40/36
Followed by Place Wingit 2: Miss K (2024)
Raina’s life was threatened after she opened the door and entered an unnumbered room in the hotel run by her sister, Fey. The figure of a woman with white hair and skin also made her presence known. Based on the true story of a haunted hotel in Semarang with an initial “S”.
Writer Riheam Junianti has put together a pretty decent script
Without ever having heard of this 2023 Indonesian supernatural horror film titled “Panggonan Wingit” (aka “The Haunted Hotel”), I sat down to watch it here in 2024, as I happened to have the opportunity to do so. And given my love for the horror genre and Asian films, I obviously didn’t need much persuasion to sit down and watch this film. It was definitely entertaining, but at the same time, writer Riheam Junianti was playing on a lot of horror tropes, which made certain aspects of “Panggonan Wingit” feel a bit cheesy and generic.
I will say, though, that the acting performances in the movie were good
I’m not saying it’s a bad movie, far from it, because I definitely enjoyed the storyline and I’m sure newcomers to the horror genre will have fun watching this movie. As a lifelong horror fan, however, I found the movie to be good but not impressive. Given my relatively short exposure to Indonesian cinema, I was only familiar with the lead actress Luna Maya in this movie.
I enjoyed the special effects, props, sets, and wardrobe of the film
Actor Egy Fedly, who plays the spiritualist Ki Danang, was really well cast in his role, as he gave a pretty memorable and convincing performance. “Panggonan Wingit” has a decent amount of blood and visual mayhem, without being over the top. So director Guntur Soeharjanto managed to take something that had been used sparingly and make something good out of it.
At 110 minutes, the film could have benefited from a bit more generous editing
It is worth sitting down to watch if you like horror and Asian genres, of course. But it is certainly not a film that deserves more than a single viewing. My rating for director Guntur Soeharjanto’s 2023 film "Panggonan Wingit" is five out of ten stars.