Karak – Review

Four students are heading back to their college in Kuantan, after a night out in Kuala Lumpur, when they encounter massive traffic on the Karak highway. In an attempt to make it back in time for their classes in the morning, they decide to exit the highway and take an alternative route back to Kuantan via the old single carriageway trunk road…. not knowing that this decision would change their lives forever. Sounds cliche right? Well, it isn’t what you think it is and that has to do mainly with the fact that horror films from Malaysia don’t get much play or exposure. It is definitely something different for fans of the genre. I didn’t expect much but I got what I saw, and to me, it was almost a comedy mixed into a wannabe horror flick. Many of the scenes are too simplistic or illogical that maybe logic does not even exist in their world. Prior to watching this film I didn’t even know about Karak or its existence. Apparantely, there are plenty of real-life urban legends and ghostly stories associated with the back roads of Karak.

In short, this isn’t a ground breaking film yet in Malaysia, as long as it is a horror movie, it will rake in alot of money. The opening scene with the flying creature eating the husband was good and creepy and scary. Dare I say it, right up there with the murder of Drew Barrymore in Scream. I really like the small details that they had with the main ghost in the movie, the one with the long hair and can levitate herself. If you had been watching closely to the face of the ghost, it changes alternately from a hideous ghost to the looks of a woman, maybe portraying the looks of its previous master. This film works on multiple levels because it is tied in with real life myths. Although, not the scariest film, it does make for unsettling feelings because you can always ‘google’ these real life occurances and stories.

As a Malaysian ghost movie, I can say this is one of the best. But whether it will be Malaysia’s best films this year, well, I do not think so. The first 1/3 of the movie is really good and would satisfy horror movie fans. The rest of the movie? Just leave logic and brain at the door and enjoy. There are also some verses in this film that makes the audience laughed uproariously (I watched a cam version of the film) and it really took the serious tone away from what the filmmakers were trying to achieve. So to conclude, you should have a pretty good idea whether or not this film will be up your alley. In terms of travel and the arrangement of the story, it is very good but the execution is a bit off and the humor really bogs down the horror aspects.

The scene really set the expectations in my mind about the movie. And when they stopped at Karak town, the mood from the opener was still strong and the scare/horror kept on coming. Although I do detest the usage of loud music just to scare people or make them jump, there were genuine scares and horror abound. In my book that evens things out but the lowest point of the film is this will never see the light of day stateside, so please go out on the web and track it down. Films like this need buzz to generate interest overseas and this is definitely a film that I can support as it delivers a new direction of genre blending horror films. There are suggestions of ambition, of a desire to infuse the characters with greater control of their own destiny, but in the end, this film doesn’t move any mountains.