Writer: Sivarasa Sothivadivel

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Watch this if you liked: “Maut”, “Santau”

"Santau" gets a thematic sequel with "Mantra", Metrowealth's 38th in its film catalogue and one that wishes to echo the RM 4.3 million success (collections from Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei) of the first movie last year.

The recycled horror formula is simple - take a highly original story about black magic and add a strong revenge theme with an all-new cast of fresh faces, letting it all bake in some decent CGI and sound work. You can say "Mantra" is better than "Santau" in all aspects, and can even lay claim to some artistic respectability due to its difficulty in producing - save for one sore point which is minimal character development, resulting in a compromised storyline. In the earlier 2009 film, the CGI work and the performance of its lead actors may not have been better but there were clear cut protagonists and antagonists who were easy to follow. In "Mantra", the focus on the titular subject may (to the point of using "real" chants and incantations) seems to have backfired considering the approach has come off a little too successful, taking away the appreciation of the 89-minute feature film as a whole. In other words, "Mantra" commands respect for its faithful adherence to the demonic subject but in terms of entertainment, we may not remember it as a particularly scary or successful film.

In "Mantra", Zul Suphiaan (stage name Zul Handy Black, the dodgy neighbour in "Santau") plays Muzir, a man who gets involved with dark powers and inadvertently gets thrown into jail for a crime. He loses his wife (Ana Dahlia) and while to another man, his one-time friend Hasbi (Hasnul Rahmat). In Pudu Jail (yes, you get to see several scenes shot inside it before its famous demolishing) he dabbles with the occult again by learning black magic from an old prisoner (Rozaidi Abdul Rahman). With his newfound powers, Muzir manages to poison the warden (Hamdan Haji Ramli) and frees himself to seek revenge and reclaim his family.

In a nutshell, "Mantra" was probably a hell of a script but this screenplay doesn't give it an engaging justification. "Santau" had a certain Stephen King appeal to it but "Mantra" just comes off more like a dramaticised documentary.

Let's hope the next horror movie from Metrowealth - "Ngangkung" - will set it right.

Cinema Online, 03 July 2010