ihearthorrorfilm I came across this film when I was reading the message boards for ABC's of Death. One of the directors made this movie Macabre a few years ago and for some strange reason, it flew completely under my radar. It was difficult to find a copy with English hardcoded subtitles, but I eventually found one. In a gory scale of 1 to 10, this Indonesian film comes in around 15. We're talking seriously bizarre, gory violence. The film is basically about a group of friends that pick up a girl, stranded on the side of the road, and take her home where her unusually young looking mother invites them to stay for dinner. That's all you need to know because as you can imagine, after that point, things get nuts. If you've seen many horror movies from any of the Asian countries, the subject matter will be familiar. The story is nothing super original, it's still good, but it's definitely been done before. The gore, on the other hand, is pretty gnarly. Especially the last 20 minutes… If you have an appetite for gore and an iron stomach, you're gonna want to drop this one in your Netflix queue.Please like me on Facebook! We love getting suggestions and warnings on everything horror: http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-Heart-Horror/338327476286206

Maddis I admit, there were moments of fun but if you have seen Inside or Frontiers, you will instantly recognize the elements "reimagined" from both. This is the Indonesian version of those two movies with some nice gore but unfortunately not much originality. I would imagine if this was new to some, it could stand as a worthy horror entry but just pales in comparison to the films from which it borrowed. So, recommended but with an asterisk at the bottom.Frontiers was no doubt a French take on Texas Chainsaw but there were enough nuance elements to make it interesting - the Nazi bloodline, the pigs, the original death scenes all made it entertaining. Inside, IMO, was simply brilliant. Awash in a blood soaked homage to a female Michael Michaels stalking a pregnant women in her home, it had several cringe worthy contrived plot devices (the cops for God sakes!), but it manages to pull off a sympathetic antagonist at the end.Now back to Macabre...one thing they did well was to inject some humor and male machismo into an otherwise derivative plot. The idea is of course to make you forget reality and this movie will do that. The blood soaked walls and carnage that remains at the end somewhat discredits the supposed craziness of the family given how meticulously clean and white everything is in the beginning scenes of the home. If you are a horror fan, don't miss it. If you are a fan with international taste, you may be a bit turned off by the repeated themes and copied scenes throughout.Maddis

Coventry "Macabre" is a rather customary and derivative horror movie, the type of which there are thirteen in a dozen, but with the notable exception of two little characteristics. First of all this is an Indonesian movie (honestly, how many of those do you encounter per year?) and secondly it's an excruciatingly cruel and sadistic viewing experience with a nihilistic tone and relentless bloodshed. Speaking in terms of cruelty, this sick puppy easily lives up to the French flicks "Martyrs" and "Inside" and thus leaves the vast majority of nowadays American produced slasher/horror movies miles and miles behind. It's actually regrettable that the plot is so clichéd, predictable and commonplace; otherwise "Macabre" might have become an instant cult classic and groundbreaking new genre films, like the aforementioned French titles perhaps. Now this is sadly just a gem that will probably score big in the festival circuit and amongst obscure cult purchasers, but remain largely unknown and unloved. Six friends, including an eight months pregnant woman and a couple of continuously arguing siblings, are on a long road trip to Jakarta when they stop to pick up a seemingly disorientated girl who – according to her own confusing story – got carjacked and left behind in the middle of the road. They reluctantly decide to do the right thing and bring her home, but obviously this is just the girl's routine to lure unsuspecting people to her remote backwoods house and meet up with the rest of the deranged homicidal family. The head of the family, Mother Darah, seemingly found the secret to eternal youth but petrifies with her sinister stare and asocial behavior. The guests are brutally tortured and slaughtered one by one and for no apparent reason, except maybe mother Darah's unusual interest in Astrid's unborn baby…The roughest thing about "Macabre" is the film's stoic and agonizing ambiance. Some of the characters honestly didn't deserve to die, or at least not as barbaric as displayed on the screen. But that's genuine horror, I acknowledge. Together with the ambiance, the biggest quality of the film is Shareefa Daanish's downright terrifying performance as Mother Darah. The poster of the film is simply a portrait of Darah, wearing a blood red dress and staring straight into the camera with a fork in her hand, but it's one of the most effectively unsettling horror movie posters I've seen in a long time. Well, together with the poster for "Orphan", which pretty much looks exactly the same. "Macabre" is unoriginal, occasionally a bit slow (especially in the beginning) and leaves an overall unpleasant aftertaste in your mouth, but in case you're looking for an old-fashioned Grand-Guignol accomplishment that truly repels and shocks, this is it!

louos I had the opportunity to watch the screening last night and wasn't expecting much.The plot review I had read on Yahoo Movies wasn't really anything new, the lead actress looked like a drag queen in need of a chin on the poster (even folks who passed by the poster was overheard asking if it was a man in drag) and you know it's not good when you have a movie marketed as a horror film yet find audiences laughing when folks get mutilated, or terrorized.I found myself annoyed when the victims writhe in horror when confronted with the killer. In reality, would anyone scream and writhe in apparent agony when the killer has done nothing to you but just stand there? This movie has a lot of the cliché stuff abundance in horror movies of the 80's where someone sees her friend being killed in front of her eyes and she does nothing but whimper and slow mo her way to the nearest door.The victims are portrayed as dimwits who when given an opportunity to escape, simply returns back for more; or with so much abundance of weaponry in the house, only walks through it (blood and all) yelling out to their compadres, hoping that their friends will hear them, as well as the killers.The portrayal of Darah would be so much creepier if she had not had that wig and perfect make-up on. The directors were hoping that Darah's signature cocking of head to one side while speaking in a monotonous voice would stick with audience. It sure stuck but for the wrong reasons because after the movie I found many people mimicking her to great hilarity. Basically every villain in this movie is too coiffed and good looking, even the fat guy! If they were living in a wooded area away from civilization, would they actually look like models? The movie also does not seem to know what it wants to be. Coming into the cinema, I was expecting a supernatural horror - it went from supernatural to natural to comedy and then to downright Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The mix in genre may be welcomed but it has to be smooth, not pop an overweight cop in the middle of the show and have him juggle.That being said, the director's eye was impressive and some of the cinematography were unusual. It is just the script and make-up that needs to be thought through more thoroughly than just "let's have her do this so we can end up doing that". Think international but more precisely think how YOU would be scared before making a movie that is supposed to scare others.