Indonesian filmmaker Kimo Stamboel did some of the most outstanding horror and action movies made in his country as part of the directing duo The Mo Brothers, being the creators of Macabre (2009), Killers (2014) and adrenaline fights film Headshot (2016). Dreadout: Tower of Hell (2019), or simply called Dreadout as its original title, is his first directing work without his former partner in crime Timo Tjahjanto.
Dreadout: Tower of Hell (2019) seems to be closer to Tjahjanto’s recent May the Devil Take You (2018) than to the crime and action titles that put the duo in the map of the genre lovers. Also, it has the honor to be the first movie adaptation of an Indonesian videogame, survival horror Dreadout which was released in May 2015 for Microsoft Windows, OS X and Linux. The story is about a group of high school students in Indonesia who come across an old abandoned town. There they are confronted with ghosts and paranormal activities, and one of the students, the protagonist Linda, begins to uncover the secrets of the town and its surrounding area.
The movie adaptation, that was written by director Kimo Stamboel, centers the group of teenagers that want to increase their popularity through recording their adventures to upload to their social media accounts. They choose to go to an abandoned apartment famous for its awesomeness. Linda manages to persuade the security guard, to enter the apartment. She and her friends find one apartment unit which is given a police line. Encouraged by curiosity, they break down the door of the apartment unit.
When they are researching the room, they find an old parchment, which only Linda could read. After she reads it a portal suddenly opens. Inadvertently Linda and her friends have opened the door to the magical world and anger the portal guardian supernatural creatures.
The movie is starred by a group of young actors, most of them debuting on the big screen, formed by Caitlin Halderman, Jefri Nichol, Marsha Aruan, Ciccio Manassero, Susan Sameh, Irsyadillah, Miller Khan and Cathy Natafitria Fakandi.
Director Kimo Stamboel told about Dreadout: Tower of Hell (2019) in a conversation with ScreenDaily “when I first experienced the game, I knew it had awesome potential to be made into a feature film. […] As a horror fan, there’s room for me to explore and push the genre further. And the coolness of destroying ghosts with cell phones makes this concept more in tune with the current audience”.
Dreadout: Tower of Hell (2019) was released in Indonesia last January and it had a positive welcome. Check out here the official trailer in Indonesian language with English subtitles published at Screen Anarchy official YouTube channel
