Monday, May 3, 2010

Perjanjian Dimalam Keramat (1991)


I've actually spent a lot of time watching great movies (even masterpieces) the last couple of days. Wonderful stuff, maybe movies that changes lifes. So I have idea why I need to force you to spend some time with Perjanjian Dimalam Keramat (I had to copy that titel, because it's impossible to remember the spelling) instead of, for example, Village of the Eight Gravestones. But this is a special movie. It's Indonesian, it starts the great fantastic and amazing Suzzanna... and is a rip-off on the worst Elm Street-movie ever, Renny Harlin's snooze-fest part A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master! But hang on, because this is a lot of fun... and I can say without any shame that this is a much more entertaining movie!

Suzzanna and a guy that looks very androgynous is a happy family with two cute kids and a big nice house. One night a couple of bad guys enters the house and massacres the whole family and their staff, bloody of course! Why? I have no idea, but there's a guy with glasses that obviously wants to take revenge for something, or steal their ground or take over some company. But beware! The spirit of Suzzanna is taken over by another spirit, a dead prisoner with a Freddy Krueger-glove - and now Suzzanna has the glove and starts her gory revenge on the killers, one by one...

Okey, this is actually the only movie you need to watch this week. Really. I'm not kidding you. Not that it's forgotten masterpiece or anything, but it's so damn entertaining that I wish it could have a proper widescreen special edition with commentary track by Suzzanna's ghost! What don't work is the part after the massacre, which is maybe... 25 minutes of talking, something that probably is a lot funnier with subtitles. But the rest, yeah, that's fun! Suzzanna - all dressed in pink, with bullet holes sprayed all over her, and a Freddy Krueger-glove goes on a rampage in a very funny wicked way. She seem to enjoy the part a lot, and do it totally over-the-top - and it works so well. All the kill-scenes (I guess, it was a while since I watched Renny Harlin's movie) is copied here, and is cheaper and not on a dream, which makes them very strange. It's not overly gory, but there's couple of very bloody scenes (the scene when a person is transformed to an insect is here, but this time it's a crab!) and always a lot fun visual solutions to the sequences.

More scenes that you will recognize is the beach-stuff when the gloves comes up on the beach like shark underneath the sand and a much cheaper version of the Freddy-in-motorcycle sequence. To my delight the martial arts in the end is quite good, though it's quite visible that it's two male stuntmen in female clothes that do the fighting.

Perjanjian Dimalam Keramat is a very charming and fun rip-off, has some gore and a Suzzanna in top-form. This is a must for lover of Indonesian exploitation and you weirdos that need a new twist on the Elm Street-saga!





9 comments:

Jack J said...

Great post, Fred.

There's another Indonesian NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST clone called SATAN'S BED. Günter Müller reviewed it on his great long gone (and sorely missed) site "Weird Asia". I got him to post his review of the film here:

http://www.avmaniacs.com/forums/showpost.php?p=505148&postcount=10

Ninja Dixon said...

Thanks Jack, that looks very interesting! Right now I feel I can watch everything, as long as it has a good pace - and Indonesian movies often has :)

Jack J said...

Gee, I just checked my Malay VCD collection and discovered I actually have this film!! I have too many films, haha.

Jack J said...

Wauw, check this out, Fred! These films are never reviewed by anybody but the DAY AFTER you wrote your review someone else reviewed the very same film!!! How weird is that!

http://365horror.co.uk/?page_id=72

Ninja Dixon said...

Thats great Jack! Watch it and I hope you like it :D

And wtf, it's very weird that two guys reviewing the same very obscure movie almost at the same time! But he found a better poster to go with the review :/

Jack J said...

Well, I think his pic is actually a real poster. Your "poster" is the cover from the Malay VCD. :D

Ninja Dixon said...

Oh, I know Jack... I just was to lazy to write "artwork" or something more neutral :)

And I'm a bit jealous that you own the vcd now!

Jack J said...

- And so you should be! ;o)

This is the SECRET shop in Malaysia where I've bought quite a few Indo films. Don't tell anyone, I don't want them to find out about this treasure trove. LOL.

http://cinemashops.com/

- even if you don't wanna order anything it's a good place to look up titles and see cover scans.

They also have films from other Asian territories but keep in mind they don't have English subtitles.

Ninja Dixon said...

Thanks Jack sharing this secret link, I promise never to give it away to anyone else :)