39/17
Followed by Lembang Wingit 2: Miss K (2024)
Plot
Raina’s life was threatened when she opened the door and entered an unnumbered room in the hotel run by her sister Fey. The white-haired, white-skinned woman also made her presence known. Based on the true story of a haunted hotel in Semarang with the initial “S”. I had never heard of this 2023 Indonesian supernatural horror film titled “Panggonan Wingit”.
Screenwriter Riheam Junianti has put together a pretty fair script
(aka “The Haunted Hotel”), I sat down to watch it here in 2024 because I had the chance to. And given my lifelong love of the horror genre and Asian films, I of course needed no persuasion to sit down and watch this film. It was certainly entertaining, but at the same time, author Riheam Junianti took advantage of a lot of stereotypical horror imagery that kind of made some of the characteristics of “Panggonan Wingit”; a bit mundane and commonplace. I’m not saying it’s a bad movie, far from it, because I really loved the story and I’m sure newcomers to the horror genre will enjoy watching this movie.
However, I will say that the acting in the movie was good
However, as a lifelong horror fan, I found the movie to be good, but not impressive. Considering my relatively short exposure to Indonesian cinema, I was only familiar with the lead actress in this movie, Luna Maya. Actor Egy Fedly, who plays the spiritualist Ki Danang, was really well cast in his role as he gave a very memorable and convincing performance. There’s quite a bit of gore and visual mayhem without being overwhelming.
I liked the film’s special effects, props, sets, and wardrobe
So director Guntur Soeharjanto has managed to take something that was used sparingly and make it into something good. At 110 minutes, the film could have perhaps benefited from a little more editing room. It’s worth sitting down to watch if you like horror and the Asian genre, of course. But it’s not a film that deserves more than one viewing.