Six seemingly random people are invited to an exclusive Halloween party where they have a chance to win a large cash prize. On arrival, they’re told they have to play a game to find some clues in order to win.
But while they are hunting for clues, a human sized puppet is hunting them - killing them one by one. Does the puppet have a reason for all this carnage, or is it just a psycho with a killing kink?
Hands up who doesn’t love a good slasher? Especially when that slasher movie features such a ridiculous looking killer - it reminds me so much of the Japanese movie Horror Doll (or The Japanese Doll) and the Thai film Night of the Killer Bears. In fact, this movie is very similar to those films in where they share an almost identical plot as well.
It’s unfortunate that this movie is so incredibly difficult to find, because I think most people who would potentially want to watch this would very much enjoy it. It’s super low budget, cheesy and very familiar, but that doesn’t mean you won’t have fun with it.
This movie has a bit of a history as well. Initially produced as a movie, it was then cut up as a mini-series and broadcast on an Indonesian VOD platform for a short period of time. This explains why the movie seems to climax every 30 minutes and why the middle third of the movie is the most action packed, while the final third is an entire explanation of what happened.
The version I’ve seen is a special recompiled cut of what the movie would have originally been. And quite frankly, I think it works really well! Bearing in mind that the movie wears its low budget on its sleeve proudly.
This means most of the kills occur just off screen or are bloodless. When there is blood, it’s clear that its red water designed to be cleaned easily after the production has wrapped up. Additionally, damage is another way to gauge a movie’s budget, and in a scene where the doll has to smash the window of a car, it’s cleverly filmed and edited to show no actual damage done.
It also means we get creative special effects such as when a car runs over a person, its clear that two separate shots have been blended together to create the final scene. It’s clever and I can’t fault for the movie for resorting to tried and true, classic visual effects to achieve their goal. Well done team!
In regard to the film itself, as I mentioned there is nothing new or original here unless you factor in that the ending was different to how movies like this usually end. Also, the twist on who is in the doll costume was not what I was expecting - this movie asuccessfully created a red herring that tricked me! I am not afraid to admit that.
The movie excels with the visual design, which is where a lot of love and attention went. It definitely didn’t go into the audio with lots of dropouts, poor recording leveling and obvious scenes without a microphone. Fans of Indonesian ghosts and spirits will recognise some of the outfits like a Kuntilanak and a Pocong!
It’s a real shame this is not an easy movie to find. Because I really think you’ll have fun with it if silly slasher films where an oversized felt doll is the killer if your kind of jam.
GENRE Horror Thriller
DIRECTOR Peppi Piona
STARRING Dafina Jamasir, Ichal Muhammad, Fenny Wijaya
ORIGINAL TITLE 31
ALTERNATIVE TITLE 31
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN Indonesia
RELEASE DATE 31 October 2019
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