Dancing Village: The Curse Begins — Kimo Stamboel
Instead of relying on jumping out of closets and dark rooms to generate one-second bodily reactions, The Curse Begins funneled its horror through the horrible realization that one day, if you aren’t already, you too will grow old and decrepit.
Money speaks everywhere in the world and in all creative industries, so Dancing Village: The Curse Begins comes as no surprise following KKN di Desa Penari, the highest-grossing film in Indonesian history. Knowledge of the former is not necessary to understand the latter (enjoyment is another story). Based on SimpleMan’s novel KKN di Desa Penari, which began as a Twitter thread, little distinguishes The Curse Begins from the bulk of Hollywood horror beyond its East Java setting. A threatening supernatural being inflicts multi-generational trauma on a small community, a relic has been taken that needs returned, and only a shamanistic religious ritual can counter the infliction. If that description sounds familiar, that’s because the same approximate logline could represent roughly half of the modern horror genre, and its commerciality will ensure the trend stays around for some time longer.
Mila’s (Maudy Effrosina) mother is dying, and the local shaman instructs her and her cousin Yuda (Jourdy Pranata) to return a stolen bangle to a village in the far east of Java to renew her mother’s strength. They waste no time searching for this place, bringing along their friends Jito (M. Iqbal Sulaiman) and Arya (Ardit Erwandha). They soon find a village, known for their dancers, deep in the forest and in semi-isolation from neighboring communities. Local woman Ratih (Claresta Taufan Kusumarina) opens her home to Mila, and the two bond over the identical decay of their mothers. But as Mila quickly discovers, things are more complicated than simply returning the bangle, and Badarawuhi (Aulia Sarah) now haunts her.
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