However you review movies, whether in writing or on video, or even just in conversations with friends, you are never just reviewing movies. You are also reviewing context, whether just focusing on what is onscreen or exploring what is outwith the movie that informs it, from the perspective of both yourself and the movie. It is why I continue to hate the likes of Rotten Tomatoes, as well as other trends that encourage people toward the binary, as opposed to anything with nuance.
This is all a lead up to telling you that I am very much aware that I may not be the best person to review Pabrik Gula, but I am going to give it a go nonetheless. While I have seen, and enjoyed, some other Indonesian horrors, the third act of this one felt particularly infused by a culture I am not very familiar with.
The starting point for the plot is simple. A group of people head off to work in a remote sugar factory for a while. They will stay on site, making some decent money for working hard. Hendra (Bukie B. Mansyur) and Wati (Wavi Zihan) hope the time will give them a strong foundation for their upcoming marriage. The others in the group want to make money while in the company of friends. It's not long until all of them are affected by supernatural happenings at the mill, with a presence there agitated by certain perceived transgressions by some of the workers.
Based (depressingly enough) on viral online tales by someone credited as SimpleMan, Sugar Mill has a screenplay from Lela Laila and direction from Awi Suryadi. I have seen at least one other Suryadi film (the disappointing Perewangan, also based on an online thread), but I am happy to say that this is much better than that outing. If you were also disappointed by Perewangan then I encourage you to still give this one a go. Suryadi does a much better job here of getting the basics right, delivering a number of fun scare moments that wouldn't seem out of place in some of the major mainstream horror movie hits of the past decade.
This is a film dripping with an impressive amount of atmosphere, almost every scene softened by low lighting and plentiful shadows, but with no detail lost (props to cinematographer Arfian for the gorgeous work here). It feels at times as if you're watching everything viewed through the eye-holes of a carved Halloween pumpkin, I don't know how else to quite describe it, and it's hugely satisfying to somehow feel both the warm glow of the bulbs and fires and the cold chill of the malevolence seeking to torment the main characters.
While I have nothing bad to say about Mansyur or Zihan, nor anything bad to say about Ersya Aurelia, Arbani Yasiz, Erika Carlina, Benedictus Siregar, Arif Alfiansyah, Yono Bakriem Azeka Putri, Budi Ros, and Dewi Pakis, I cannot say that I was interested in any one individual more than I was interested in seeing how the group dealt with everything that was happening. Different people have different roles (there are a few people here for comic relief, there are elders with a bit more wisdom, etc), but the characters essentially boil down to those who are living humans and those who are dark and demonic entities.
I enjoyed Pabrik Gula quite a bit, even if the third act felt a bit overlong, and a step down from the stronger middle section. I cannot tell how others will react to it though. Some may like it even more than I did, especially if they identify with the cultural attitudes and commentary underpinning the scares. Some may consider it a pale wannabe Wan-iverse imitator (a Wannabe, if you will). All I can do is recommend it, but with enough context for you to have some idea of what you're getting into.
7/10
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