Susuk review.
Netflix brings us an Indonesian horror movie that tries to pretty up the possession story.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Susuk
Directed by Ginanti Rona
Written by Husein M. Atmodjo
Starring Hana Malasan, Ersya Aurelia, Jourdy Pranata, Whani Darmawan, Eland El Gibran, Muhammad Khan and Izabel Jahja
Susuk Review
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what susuk was. Not the movie…the word. It translates to “implant”. In fact, the original title of the film is Susuk: Kutukan Kecantikan which translates to Implant: The Curse of Beauty. That title makes a bit more sense. But it didn’t stop me from spending a good deal of time trying to figure out what all this “susuk” was that people were talking about. I knew people hated it. I knew it had something to do with beauty. It wasn’t until embarrassingly late in the story that I discovered it involves charm needles implanted in people’s bodies to make them look more attractive. The belief that the movie Susuk builds from is that these implants involve black magic. For the purposes of this story…just take it to mean “possessed”.
Laras (Hana Malasan) is a call girl. When she attempts to break things off with one of her powerful clients…she is attacked and left for dead. Her estranged sister Ayu (Ersya Aurelia) tries to get her the help she needs. When money runs tight, and the doctors run low on answers…she returns to her family home with Laras to seek out alternative treatment. The local shaman Ayu recruits to heal her sister offers a grave warning…and dies the next day. This isn’t a simple coma.
I’m going to get the two major issues with Susuk out of the way immediately. First, the movie is slow with a capital slow. Once Ayu brings Laras home…there isn’t a whole lot going on. Ayu is there with Laras’ friend Arman (Jourdy Pranata). He’s the only person in Laras’ life that cares for her. Neither has any idea how to help Laras…and they spend a lot of time sitting around waiting for something to happen. They bring in a couple people who they think can help…but that is about as much traction as the story gets for a long time.
The movie adds in some outside factors to try and give the story some life…but they feel like an afterthought. Tacked on so that something is happening somewhere. Though, to be fair, those aspects do eventually play into the third act. There are family secrets that Ayu will learn over the course of Susuk that are somewhat interesting. A violent person from Laras’ past is also on hand to whip their village into an angry frenzy. Even when these things become intertwined with the main plot…they fail to feel totally necessary.
Second, Susuk is an incredibly dark movie. I don’t mean in content…I mean in how the picture is lit. When nighttime rolls around you’ll have to adjust the settings on your television to make out what’s happening. Which, again, usually isn’t much. The climax of the movie takes place in near total darkness. When the people within that darkness are properly lit…the scenes look tremendous. When they aren’t…you’re pretty much just staring at a black screen.
With that out of the way…there are positives to discuss in Susuk. When it commits to being a movie about possession…it does find new things to bring to the table. For starters, the exorcism scenes here are something completely fresh. We’ve talked about enough possession movies to know that is a rare thing. Susuk becomes a fun (and bloody) movie by the end. In fact, kept strictly to Laras’ susuk induced possession…there’s even more to enjoy. While it is slow moving…there are some interesting ideas thrown into Laras’ situation from the moment she is declared dead (then violently shakes awake) through her attempted exorcism.
Since Laras is confined to a bed for most of Susuk…her sister Ayu becomes the lead of the film. Ersya Aurelia is fantastic as Ayu. She deals with regrets over her relationship with her sister, fear of what’s happening and the shock of personal revelations over the course of the story. Aurelia plays everything in a grounded and realistic way amidst her suddenly supernatural surroundings. She makes Ayu a quietly strong character who faces her fears with confidence.
Everything comes back to the susuk. As mentioned, it’s easier to look at the practice as a demon. In the end…that’s how it acts and the attempts to “remove” it from Laras’ body play out exactly like exorcising a demon would anyway. It takes over her body…it just does so in a more stagnant way than we are accustomed to. In fact, it feels like the only reason the story turns to this practice instead of a standard possession is so it can more easily connect to things that Ayu learns about the family’s history. It deserves credit for putting real effort into presenting something new in the subgenre. It just could have used a few injections of excitement.
Scare Value
Possession stories can be tough. We’ve seen it all before. No one has done it better than The Exorcist in the 50 years since its release. Susuk adds in family secrets and an angry village. They mostly feel tacked on to give the movie something to talk about. While traditional customs and beliefs are a welcome addition to any movie…this one ends up playing out too slowly to fully grab you.
2.5/5
Susuk Link
Streaming on Netflix
