‘Dancing Village: The Curse Begins’ Review

Kimo Stamboel’s influence on Indonesia’s 2000s-and-beyondhorror boom cannot be understated, but Dancing Village: The Curse Begins hardly reflects his talents seen in everything from Macabre to The Queen of Black Magic. Those movies Stamboel co-created alongside Timo Tjahjanto as the “Mo Brothers” pushed boundaries, whereas Dancing Village: The Curse Begins feels mechanical and studio-safe. That tracks, since Stamboel’s latest is an adaptation of the novel “KKN di Desa Penari” written by SimpleMan (based on a viral tweet thread) that also serves as a prequel to 2022’s feature film KKN di Desa Penari: the highest-grossing film in Indonesian history. Dancing Village: The Curse Begins feels like Stamboel is sleepwalking through studio mandates, a shell of the maverick horror filmmaker responsible for ruthless flicks like Killers or 2019’s video game adaptation DreadOut (yet to see US distribution).

The prequel revolves around a desperate young woman named Mila (Maudy Effrosina). Her mother — Inggri (Maryam Supraba) — lies catatonic in bed, suffering from an unknown affliction. A visiting shaman instructs Mila to return a mystical bracelet to a village on the easternmost tip of Java island. Mila, her cousin Yuda (Jourdy Pranata), and two friends reach the “Dancing Village” as instructed, but instead of finding the territory’s noble guardian, they encounter the feared hip-shaking entity Badarawuhi (Aulia Sarah).

Dancing Village: The Curse Begins translates traditional Indonesian culture into horror-focused storytelling like Joko Anwar’s Impetigore or elsewhere in Banjong Pisanthanakun’s brilliant Thai-South Korean mockumentary The Medium. Stamboel channels Indonesian beliefs and folklore through Mila’s journey, treating the tale like a dark fable set in a jungle community that lives off the land. Scenes provide windows into Jakartan lifestyles and trace lineages from newer generations like Mila back to villages where grandmothers reside as wise elders, but not with enough engagement. Impetigore and The Medium balance frightfully haunted elements with viewpoints rooted in cultural significance (new or old), the opposite of Stamboel’s predictably supernatural and sheepishly terrifying production.

‘Dancing Village: The Curse Begins’ Is a Horror Movie With Poor Pacing

The pacing is like trudging through molasses, taking forever to execute the most basic depiction of what we presume will occur. An introductory explainer starts in the 1950s with a ritual dance sequence in which a girl is given a golden bangle and told to run away. Mila’s story then flashes to 1980, where she’s in possession of the same bangle. Badarawuhi is a radiating goddess-dressed being in both realities, showing no signs of aging, so assumptions of deity-like attributes are correct. Stamboel is painting by numbers through Mila’s confrontations with evil, but his brushstrokes are in the slowest motions. He tries to bring rhythmic elegance and dramatic emotionality to an overarching narrative about a cursed village, narrative vapors that are like inhaling anesthetics.

Nastier horror elements are reserved for a few choice scares, but Lele Laila’s overwritten screenplay drowns out these spikes of excitement. Dancing Village: The Curse Begins is indeed about a village that must sacrifice unlucky souls to Badarawuhi, where they’re destined to boogie forever in a sacred realm. Shades of Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria remake get an Indonesian spin, as Badarawuhi selects her sacrifices while they follow choreographed routines amidst a circle of maniacally chanting villagers.

Stamboel does his best to conjure ghoulish traits in these sequences — eyes turn milky white as the girls enter Badarawuhi’s domain — but it’s nowhere near enthralling enough in terms of payoff. Exposition dumps overload filler interludes, and what’s meant to spike adrenaline barely registers a whimper. It’s so much movie with such little spectacularity.

The Visuals of ‘Dancing Village: The Curse Begins’ Are a High Point

Dancing Village: The Curse Begins earns its highest visual marks when Stamboel resembles his usual self. Once or twice, the production ramps horror thrills when a character tears rotten flesh from their cheeks in a possessed frenzy that upticks energies ever so slightly. Stamboel isn’t lunging for the jugular here, but it’s what the film desperately needs. Badarawuhi’s “dance of death” stranglehold may exhibit beautiful cinematography as a mass of women writhes and screeches in almost a hivemind unison. Still, it’s underwhelming given how mercilessly generic and limp the preceding acts manage to be.

It’s a shame, but Dancing Village: The Curse Begins is a prequel that spends way too long busting the same moves horror fans have witnessed for decades. Stamboel’s direction lacks urgency, alarm, and invigoration. Pools filled with slithering serpents and brief yet aggravated hauntings remind us what Stamboel is usually capable of, but his overall execution reads as factory-assembled otherwise. If you haven’t feasted on Indonesia’s bounty of recent horror releases, don’t start here. Dancing Village: The Curse Begins is like elevator music in comparison.

Dancing Village: The Curse Begins (2024)

REVIEW

Dancing Village: The Curse Begins has some strong visual moments though still falls far short of its potential.

Pros

• When thrills reach a maximum, they?re solid.
• The dance numbers offer a different kind of tension than horror fans might be used to.
• Strong cinematography keeps camerawork at a premium.

Cons

• It?s so, so, so, so sluggish.
• Supporting characters barely feel necessary on the screen.
• Where?s the vigorous horror that we?re used to from Stamboel?

Dancing Village: The Curse Begins is now playing in theaters in the U.S. Click below for showtimes near you.

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