One night, highway toll collector Maya (Tara Basro) is attacked in her booth by a psycho with a machete - and she's only saved because her colleague and best friend Dini (Marissa Anita) called the authorities, who ultimately kill the attackers to save Maya's life.

A few months later: Maya and Dini run a fashion kiosk now, but it hardly makes them any money. But Maya had a think about what above psycho told her about before he was killed, about her parents she can't remember, her hometown she has forgotten about and the like. Also she has somewhere found a photo of her parents, and it seems they've been quite well-to-do. So with their business not running great, Maya and Dini decide to go visit her hometown from back when, to see if Maya is up for an inheritance. Now Maya's hometown is pretty much cut off from the rest of the country, and most don't even know about it, but somehow our heroines make it there - to find Maya's parents' vast but abandoned house, and also a town of gloom, as it seems the last 20 years, all babies have been born without skin, and thus had to be killed upon birth to save them from a life of unbearable pain. Apparently it has to do with a curse, and apparently it has to do with a girl who has been born some 25 years ago, without skin, but 5 years later, weirdly coinciding with the disappearance of three young girls, emerged with skin intact. And that girl was Maya of course. Soon enough, Dini, mistaken for Maya, is lured into an ambush and killed in some ritual. Also soon enough, Maya finds herself on the run from village leader Ki Saptadi and all the locals, and the only one sympathetic to her cause is Ratih (Asmara Abigail), who eventually turns out to be the wife of the psycho above, but who figures killing Maya won't make a change, as the curse runs deeper in her family than Maya could have ever anticipated ...

A horror flick with a folkloristic tinge to it, Impetigore is a nicely streamlined movie that has its rather light-footed build-up followed by a third act that packs a punch. And true, the ultimate resolution of the film is so convoluted it almost reaches soap opera dimensions, it's also filled with enough macabre details to work just nicely if you don't overthink things, especially since the film's plot is told in a very dynamic manner and at a steady pace, heavy on atmosphere to suck one in, and with surprises and shocks aplenty to keep everyone on the edge of their seats.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned)

The links below will take you just there!!!

Find Impetigore at the amazons ...   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.de Looking for imports? Find Impetigore here ...   eThaiCD.com Your shop for all things Thai Something naughty? (Must be over 18 to go there!)   find Impetigore at adultvideouniverse.com

Thanks for watching !!!