DreadOut is a 2019 Indonesian horror film telling the story of a group of high school students that go into an abandoned building to try and make a viral video but accidentally open up a portal to another realm full of evil spirits.
From Fantasia Festival 2019: Based on the 2014 Indonesian survival horror game of the same name, it’s important to first make it clear that the movie itself is a different story. It uses the same realm and even a portion of the evil spirits, some that that appear in the game, as well as some of the characters, but it veers off everywhere else, making the movie better than the game, or at least a good translation of such. It doesn’t always work, despite some nice cinematography, and ultimately it might be your familiarity with the source material (or lack thereof) in determining if this is worth your time.
Knowing that, DreadOut does have some issues, most importantly, being a bit indecisive. It lingers between horror and comedy, committing to neither, generating tension then breaking it with some random silly dialogue. Obviously, this leads to a slew of predictable jump scares, mostly accentuated by loud noises and humming music or chants. It also gets repetitive, mostly because it centers on lead Linda (Caitlin Halderman) and the flash of her smartphone, jumping back and forth through reality and the other spirit realm while finding and losing friends over and over again. She runs into all sorts of different evil spirits, each increasing in strength, yet different from the game, the dangers are presented one after another without the Indonesian spirit origins, which gave the game its uniqueness.
It’s hard not to think that DreadOut is deliberately mocking or straight up paying tribute to mainstream American horror, emphasizes numerous horror tropes that most fans loathe, such as walking into an empty space and calling out, “Hello.” These are fun little moments if it is the former (which I choose to believe). Done well enough, they are mostly satisfying.
As someone who has played the game, I have a lot of appreciation for the effort here, especially in embracing the Evil Dead style of horror. It suffers from the typical video game adaptation flaws, like shallow characters and uninspired creatures. More so, as a foreign language film, the bad script might be okay in a game but not translating as well on film. Sure, that offers up some good laughs due to the overacting, but seriously undermines dramatic moments, hindered by clunky dialogue. Despite its flaws, this should still satisfy any little demonic possession horror craving.