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“Janji Darah” (“Blood Promise,” 2024) embodies the stock grade of Indonesian horror, where a shaman pops up, spirits populate and the realm of the dead occupies center stage. There are no innovations in the screenplay, only an excess of bone-tired cliches that have no spark or originality. The film turns duller with each minute, the horror becomes increasingly leaden.
The CGI infusions of the demonic apparition are so ridiculous it is impossible to ascribe any seriousness of thought or alarm to the scenes designed to evoke terror. It feels increasingly sillier. The film is so bereft of fresh ideas the makers hurl every formulaic ball at the wall. It’s even lazier; there’s no attempt to flesh out the supernatural and the blurring lines between the real and otherworldly.
Characters are paper-thin, the acting wavering, and the entire narrative flaky, injecting random apparitions and amping up the supernatural with little effort and a whole lot of contrivance. As a result, the film turns into a wooden enterprise with no surprise or flash of depth. What is in abundance throughout is a plethora of the most uninspired turns in the narrative and characters coming around to accept each other’s errors and dilemmas.
Janji Darah (Blood Promise, 2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Will Rayhan’s Childhood Nightmare Return to Destroy His Family?
The film opens with two kids wandering into a factory. Both are in the pursuit of ghosts. They have heard the site is haunted. They are drawn to it for that reason: to hunt out the scope for some edgy adventure. However, as one would expect, things go south pretty quickly. The girl runs into a demon, a rather simple-minded red monster. The girl and boy hasten from the scene, the demon chasing her.
Then there’s a cut. We will drift back to the events of what unfolded in the beginning later on, the echoes of which reverberate throughout. This is Rayhan and his cousin sister Dinda. Rayhan, when we meet him again, is all grown up. He (Emir Mahira) now has nightmares of the incident but can’t open up on the same with his wife, Sheren (Natasha Wilona). He keeps the fears buried deep within. But this doesn’t lie repressed for long because Sheren’s pregnancy triggers eerie instances in their house.
Can Rayhan’s Hidden Powers Save His Family from a Vengeful Spirit’s Wrath?
He reassures her not to be bothered. Instead, he insists she befriended the spirits. Sheren, of course, is too shocked and scared by the episodes. The lights in the house flicker sporadically, and the stroller moves on its own accord. All sorts of bizarre presence is felt in the house. Rayhan sees the spirit of his maid at the house, who insists she has debts to his mother that she must clear and hence seeks forgiveness. All these don’t ruffle him. Sheren gets the help of her colleague’s uncle, who is a shaman. He does his work in and around the house but it doesn’t work. On his way back home, he gets killed by the recurring ghost of a woman.
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Things escalate so Rayhan confesses to his wife that he has a secret ability, an affinity for the sixth sense. But even now, he holds back on it, not divulging the details. Sheren presses to know more. He says he will reveal specifics later when the stakes increase. The ghost is that of the sister. She pushes a situation whereby the wife slips off the stairs. Sheren is hospitalized. The status of her child isn’t disclosed though it seems like she has lost it. Even there, Dinda’s spirit follows her. She takes possession of the housekeeping staff and tries to attack Sheren and her friend. In time the security guys intervene and Rayhan pulls her out of the scene.
Is Rayhan’s Sister’s Dark Pact the Key to Breaking the Haunting Curse?
He shares the story of his sister. She envied his sixth sense. Dinda wanted to see spirits like he could. The day in the factory, when they wandered in as kids, the demon got hold of her. Since then, there has been a marked change in Dinda. She became possessive of him and envied girls who could be his romantic interests. Dinda took up that space, and she desperately wanted him to love her. But he only saw her as a cousin.
She took the heartbreak deeply. Dinda wanted him to remember the blood pact they made as kids. Whoever dies, the other should follow to the land of the dead. Rayhan takes his wife to his aunt Hesti’s house. Hesti’s daughter was Dinda, who went to great extremes under the control of the unknown demon. Dinda eventually also resorted to black magic to obtain her desires.
Janji Darah (Blood Promise, 2024) Movie Ending Explained:
Will Rayhan’s Love and Sacrifice Finally Free Dinda’s Tormented Spirit?
Ultimately, Dinda killed herself at the factory where she and Rayhan made the blood pact. This was her desperate final bid for her to lock her claws on Rayhan. Dinda’s ghost hadn’t troubled Rayhan for a while. She reappears when Rayhan and his wife are about to have a child of their own. Envy pushes her.
In the climax, Rayhan decides to go to the factory, the site of the blood pact. Dinda urges him to stay with her in the land of the dead and honor their shared word. He reasons with her that she must let him go. She tells him impassionedly that she really loves him. Why can he not stay with her? He explains to her how she is more in love with the image of them together than him. If she really cares for him, she has to let him live. Dinda agrees to let him go but the malicious demon starts to exert on Rayhan, latching onto him. In the other realm of the living, Rayhan is hospitalized. Sheren is at his side, praying for his recovery to a stable state and urging him to hold on.
There’s a flashback to childhood when Han pleaded with Dinda to stick around and resist the clutches of the monster. This returns to the climax. Dinda uses the appeal of Rayhan to fight off the grip of the monster. It gives the two of them strength. Finally, the demon is warded off and Rayhan gives Dinda peace of mind so that she can fade away and make harmony with his decision and love for her that isn’t constrictive.
