I stumbled across Macabre literally by accident. Bored and scanning Netflix relentlessly for something refreshing to watch, I came across this Mo Brother/ Indonesian film that caught my attention with its 4-star approval rating. I had not heard of the film prior and after reading a few user reviews, I was hoping for a The Lovely Ones or a Dream House – namely, a film that flew under my radar then impressed me to no end at the conclusion of its screening.
Directed by Kim Stamboel and Tim Tjahjanto (as The Mo Brothers), Macabre is the story of a group of five friends (one eight months pregnant) that pick up a young girl who claims to have been robbed and is looking for a ride home. When the group arrive at secluded house of their picked-up stranger, they are met by a Lucy Liu looking mother figure that looks as creepy as she will prove deadly as the story progresses.
Unsuspecting that their hosts (which also includes two male figures) are murdering cannibals, the five guests enjoy a meal with the seemingly thankful clan before they are drugged, bound and tortured resulting in plenty of the red stuff being sprayed liberally in almost every room in the house. All put up a fight, but few survive in what becomes a very bloody evening with a body count that reaches the double digits.
Horror films which circle around a group of friends ending up in a remote house where a sadistic and murdering family reside are nothing new. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tourist Trap, Silent Scream, House of 1000 Corpses there have been countless horror titles that could be summed up with the same synopsis.
So what separates Macabre from the rest of them? Nothing really. When stripped to the bone, Macabre is just another stupid horror movie where stupid people do stupid things which eventually get them killed. In fact, I don't remember a movie in recent memory where people did as many stupid things. Worse still, it is all the stereotypical horror movie stupid things. People drop weapons after inflicting non-fatal wounds; people stay when they should run and fall when they do decide to high-tail it (a drinking game of taking a shot every time someone falls down or slips in Macabre would lead to alcohol poisoning); and why would anyone go back to a house of death if they had a chance to continue running through the woods until they find safety? These elements are all too present in Macabre and take away from some pretty good scenes of blood soaked gore. It is sometimes hard to judge the acting when you are busy reading the subtitles, but everyone involved seemed to be doing their part with the elements of the predictable script.
As you can likely ascertain, Macabre will not get a recommendation from this post. It was never boring but it wasn't anything revolutionary or different that would constitute a positive word-of-mouth event.
www.killerreviews.com
Directed by Kim Stamboel and Tim Tjahjanto (as The Mo Brothers), Macabre is the story of a group of five friends (one eight months pregnant) that pick up a young girl who claims to have been robbed and is looking for a ride home. When the group arrive at secluded house of their picked-up stranger, they are met by a Lucy Liu looking mother figure that looks as creepy as she will prove deadly as the story progresses.
Unsuspecting that their hosts (which also includes two male figures) are murdering cannibals, the five guests enjoy a meal with the seemingly thankful clan before they are drugged, bound and tortured resulting in plenty of the red stuff being sprayed liberally in almost every room in the house. All put up a fight, but few survive in what becomes a very bloody evening with a body count that reaches the double digits.
Horror films which circle around a group of friends ending up in a remote house where a sadistic and murdering family reside are nothing new. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tourist Trap, Silent Scream, House of 1000 Corpses there have been countless horror titles that could be summed up with the same synopsis.
So what separates Macabre from the rest of them? Nothing really. When stripped to the bone, Macabre is just another stupid horror movie where stupid people do stupid things which eventually get them killed. In fact, I don't remember a movie in recent memory where people did as many stupid things. Worse still, it is all the stereotypical horror movie stupid things. People drop weapons after inflicting non-fatal wounds; people stay when they should run and fall when they do decide to high-tail it (a drinking game of taking a shot every time someone falls down or slips in Macabre would lead to alcohol poisoning); and why would anyone go back to a house of death if they had a chance to continue running through the woods until they find safety? These elements are all too present in Macabre and take away from some pretty good scenes of blood soaked gore. It is sometimes hard to judge the acting when you are busy reading the subtitles, but everyone involved seemed to be doing their part with the elements of the predictable script.
As you can likely ascertain, Macabre will not get a recommendation from this post. It was never boring but it wasn't anything revolutionary or different that would constitute a positive word-of-mouth event.
www.killerreviews.com