REVIEW: BISIKAN SYAITAN - Malaysia

This would be my first review for a local Malaysian movie. The film is titled Bisikan Syaitan, which translated the Malay language to English means 'The Devil's Whisper'.

Bisikan Syaitan is a horror film directed by Faizul A. Rashid. It stars Fizz Fairuz, Nabila Huda, Wan Sharmila and Azam Pitt. The film is distributed by Grand Brilliance Sdn. Bhd.

Horror films are always 'tricky' to produce. The difficult task is to 'push the right button' that would scare the audience. Then, comes the question of how the audience would react. This film has its own devilish tricks.

SYNOPSIS:
After being caught by the police for murder, Soraya (Nabila Huda) is brought to justice by the courts. Her husband Kamil (Fizz Fairuz) must find a way to proof her innocence. The reasons for her crimes are slowly unraveled and their extended family is jeopardized by them.

SCRIPT:
The movie has a good premise but it is structured pretty sporadic. It starts off with a mystery then it goes awkwardly astray. Plotholes after plotholes. The only good thing to come out of it was the ending revelation of the whole plot.

ACTING:
Only the female actress shone in this film, Nabila Huda who plays Soraya and Wan Sharmila who is making her feature film debut. I liked Nabila Huda's intense potrayal of her role but the rest of the cast seems not up-to-par.

FILMING:
Some camera movements did give the suspense feel but most of the shots lacked the horror ambience type of lighting. When ghostly figures appeared, some were scary and some were not. I do have very high praises for the use of sound effects and editing. A few shots did scare but too few. Need more scare moments.

PACING:
Slow from the very beginning. It continues to be slow in the middle. The film escalates on the ending (last 20 minutes) where all the mystery and secrets are revealed to the audience.

DOWNSIDE:
A horror film that is really slow. There's too much for the audience to digest in terms of plot. To few scary moments to wet the appetite of fans of horror films.

UPSIDE:
A good performance by Nabila Huda in what essentially is an 'okay' storyline. Good utilization of sound effects to represent the ghostly presence in the film.

OVERALL:
Not for kids as it involves scenes of gruesome murders and ghostly images. Good premise but execution is poor.

RATING:
6 out of 10