The Haunted Hotel (2023) User Reviews

Nice Effect. Weak Story.

[yuwandakasikin · 4/10 · 4 December 2023]

Pros: a very nice SFX, Make-up, Costume etc. The suspense especially at the beginning of the movie was quite good.

Cons: the story is situated at early 1980's in Semarang where the people speaks with quite a thick Javanese accent, and this is not reflected in the movie.

The dialogues are so rigid, it feels like I'm watching a high-school drama. Even though it is the correct form of Bahasa Indonesia, but it is not how we speak in daily basis.

The story itself has a huge weak link and plot holes. For example the owner of the Hotel knows that the third floor is restricted for all people. IT CAN CAUSE DEATH.. and let's see how do they prevent people from entering that floor. They just say that "it is closed due to renovation." and just locking the door with no padlocks. The second time someone dies because of the ghost living in that floor, they just use padlock instead of sealing that floor. Like come on just use plywood to close the stair to that floor.

Third the main character hearing a cry of a woman from third floor where it is padlocked, instead of asking employee to help (this is a hotel where definitely there's a security guard, one front office staff at least to help and ask for keys), she just broke the padlock using a hammer.

The high school girl was told to go to the school warehouse to pick up a mannequin, she just get there on the 2nd day. Come on. And she was cursed for the first day and almost get killed by the ghost.

Last the curse itself does not have consistency. The ghost tried to kill the cursed ppl even before the deadline. And they don't use the real "Menur" tree.

Watchable...

[paul_haakonsen · 5/10 · 18 April 2024]

Without ever having heard about this 2023 Indonesian supernatural horror movie 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 life-long love of the horror genre and Asian movies, of course I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch this movie.

Writer Riheam Junianti put together a fair enough script. It was entertaining for sure, but at the same time writer Riheam Junianti was cashing in on a lot of stereotypical horror tropes, which sort of made certain aspects of "Panggonan Wingit" a bit mundane and generic. I am not saying that it is a bad movie, far from it, because I definitely enjoyed the storyline, and I am sure that newcomers to the horror genre will get a kick out of watching this movie. As a life-long horror aficionado, however, I found the movie to be good but not impressive.

Given my relatively brief exposure to the Indonesian cinema, then I was only familiar with leading actress Luna Maya in this movie. I will say, though, that the acting performances in the movie were good. The actor Egy Fedly, playing the spiritualist Ki Danang, was really well-cast for his role, because he put on quite a memorable and convincing performance.

"Panggonan Wingit" has a fair amount of blood and visual mayhem, without being over-the-top. So director Guntur Soeharjanto managed to take something that was used in moderation and get something good from it. I liked the special effects, props, sets, and wardrobe in the movie.

Running at 110 minutes, the movie could perhaps have benefitted a bit from a more generous trim in the editing room.

Worth sititng down to watch if you enjoy horror and Asian genre, of course. But it is hardly a movie that warrants more than just a single viewing.

My rating of director Guntur Soeharjanto's 2023 movie "Panggonan Wingit" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Quite watchable.

[el7 · 6/10 · 16 April 2024]

Haunted Hotel is kind of like if The Ring was crossed with the legend of Samudra Beach Hotel and then crossed back over with The Ring again. It's not beat for beat The Ring, but you are going to recognize quite a few set pieces.

The setting is a Javanese beach community in the 1980s. Two lovely young women have inherited a mysterious hotel from their father. Their grandparents have begun managing it, but the sisters have been having a rough year, so they decide to move in to help out and be near their remaining family. That was probably a mistake.

Grandma tells them not to visit the third floor, and gives an excuse about renovations which does not pass the sniff test. Elder daughter Raina disobeys that missive on the first dang day, and meets the evil spirit which will haunt the rest of the movie. The phantom delivers a cryptic deadline to which Raina responds by leaving her to her creepy privacy, as you do; but it's not long before Raina discovers that the spooky looking lady was actually quite serious with the threat making.

The rest of the movie is mostly a Ring style countdown in which Raina and her ex-boyfriend Arno try to find out who the ghost is and what she wants in order to save both Raina and her younger sister Fey from an untimely death. What they discover is a tragic love story featuring the most hilariously convenient case of amnesia I have ever seen in a horror movie. Wait 'til you hear what Raina's dad was up to in Jakarta. That part was supposed to be sad, but it made me laugh out loud in places.

The special effects in this movie are pretty decent, and the actors do a good job with some pretty schlocky material. There is a Ring style fake-out. I don't think I'm spoiling too much with that, you'll notice it yourself when they wrap up the mystery and you realize there's more than fifteen minutes of runtime still to go. All in all, I can say I'm not sorry I watched it, while also feeling no particular need to go watch it again.

Weak storyline and script

[syaffi_irsyad · 2/10 · 14 April 2024]

It started out good for the first 10 minutes but after that it's just plain and boring. I kept getting distracted once in a while and started to lose interest but i kept watching hoping it will get better but it doesn't. The guy named ardo kept saying obvious things like bro we get it ok we're not dumb enough that you need to point it out. On the bright side, the effects are not bad i expected it to be worse but it turns out ok. Some of the storyline feels a bit rushed like there was no explanation or scene to show what happened before and then suddenly boom here we are. I love indonesian horror movies but i must say this one is just not for me.

If you like The Ring/Ringu, you'll like this

[ugafan1980 · 7/10 · 12 April 2024]

Thought this was very well made. The cursed girl is scary. Effects are nice. If you want a decent amount of gore, you'll like this. However, this is a pretty clear rip off of The Ring/Ringu.

Spoilers: 1) Girl treated as an outcast for being different ends up dying tragically and coming back to haunt basically anyone 2) Female lead is protecting a younger member of their family. Son in Ringu, sister in Haunted Hotel 3) The truth is discovered and her body is exhumed, seemingly lifting the curse 4) Female lead and younger family member spared 5) Everyone is doing great then SURPRISE the curse is actually still completely still in tact and the male lead gets killed off after reuniting with the female lead. Even to the point of breaking physical bearers to crawl through and kill him. TV in Ringu, mirror in Haunted Hotel.

Again, it's fun and enjoyable. Really well made. Lacks originality though.

If You Like Ringu And The Ju-On: The Grudge You Will Like This

[ladymidath · 8/10 · 29 April 2024]

Asian horror movies are among the best, especially film from Japan, China, Korea and The Philippines. The Haunted Hotel is from Indonesia. The story revolves around a motel where no one is allowed on the third floor as it is 'closed for renovations.' Actually one of the room are haunted and anyone who opens the door dies horribly in three days.

You can see that the filmmakers were heavily inspired by movies like Ringu, Ju-On The Grudge and Dark Water just to name a few, but that's okay because it works.

The motel itself is very creepy and the ghost is downright unsettling.

The story movies along nicely and there are some genuinely scary moments, not to mention a mystery that has to be unravelled in order to stop the vengeful spirit from killing.

While the ending was a little bleak, it did make sense and I rather liked that fact that it could all be wrapped up neatly.

This was a solid supernatural horror movie that kept me watching until the end. The acting was good, the music build up a creepy atmosphere and while the story was not exactly original, it was still entertaining.

Started, Ended Quickly

[StephenTX · 13 April 2024]

In fairness I'm not selecting a star rating for this film so as not to influence the user "grade" considering I didn't finish watching; I invested thirty-five or so minutes (IMO star ratings should generally be given when a film is watched in its entirety). The budget appeared to be in place and the production looked nice, but the writing! And, as a result, the acting was less than good or convincing. The dialogue was unnatural and seemed to be solely expository for us viewers. My eyes were rolling within minutes. I decided early on that another 90 minutes were probably not worth the time. But, perhaps it did turn into something worthwhile....