Awakening in the middle of the jungle, a man with no memory to his identity tries to piece together the disturbing events that lead to his condition and finds a far darker and more sinister secret at the root of the actions throughout his trip.While there's not a whole lot to like here, it does have some pleasing parts to it when it tried, Among the more impressive parts here is the fact that there's an actually suspenseful job here getting to the main set-up, as the wandering through the jungle and stumbling upon the abandoned cabin with the tape of his wife being held hostage and then finding the blood on the floor creates a really strong opening here as well as the later scenes of him being out in the wilderness alone with the sounds of the animals chirping away furthering this nicely. As well, his search through another cabin later on while trying to stay out-of-sight of a group of attackers outside lends itself to some really creepy moments especially once they light the casket on fire to deter him. The final half, though, where this one runs through an incredibly impressive and truly enjoyable twist ending that takes this on a much darker and far more chilling concept than what had been previously utilized, makes for a really fitting end to this one. Outside of these elements, though, there's not a whole lot worthwhile about this one. The main problem is the fact that far too much time is spent here doing absolutely nothing but simply enhancing the running time focusing on utterly bland and utterly uninteresting passages throughout here with the main parts of the film featuring him just simply wandering around the forest doing absolutely nothing. All we get are panicked shots of him trying to stay out of sight as he tries to piece everything together. There's very little dialog in here as well to help bring things along as the first half plays more like a silent effort without letting anything come out to help this one make more sense with the ability to help let it be known what's going on. With so little information to go on and rather little of interest here in terms of what's happening, this one takes quite a while to get interesting and makes for a challenging watch as it struggles to get it's footing under itself with the way this takes to get to it's good parts and really lowers this one significantly. As well, for as much good as the positives unleashed with it's fine twist does amount to, this one still undoes a lot of good by employing it which really renders far too much of what transpired earlier moot due to not being able to make it gel cohesively with the actions throughout the rest of the film, effectively making it seem more like the finale was written first and then reworked into the rest of film, making it seemingly obvious and sticks out quite readily. Still, this one does have some solid points to it.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language and children-in-jeopardy.

This tale begins with a man waking up in a shallow grave with amnesia. Not knowing exactly what to do, he begins to wander aimlessly through this remote Indonesian forest, eventually finding a cabin with a car parked outside. Inside he's horrified to find the cabin empty except for the bloody corpse of what he believes to be his wife as he discovers a wedding ring on his finger. Then, after watching a video of a faceless attacker killing her, he ventures back into the forest, scared & confused, with only a lantern to guide his way. The atmosphere in the first thirty minutes was creepy & unpredictable as the viewer watches and waits to get a handle on what exactly is going on in the film. As more information is introduced, the level of suspense does come down a little and at times I found myself scratching my head a bit. Certain things happen that seem at the time a bit absurd, but if you stay patient and continue into the final act, there is a nice twist on things that IMO made it a very original worthwhile watch. Some camera work was a bit shaky, but for the budget the production value was just fine for the duration of the film. The acting wasn't a problem, there wasn't a whole lot of dialogue for it even to become an issue. It is an English speaking film despite it's locality & ethnicity of the cast. In all, it wasn't a highly suspenseful thriller or a gory horror flick, although it did contain some elements of each. If horror fans are looking for something different than the same old clichéd plot line than I do recommend taking a look, it's originality & clever end make for a solid 6/10.

Well, i've gotta say that i was interested to watch it because of its catchy title and the idea about an English spoken film made by Indonesians (i reckon it's the 1st Indonesian film which used English as the main language in it).The 1st 50 minutes, the film seems to be so dull with the shallow explanations, barely interactions from one character to another (unlike other previous Anwar's films), how kid characters ruin it with the way they converse in the forest poorly shows lack of thrilled & anxious expression, seemingly to be a shallow no-background story plot, and unsynchronized & unexplained details(necessarily prepared for the ending). All can lead the audience to a boredom and sleepiness.Endure it, then the film will show you the worth of Joko Anwar as a writer-director and Rio Dewanto as an actor.Anwar prepared an unexpected suspense plot mixed with some thrilling horror ingredients blending them all in the perfectly fit location, and served it to the audience with some quite decent cinematography. Dewanto as the leading actor made convincing enough expression and acting (great pukes as well) so that his performance made "John Evans" becoming a more interesting character.After watching it, some questions may show up in mind regarding the background story that causes things that happen in "Modus Anomali" and how the story goes after the film ends. Generally it's a recommended nice flick to spend the evening with.7/10

first, i know Joko Anwar. He makes such Noir movies like Kala (Time) or Pintu Terlarang (Forbidden door). and he did it again. Modus Anomali is just like a ride in a haunted house, such a thrill and black surrounding if you watch this movie.i'm not gonna write long review or whatsoever. but really, if you love this kind of movies (thriller, horror, etc) you're gonna love this.oh, and i forgot to mention the mid-end twist ending.. amazes me how Joko able and love to makes the audiences twist their brain and logic even when you walked out the cinema, you will still debating various aspects of this movie.well done Mr Joko Anwar!!