"Sumala" is an Indonesian horror movie based on a true life story from Semarang Regency. The movie with a runtime of 112 minutes centers on an evil spirit that seeks vengeance on a town for the maltreatment meted out to her twin sister and personal gain.
Plot Overview: Sulastri (Luna Maya) was married to a wealthy man in the village, but their marriage became strained when she couldn’t conceive a child. She had travelled to various places, hoping to conceive but nothing worked.
Her husband, Soedjiman (Darius Sinathrya) lost his patience , he needed an heir and gave his wife an ultimatum—"If you don’t give me an heir by this time next year, I’ll marry another woman." Sulastri broke down in tears, panicked and heartbroken, she didn’t want her husband to take another wife.
As she cried outside, she overheard two workers talking about taking his barren wife to a far village to meet a woman called "Grandma Tukinah" (Sri Yatun), who helped women who couldn’t conceive.
Sulastri immediately set off to find Grandma Tukinah, as she got there, she sat in an eerie hut. Grandma Tukinah agreed to help her under two grim conditions.
1). She would be given twins but one of the twins would be beautiful, kind and from the human race; while the other twin would be be ugly, wicked and from the devil's race. Regardless she had to treat the twins equally without bias until they were ten years old, at which point the devil would come to claim the wicked child. Failing to meet the requirements would bring spiralling calamities, year after year upon her and her family.
2) And that by proceeding with the rituals she would become bound to the devil as her master.
Desperate Sulastri agreed, and a year later she bore twin girls, but she didn’t tell her husband about the deal she had made with the devil. The couple named them Sumala and Kumala, but upon seeing the twins, Soedjiman was disgusted by the ugly one and killed it immediately.
Unfortunately Sulastri was too weak after child birth to stop him but she knew that was the beginning of their downfall.
Kumala(the twin who stayed alive) grew deformed, she was ridiculed by everyone, her parents treated her constantly like an outcast. However, things changed completely after Sumala(her dead wicked evil twin) possessed her, wreaking havoc and slaughtering the villagers in a gruesome way. The villagers stopped going out after the sunset, because Sumala only moved in the darkness.
Sulastri opened up to her husband finally and wanted to go back to Grandma Tukinah for a solution, unfortunately she was already dead—it was too late and things had gone awry.
Could Soedjiman and Sulastri break the curse? Or were they eventually buried in it?
Was the village ever free from this curse?
Rating—Be rest assured that you will stay glued from the very beginning to the end especially if you’re a fan of horror. This is the first time I watched an Indonesian horror and it’s so so good!
This movie is based on a true life story, I highly recommend.
5/5 stars.
It’s available to watch for free with subtitles on the LokLok app.
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