Mohd Zaki), Amar (Amar Asyraf Zailuddin), Sara (Sara Ali), Fira (Nor Zafirah Abd Rahim) and Yaya (Nadzirah Ahmad Nadzri) are five students conducting a research paper on the paranormal. With the help of Uncle Seekers and his team of (kononnya) professional ghost hunters, they arrive at the supposedly-haunted Istana Billah in Perak and set up cameras thoughout the building. But after the Seekers leave them to their own devices, the five get greedy for more sensational footage, and employ various means to provoke the spirits that reside in Istana Billah - a move that will ultimately lead to tragedy.

Dear Cik Wan Hasliza, you dah tengok Haunted Changi belum? Filem seram buatan Singapura yang juga bergenre "found footage"? I rasa kalau you tengok, pasti you bengang sampai nak cabut rambut sendiri. Because Haunted Changi came out 4 months ago - probably while your completed movie was sitting on FINAS' shelves - and made Penunggu Istana look like a ripoff. I ingat you dari Janin and Hooperz, and I readily named you one of the best local screenwriters working today - so I tersangat bersimpati untuk you. Basic plot you pretty much sama dengan dia, dan ending pun similar. I think what's - or what should be - especially galling to you is that (even though I didn't even like the movie) Haunted Changi is a pretty comprehensive primer on how your movie could've been better.

See, I've always thought that your strength is in writing dialogue. And it's evident here, although I don't know if you gave the cast an actual script or just let them improv. (I'd guess the former; I tak yakin ada mana-mana pelakon tempatan yang pandai improv.) Itu saja kelebihan filem ini dari Haunted Changi, yakni lima pelajar yang nak buat paper ni lebih believable dari kru filem dokumentari yang tak reti macane nak bikin sebuah dokumentari. Interaksi diantara barisan pelakon juga nampak cukup natural, dan kita boleh terima ilusi bahawa mereka ni orang benar dan semua ini benar-benar berlaku. (But I gotta say, this Uncle Seekers fella comes across as a bit of a dick.)

Tapi dimana plot-nya? Dimana substance-nya? Cerita ni macam tak tentu hala, tak cukup berisi dan akhirnya tidak memuaskan. Lama kita tunggu sebelum apa-apa yang menyeramkan berlaku - and when it finally does happen, it happens without setup or warning. At one point, seorang dari lima tu tiba-tiba menghilang, and it's never explained. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to what these characters do; waktu malam takut giler, siang hari teruja sebab dapat tangkap gambar hantu dan ingin nak balik kesana malam nanti. You tak pernah terfikir ke nak reka sebuah sejarah gelap bagi this Istana Billah? (It is a fictional place, after all.) Sepertimana Haunted Changi takes place in a former Japanese army base? Bolehlah jadi bahan untuk cerita ini - instead of just a bunch of kids running around in the dark, tetiba jumpa hantu, mati, tamat.

To be honest, I can't find it in me to be too harsh on this movie. I hesitate to say I liked these characters - although Sara Ali is kiut giler - but as I said, I found them believable as a bunch of (naive and clueless) college students, so I never found them annoying. And again, the whole cast did a generally good job; bukan senang nak berlakon secara natural, tambahan pulak in the long takes common to this type of film. Tapi I kecewa sekali lagi dengan Wan Hasliza, whom I thought juga mahir dalam membina perwatakan; mana personaliti diorang ni? Ada suatu babak awal dimana mereka berdebat antara satu sama lain, dan saya sangka disinilah characterization mereka di-establish-kan: Fira yang alim, Yaya yang logikal dan rasional, Sara yang tomboy, Mus dan Amar yang reckless dan foolhardy (maklumlah, lelaki). Tapi akhirnya, none of this has any bearing on the story. Again, Haunted Changi was better at this.

Therefore I cannot in good conscience give this a higher rating than I did for Haunted Changi. I want to, honestly, and that just points to how biased I am in favour of filem tempatan. It's partly because I like "found footage" movies; there's something about a first-person camera stumbling about a dark room that's just inherently scary. It may also partly be because of Sara Ali (by the way, syabas atas keberanian anda melakonkan satu adegan dengan hingus jelas kelihatan meleleh dari hidung). But ultimately, it is in too many ways a poorer film than Haunted Changi, even if that isn't really its fault. If only it had come out first.

NEXT REVIEW: Thor
Expectations: pretty ekthited!