[Theatrical Cut]
I like that the series is moving toward abstraction, as the liminal hyperrealism of the escape room is framed as being virtually indistinguishable from baseline reality (cf. Resident Evil: Retribution). The set-pieces are aces as usual, but at this point I expect more from these movies than just suspenseful sequences, no matter how well-executed they may be.
You’ve seen this movie a million times already. You know the one: a handful of students pay a visit to a remote village where a native supernatural entity is bound to possess them one by one, methodically killing them off except for one or two survivors before the final reel.
Based on a “viral Twitter thread” claiming to be a legitimate account of a real-life supernatural case in Indonesia, KKN di Desa Penari coasts solely on the social clout afforded by…
It’s safe to say at this point that I’ve mostly outgrown these needlessly exhausting, excruciatingly infantilizing exercises in nothingness. World-conquering megablockbusters preaching against excess and greed, commodifying morality as easily attainable nuggets of wisdom to live by are the last thing we need in this sobering year.
It’s official: movies are now feature-length memes.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, in this movie means anything. The story is literally about nothing. At one point a character blurts out, “It would be as if none of this had ever happened.”
And that’s the movie’s entire thesis — that characters don’t matter, that stories don’t need to have any meaningful resolution to be “satisfying”, that nostalgia is the only cultural currency, that market imperative reigns supreme and allows cultural cannibalism.…
