Macabre

I have discovered a new horror gem. A sophisticated Indonesian slasher with influences and elements including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Macabre is a gruesome tale about a group of normal adults that get invited towards a cannibalistic family, unknowingly of their intentions.

Also known as Rumah Darah, the buildup towards the main event is effectively introducing us towards the group, which consists of a married couple with the wife being pregnant, 3 male friends and the husband's sister.

The latter must first be convinced to wave goodbye to the couple(who are traveling to Sydney), but thanks to a conflict happening at the bar she works in, apparently she needs to recover from this, and thus she goes along.

Before continueing on the road, they pick up a stranger, Maya, who thanks them for the ride and invites them to meet her mother. The way this buildup plays up until the dinner scene is portrayed naturally, with no acting hiccups being visible for me, even if it's foreign.

The way the group gets separated from each other is not only because of a drug found in their human meat meals(and possibly blood wine), but the married couple wanted to discuss about the sister's future, so they where sent to the guest room upstairs.

Soon after the rest of the group is drugged and fallen asleep, the main event can begin. Macabre is soaring with bloody disgusting shots of decapitations and slashings. The gore flows through the villa where almost everyone dies at the end, and the body count is high.

Aside from being cannibalists, the family also works together with a secret society that has the ambitious goal of becoming immortal. I am not familiar with Indonesian cults, so indulge me about details.

Even when a cop force arrives that picked up one of the victims on the road does this massacre not end, on the contrary, the whole force gets slaughtered alongside the remaining group by the family members, consisting of mother, daughter, son and butcher/pervert son.

It's easy to say that acting, directing, cinematography or other cinematic terms are inferior in the horror genre. These excuses however do not apply here, for the characters all appeared human with the exception of the mother character perhaps for surviving a bit too much coming after her.

The cop force may have acted not smart, but they didn't look that professional either from appearances, so I can forgive how they reacted towards the madness coming after them. This family sure knows how to operate.

If you liked the French wave of horror from the late twenty zeroes, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or any gory horror, for this one is very nasty, without further ado, go see Macabre immediately, because this Indonesian horror deserves more attention from the target audience.

Rating: 7.5