Stumbling upon the 2012 Indonesian horror/thriller "Belenggu" (aka "Shackled") by random chance here in 2023, of course I opted to sit down and watch it. I had never heard about the movie, not that it mattered, and with it being an Asian horror movie that I hadn't already seen, of course my interest in the movie was caught.

However, writer and director Upi Avianto delivered a movie that fell short of entertaining me. The narrative and script was simply a bit too confusing, erratic, surreal and chaotic for my liking. It was sort of like watching an Asian version of a David Lynch movie, so if you enjoy his style of directing and movies, then "Belenggu" might be something for you.

The acting performances in "Belenggu" were fair. I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble, given my somewhat limited exposure to the Indonesian cinema. But they had a good cast ensemble, and the actors and actresses did put on good performances, despite of the storyline not appealing to me.

Visually then "Belenggu" was okay. It was not a movie that made use of CGI, but relied on practical effects. The effects were adequate and served their purpose well enough.

I wasn't particularly impressed or entertained by "Belenggu", but it was a semi-watchable movie, albeit a rather forgettable one for me. As such, then my rating of "Belenggu" lands on a four out of ten stars.

Going into this film I had no idea what to expect, the only hint as to it's nature I had was the visual of the bunny costume. I expected something "Donnie Darko"-esque scripted to it's nation's culture, however sitting through this Indonesian horror I couldn't help but allude to what I felt were other American influences. The overall mostly surreal tone seemed very Lynchian, the scenes in the theater had a Mulholland Dr vibe & the foreboding rickety old lady reminded me dearly of the Log Lady in Twin Peaks. The script seemed, to me, to draw some influence from Shutter Island & that's all I'll say about that. Of course these ideas & artistic direction could have developed completely independently, regardless, as a fan of what I just referenced, this film left me pretty satisfied. Definitely worth the time IMO.