Writer: Ezekiel Lee Zhiang Yang

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Watch this if you liked: All "Pocong" movies

If you've been to this movie's official website, then you're in for two surprises. One - the movie is not a horror-comedy as much as it is a full-blown Indon horror. Two - the hot stripper scene is actually just an Internet viral thing and it's not really in the movie!

Oh the shame.

What isn't a shame though is the movie itself. Not without its catalogue of flaws, "Sumpah Pocong Di Sekolah" starts out like any other Indon horror-comedy, with customary silly pranks and crude remarks. Three school kids got caught by the headmaster with a mobile phone video recording of a hot stripper dancing on their desks. The leader, played by Marcel Darwin, goes ahead and makes the infamous pocong oath to prove their innocence. That's when the haunting begins and this Awi director spends a good hour showcasing as many cliched ghost-behind-you scenes as possible.

While the picture itself is cleaner and tidier than anything Rudi Soedjarwo or Monty Tiwa usually shoots, this less established director of the pocong genre lacks the cinematic punches to compress the story as well as the former two. He's got some pretty good fat kid actors thrown in as well for comedic effect but the humour doesn't last the whole show.

Dwi Putrantiwi as the demure Miss Sonya is pleasant on the eye. She provides some eye candy over the duller periods before the film goes full horror in the last 30 minutes. It's a surprisingly serious drama of a story with sober elements, so you can blame that trailer for misleading you. The movie has strong visuals if you disregard the cheap FX but Alex Komang's father character should have been utilised better, not to mention the stripper too. This director definitely shows some promise though.

In any case, time for you to find that mobile phone recording online. It's actually available.

Cinema Online, 04 November 2008