HORROR, DEPENDS ON THE WAY WE WERE BROUGHT UP (?)
Banda Aceh, 1 April 2007
One of the biggest newspapers in Indonesia published a review on the wave of the horror movies that are favored by moviegoers recently. More interesting it becomes, as my partner even had a scenario order from some best directors to write horror script. When I question his idealism, the answer was classic, because of the market demand. The conversation ended up by me sighing for being disappointed on how market has violated one’s idealism.
Sitting here, in the balcony of my house, I’m trying to figure out what is exactly horror like. From the point of view of the region where I am based now, it means coming back to the conflict era, where bullets could pass in front of them. So horror is like having been able to survive from death caused by other human beings. Or, horror is like trying to survive from the tidal wave of tsunami that hit the region end of 2004 after Christmas Eve. Even, it remains horror for the survivors. So, they do not need more ghost to be scared of.
Luckily, the answer can be gotten by being defensive, saying that our country is brought up by the involvement of the mystical idealism. Every time I travel, there is always mystical story in one tourism site throughout the country. In Java, for example, where the mystical city of Yogyakarta is located, we will always remember the story of the Queen of the South Sea that really influences the live of the Yogyakartans. My journalist colleague from France even visited the region to search specifically on the story. Even though Pramudya once tells the story behind the believe in one of his books whose title I cannot remember, saying that the Queen myth was created by the Dutch who would like to scare the Javanese so that the Dutch could defeat the Kingdom, we still can find how people still hesitate to not believing it. Even my mother, a pure Javanese lady, who went to Saudi Arabia for Haj pilgrimage won’t dare to question about the existence of the Queen. In other word, she has no comment.
Or, when the Merapi erupted in May 2006, people cared less about the scientific review on Merapi prediction of the famous vulcanologist, Ratdomo Purbo. Instead they queued in front of the Maridjan;s house, the Merapi’s guardian to ask about his opinion on when the eruption would start. Interestingly, not only local and national journalists waited patiently for Maridjan to appear in his modess house’s terrace, but my friend, Sebastien of The Daily Telegraf, one of the biggest newspapers in England would not move and leave Maridjan’s front yard without having his interview with Maridjan recorded. I don’t know why the Telegraf was interested in his story, but I linked the interest with the believe of the British on the Jack the Ripper story causing the myth of the famous London Bridge.
In Jakarta, it is a different story. When Jakartans visit the Fatahillah Museum in Kota area, majority of them would say how they could feel the presence of the ghost. When asked on how would they know, they said that they do not know exactly how they know, but they just feel it because they had a goose bump. Well, sometimes I could have a goose bump also when I would like to wee but no toilet is available.
So, back to horror movies. When I watched Pocong 2 the first Indonesian scary movie I had ever watched, I smiled at the audience who screamed for the creature wrapped in white cloth. But the smile did not continue as I myself screamed and had the goose bump. On the other side of the row, a man screamed all the time even without any white cloth ghost appearance, whose behavior annoyed me as I started to concentrate on the story. But, overall, the faces of the scary moviegoers could tell how they enjoyed being terrified, including me.
The conclusion is the same with how I start the article. For festival-type kind of moviegoers, it is disappointing to see how market seems to favor the ghost and no long ticket queue for other types of Indonesian movies. But again, it is the market. All is about business and the smartness of filmmakers in reading and responding the market. And all is about the believes that have been surrounding us since we are all small. Copying my colleague who comes from the city of Jack the Ripper and who said once to me that the behavior of people “depended on the way that we were brought up” could also be made as an additional justification.
One of the biggest newspapers in Indonesia published a review on the wave of the horror movies that are favored by moviegoers recently. More interesting it becomes, as my partner even had a scenario order from some best directors to write horror script. When I question his idealism, the answer was classic, because of the market demand. The conversation ended up by me sighing for being disappointed on how market has violated one’s idealism.
Sitting here, in the balcony of my house, I’m trying to figure out what is exactly horror like. From the point of view of the region where I am based now, it means coming back to the conflict era, where bullets could pass in front of them. So horror is like having been able to survive from death caused by other human beings. Or, horror is like trying to survive from the tidal wave of tsunami that hit the region end of 2004 after Christmas Eve. Even, it remains horror for the survivors. So, they do not need more ghost to be scared of.
Luckily, the answer can be gotten by being defensive, saying that our country is brought up by the involvement of the mystical idealism. Every time I travel, there is always mystical story in one tourism site throughout the country. In Java, for example, where the mystical city of Yogyakarta is located, we will always remember the story of the Queen of the South Sea that really influences the live of the Yogyakartans. My journalist colleague from France even visited the region to search specifically on the story. Even though Pramudya once tells the story behind the believe in one of his books whose title I cannot remember, saying that the Queen myth was created by the Dutch who would like to scare the Javanese so that the Dutch could defeat the Kingdom, we still can find how people still hesitate to not believing it. Even my mother, a pure Javanese lady, who went to Saudi Arabia for Haj pilgrimage won’t dare to question about the existence of the Queen. In other word, she has no comment.
Or, when the Merapi erupted in May 2006, people cared less about the scientific review on Merapi prediction of the famous vulcanologist, Ratdomo Purbo. Instead they queued in front of the Maridjan;s house, the Merapi’s guardian to ask about his opinion on when the eruption would start. Interestingly, not only local and national journalists waited patiently for Maridjan to appear in his modess house’s terrace, but my friend, Sebastien of The Daily Telegraf, one of the biggest newspapers in England would not move and leave Maridjan’s front yard without having his interview with Maridjan recorded. I don’t know why the Telegraf was interested in his story, but I linked the interest with the believe of the British on the Jack the Ripper story causing the myth of the famous London Bridge.
In Jakarta, it is a different story. When Jakartans visit the Fatahillah Museum in Kota area, majority of them would say how they could feel the presence of the ghost. When asked on how would they know, they said that they do not know exactly how they know, but they just feel it because they had a goose bump. Well, sometimes I could have a goose bump also when I would like to wee but no toilet is available.
So, back to horror movies. When I watched Pocong 2 the first Indonesian scary movie I had ever watched, I smiled at the audience who screamed for the creature wrapped in white cloth. But the smile did not continue as I myself screamed and had the goose bump. On the other side of the row, a man screamed all the time even without any white cloth ghost appearance, whose behavior annoyed me as I started to concentrate on the story. But, overall, the faces of the scary moviegoers could tell how they enjoyed being terrified, including me.
The conclusion is the same with how I start the article. For festival-type kind of moviegoers, it is disappointing to see how market seems to favor the ghost and no long ticket queue for other types of Indonesian movies. But again, it is the market. All is about business and the smartness of filmmakers in reading and responding the market. And all is about the believes that have been surrounding us since we are all small. Copying my colleague who comes from the city of Jack the Ripper and who said once to me that the behavior of people “depended on the way that we were brought up” could also be made as an additional justification.
posted by Handewi Soegiharto at 8:22 PM
