The Draft (Setan Alas!)

A Fairly mundane start with five college friends off into the jungles of Indonesia spend the weekend at a villa next to, a Dutch graveyard.

At the location, the find that it’s a bit rundown but fine for them. It’s manged by Uncle Dadang (Ernanta Kusuma), who is an amiably strange character. He shows them around including, a locked room.

This has some significance as the five have been bantering about ghosts and horror films with the nerdy one Amir (Winner Wijaya) all the while recording them a la, found footage.

Off to bed and the next morning they find Budi (Haydar Salishz) stabbed and girlfriend Ani (Putri Anggie) with no idea what happened, and she was in the room with him. Looking for Uncle they find that he too is dead. Having had enough the rest of group including Wati (Anastasia Herzigova) decide to leave. But the car’s tyres are flat. For the near panicking group that’s no obstacle, they drive on flat tyres until the come to a cliff that has just appeared. Nerdy Amir now comes up with a theory of what is going on.

Director Yusron Fuadi and co-writers Richard James Halstead and B.W. Purba Negara know their horror and specifically Indonesian horror, of which this is something of a spoof although there’s much more to it. Luckily, what appears to be a lot cliches and character tropes in Indonesian horror are present in western, and probably other culture films so that it shouldn’t be totally alien to non-Indonesian audiences.

Technically it was done on the cheap and it certainly looks rough and ready. But as the film progresses and it becomes clearer what is going on I did detect an improvement in that particular area. The actors play to their character’s cliches and are fine in an amdram way.

The Draft however is about the writing and while appearing deceptively simple, is tight and excellent throughout. There’s a trace of satire which is at times quite funny if you are privy to the in-jokes both Indonesian and beyond.

The draft had its UK premiere at Halloween FrightFest 2024.