Review: Legend of Gatotakaca

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2023
Images from the Internet

Legend of Gatotakaca (aka Satria Dewa: Gatotakaca)

Directed by Hanung Bramantyo
Horizon Film Entertainment; Netflix; Lumine Studio;
Satreia Dewa Studio; Well Go USA Entertainment; Hi-YAH!
129 minutes, 2022 / 2023
www.instagram.com/gatotkaca_official/?hl=en
https://wellgousa.com/films/legend-gatotkaca
www.hiyahtv.com
#LegendOfGatotakaca @WellGoUSA

When I see a name of a release or character like this, I tend to run it through Wikipedia. From this, I learned that, in Indonesia, where this film originated (abbreviated quote): “Ghatotkacha (Sanskrit for "Bald Pot") is a prominent character in the story of Mahabharata. He was important fighter in the Kurukshetra war and caused a great deal of destruction and killed many demons.” He has been the subject of many films, mostly out of India.

The "real" Ghatotkacha 

The name may not roll off the English tongue very easily, but he is a warrior hero. In the action-filled prologue, we are introduced to the child Yuda, who is sought by a band of assassins. Their purpose it to find an heirloom with mystical powers, a medallion called Brajamusti.

To be honest, I am not familiar with the Indonesian god-myth culture, nor their ancient literature, such as the referenced Mahabharata (~400 BCE-400 CE) here, in a similar way they may not be familiar with, say, Beowulf (~1000 CE), Grimm’s Fairy Tales (1812), or the ancient mythological pantheon of gods of Greece, Rome, or Scandinavia (Odin, Thor, etc.). It might be good to either have Wikipedia open to throw in some of the names or terms, or just say screw it and enjoy it as it lays, as one would with the Dynasty days films of the Shaw Brothers.

After the prologue, we focus on now college student Yuda (Rizky Nazar). His mother Animbi (Sigi Wimala) is suffering from memory loss, his father Pandega (Cecep Arif Raham , from John Wick Chapter 3), disappears at the beginning, and whose best pal (Jerome Kurnia) is assassinated by a masked man with superpowers during college graduation. Yudi knowing Silat (Indonesian martial arts) does not help. Yet.

Through a learned source, Arya Laksana (Edward Akbar) and his daughter, obvious love interest Agni (Yasmin Napper), Yudi learns that the gods of the Mahabharata are real, residing in the home of the gods, Kadewatan, where Lord Shiva (aka Batara Guru rules); think Asgard and Odin. In fact, it may be helpful to imagine this is part of the Indonesia version of the Marvel Universe (MCU). The stories of Dr. Donald Blake becoming Thor after finding his source of power, his hammer Mjölnir, in a cave. I realize that the story may sound complex, but even if you don’t know the fictional characters, the storyline is quite easy to follow. For example, if you were to sit down and watch any of the MCU films, you can mostly follow along even if you have never picked up a comic book. Going forward, I will use the MCU and DC Universe (DCU) myths equivalency in brackets.

The two gods in question in this story are Pandava [Thor], and his descendants who use their power for good, and his rival Kaurava [Loki] and his lineage, who use it for, well, you know. So the Pandava group [Justise League], such as archer Dananjaya (Omar Daniel) [Green Arrow] and young Gege (scene stealer Ali Fikry) are under threat of the Kaurava one [The Legion of Doom], to restore to power an evil upper echelon god, Aswatama via his masked and his mysterious cowled underling with superpowers to steal souls [Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader] and bring the coming of the evil gods, which is scheduled for (wait for it) 2023. Mr. Cowl is helped by Beceng (Yayan Ruhian, who was in John Wick Chapter 3:and Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens). There is a lot of exposition given to the viewer throughout.

Of course, the sworn enemy to stop this is…good guy Gatotkacha. And who is the reincarnation of said Gatotkacha who will emerge with the help of the medallion? Pretty obvious. And that is when the action really picks up. There are some good fights in the early part of the film (including some wire work), but it is also filled with lots of talking, to explain what is going on to the uninformed watching it (e.g., me).

Agni is being pursed by marriage by bully Nathan (Axel Matthew Thomas). I can see where this is going as the lamb’s blood on a door frame. Same to be said about who is the unknown “Vader” villain. Through most of this, the medallion’s powers are minimal, post-human rather than superhuman, until the final fight.

There are lots of reflections on other films than the three I mentioned. For example, there is a bit of The Power Rangers, Mortal Kombat, and even Shazam!, thanks to the medallion.

The film is enjoyable but has three issues: first, if a bit hard to follow at times; second, they try to put too much into one film (the MCU and DCU 3-hour mega-extravaganzas tend to do this a lot), but the weakest link is its length. It does not need to be this long, nor complex. As I said, it is easy to view it for what it is and leave it at that. I mean, I did not read the Lord of the Rings books (never made it past page 25 in the first one), and it was also overcomplex, yet I enjoyed the films for what they presented. If one just goes to see it as an action film, well, there is plenty of that, along with mucho exposition and talking. I believe that perhaps maybe even the younger Indonesians may not know the legends well, and that is part of why it is so wordy with explanations.

Who the masked, unnamed villain is, came as no surprise to me as I figured it out early on. And, of course, it is setting up for either a sequel or a franchise. Understandable.

The film debuts exclusively on the martial arts streaming service Hi-YAH!, before landing on Digital, and Blu-ray.

IMDB listing HERE

Review: Feed the Gods

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2021
Images from the Internet

Feed the Gods
Directed by Braden Croft
Random Bench; BMC Pictures; Compound B; MVD Marquee Collection
84 minutes, 2014 / 2021
www.facebook.com/FeedTheGodsFilm
www.randombench.com/films/
www.MVDVisual.com

Films that use the idea to feed local “gods” is not a new concept; just off the top of my head there is Jug Face (2013; reviewed HERE) and two others I won’t name because it is the plot twist of the end. One could even include the original King Kong (1933) as Faye Wray is chained to be sacrificed to the big ape. Actually, this Canadian film is closer to Kong than the others.

The prologue, of which I will not give too many details, is effective in a number of ways. First, it sets up the story of the two main characters, brothers William and Kris. Second, it is creepy and tense as hell at the border of the town of Tendale (population 60, filmed near Vancouver, British Columbia), and third, it can be seen as a social commentary about the heartlessness of the coyotes who work the southern border of the United States thanks to antiquated and cruel immigration laws. But I’m a proud liberal, so please excuse the politicizing. Anyhoo, if the rest of the film is of this caliber, it’s going to be interesting.

Emily Tennant, Tyler Johnston, Shaun Roberts

In the modern-day body of the main story, we meet the brothers as grown-ups: William (Shaun Roberts, who played Albert Wesker in the later Resident Evil franchise and was a semi-regular in the last season of the Canadian “Heartland” show) is a brutish, fly-by-night guy who wears sleeveless tees to show off his hulk and smokes pot, while Kris (Tyler Johnston, Samadriel on “Supernatural) is super uptight and looks like he just stepped out of High School Musical (2006). After finding some family artifacts, the sibs decide to head on back to Tendale (though the stress level is up to Elevendale…sorry) with Kris’s girlfriend in tow, Brit (Emily Tennant, who was the voice of 2017’s “Polly Pocket”). The bros are at odds (you know they will bond by the end, as all road movie companions do, no matter what the genre), with Brit in the middle as mediator. A bit formulaic, but one that tends to work.

On the way to search for their parents, William says prophetically, “Let the hunt begin.” Of course, at some point who is the hunter and who will be the – er – huntee? It’s telegraphed pretty early on (and hell, even on the front of the box), that there is a Bigfoot/Sasquatch problem and the town is living in fear.

Britt Irvin

For a place as isolated as Tendale, it seems to be hopping in the brothers’ perspective. They stay at a B&B run by Emma (Britt Irvin, Stargirl on “Smallville” and the voice of Sunny Flare on “My Little Pony”), which has a couple of extra guests from down undah beside our heroes. It’s not hard to figure out why they are there. Anyway, the film likes to telegraph itself, so while the tension remains (especially between Will and Kris), it remains not hard to figure out what is going to happen next in many cases, and who are the good and bad people.

While the film lulls for a while as we are fed necessary expository information, but somewhere about the half way point, it begins to pick up steam once our three stalwart explorers start to camp out to search for Bigfoot, since they aren’t having much luck with the parents.

Aleks Paunovic

With some really nice yet somehow sympathetic bad guys like the massive Pete (Aleks Paunovic; Julius in the recent “Van Helsing” series), and a couple of good double crosses in various directions, the story goes from predictable to… not. Sure, all the telegraphed things come to fruition, but surprises arise in around that, and there are even a few decent jump scares.

There isn’t a whole lot of blood, not to mention gore, but the story gives us a pretty decent body count, whether it is by the gods or in a Straw Dogs (1971) kind of scenario. The acting is well done, though I really wanted to smack the two brothers on a number of occasions due to some ridiculous and constant bickering for the first two acts, but that is more on the characters than the players.

The extras start with a full-length commentary by director/writer Braden Craft and associate producer and SFX/props builder Travis Shewchuk. Honestly, the commentary for this is kind of a wash-out. After about 20 minutes, I started to skip around a bit. There are large blank gaps, and when they do discuss the film, it is on mostly a superficial level, though the third act is the most interesting. If you listen to it, fine, but you really will not miss much if you do not. There is also a Behind the Scenes featurette (13 min). Again, it is with Craft and Shewchuk, but this is a bit more pertinent. One of the things they discuss that I found thought-provoking is that the original concept was as a found footage, and I am grateful they did it in narrative form instead; there is nothing I find more annoying than running through the woods at night by the light of a hand-held camera.

There is also the theatrical trailer, two other MVD coming attractions for relatively mainstream fare (with the likes of Zoë Bell and Jeff Goldblum), captioning, and a reversable cover.

The film helps show off the beauty of British Columbia. I have been there a few times, and it really is stunning (and recommended). Meanwhile, stick around for at least part way through the credits for more story information, and if there is a sequel, I will happily watch it.

 

Review: The Horrific Evil Monsters

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2021
Images from the Internet

The Horrific Evil Monsters (aka THEM)
Directed by Adam Steigert
388 Studios; ARS Films; Macrocosm Productions
70 minutes, 2021
www.facebook.com/TheHorrificEvilMonsters

If I were to sum it up simplistically, this film is kind of The Avengers meet The Suicide Squad (yes, I understand they are competing companies and universes), mixed with Cabin in the Woods featuring a host of slasher and monster film types (but generic, off-brands). Does this intrigue you? It should. And it certainly does with me.

This takes place in the Steigert universe of Metsburgh (is it next door to Yankeeville? Sorry…), home of some of Steigert’s previous horror villains, such as in his earlier works starting in 2009, with titles like Gore, Ombis: Alien Invasion, A Grim Becoming, Fang, and the short, "Caged." This is a world of super-antiheroes, aliens, and Thanos-like creatures of enormous power, but note that I have not seen Steigert’s previous releases, so I am going into it as a new experience.

Jennie Russo

We start to meet the “bad” side first, with goddess Conquest (Jennie Russo, who was great as the lead in the underrated She Kills from 2015), and her companions, gladiator-esque War, aka Marcus (Jason John Beebe, who has also been in a bunch of James Balsamo’s releases reviewed on this site), the growly voiced Famine (Gregory Blair) and, of course, mute Death (Michael Zsiros), who seems more like a carnival barker. These four in total, are the Biblical Horsemen of the Apocalypse. And that is what they are bringing.

I’m not sure how, but a special agency of “misfits” seems to know about it coming, and their men in black led my agent Mick (Christopher Brechtel), are dedicated to bringing their strangest to fight for them. Some of the anti-heroes include silent masked killer Gore (Norman Queeno), action star Alex Creed (Bishop Stevens) and his scene-stealing erudite "Carlton"-like alien pal Obji (Will Nemi) who looks a bit like the David McCallum character from the episode “The Sixth Finger” on “The Outer Limits.” Also, snarky zombie Anna (Kaylee Williams), who seems to be in most of the publicity pix in her waitress outfit, the classic Grim Reaper (Sean Sanders) with cowl and scythe, and ex-police officer William Sanders (Michael O’Hear; I have reviewed a number of his films, d. 2020) with a secret of his own, who is sort of the van Helsing or Dr. Loomis of the Metsville universe by tracking down Gore in two previous films. Included is the mysterious Mrs. Unknown (Xia Orozco, who rocks a wicked push-up corset, sunglasses, and thick accent).

Will Nemi, Michael O'Hear

The first act is the gathering of the armies as we get to see some of the power of the Horsemen…Horsepeople?... The second act is some readjustments and the preliminary to the battle, and of course, act three is the battle proper. This is not a mega-budget release so don’t be expecting lots of CGI, green screen, and expensive effects, but rather modest SFX that work well, and are joyfully cheesy on occasion. For me, this improves the story rather than hindering it.

What matters more is the level of comedy used, which kept a smile on my face pretty consistently. It is not broad comedy, but it isn’t subtle either. It is dependent more on situations and throwaway lines (which are some of my favorites). That means it is worthwhile to pay attention, rather than just waiting for the battle, because the humor is consistent throughout and a lazy viewer should watch it a second time to get what they missed.

Bishop Stevens, Brectel, Nemi

One of the amusing elements is sometimes the very location of the scene. For example, there is a segment with the gods wreaking havoc in a Pet Store that is hysterical, especially the cashier (Taylor Martin) who deserves a nod. These are all wise choices, and the mundanity of the sites is part of what makes it so humorous. I mean, gods? In a pet food store? Cracked me up. Made me put down my game of Uno.

Pet food store: Gregory Blair, Russo, Beebe, Michael Zsiros

One of the things that went through my mind was, “how is this rag-tag group of heroes with their own weaknesses and minor powers going to take on gods?” Somehow, it all worked in a low-budget world, including the losses on all sides.

Jason John Beebe

Here are some random thoughts: there is a nice diversity among the surprisingly large cast, which is always nice to see, with the de facto lead being Stevens. War looks so classically like a shirtless Greek gladiator, I wasn’t sure if he was going to yell, “I am Spartacus,” “This is Sparta!” or start singing “Bring Me My Bride” as Miles Gloriosus. 

I really enjoy independent superhero stories, such as those on the Dark Horse or 2000AD brand comics, or films like The League ofSuperheroes (2015), or The Supers! (2017). And for some reason, independent superhero films often use a comedic tone, such as Surge of Power: Revenge of the Sequel (2016), which works for the genre. Sometimes they try to take themselves too seriously, such as Rise of the Black Cat (2014), which is also their undoing.

Be sure to stick around for the credits for additional scenes; and speaking of credits, what the hell is an “Antagonist Theory” (credited to Christopher Burns, Jr., who fills a number of crew roles)?

Christopher Brechtel, Kaylee Williams

The SFX blood and gore are kept at a minimum, to the point where there are a couple of grisly bits (mostly around Anna), and many of the other deaths are more cartoonish, which means that this is more than likely something you can watch with the family (dependent on that family’s values, of course). As a stand-alone story, this works and, actually not knowing some of the previous storylines (i.e., the William Sanders character), it actually enhances the surprise element. So, don’t let not having seen the others throw you off.  Mostly, this is a great film for a rainy afternoon with your buds, some suds, and some ‘za, in the words of that great philosopher, Stewie Griffin.