A mysterious flying casket—whose arrival is accompanied by loud, discordant chants from invisible entities—terrorizes a village after dark. People call the flying-casket ghost Lampor, an endemic grim reaper who would kidnap and grotesquely murder people. With such a ghost, there are only two basic rules. First, stay away from any kind of light after dark; and, second, don’t look. For as long as they don’t see people and people don’t see it back, everyone should be safe.
Inspired by scary folklore that still haunts people of Central Java to this day, Lampor: Keranda Terbang offers nothing but cheap, hackneyed thrills. The plot follows Netta (Adinia Wirasti, Critical Eleven), Edwin (Dion Wiyoko, fresh from Susi Susanti: Love All) and their two children facing Lampor when they unwantedly return to Netta’s hometown in a rural plateau of Temanggung. There is plenty of family drama going on here and there; but, nothing seems to matter in the brink of the ghost’s death threat.
If not unconfidence, it must be the instant pursuit of easy scare that makes Lampor: Keranda Terbang a dull attempt. The movie somehow fails miserably to pass all the basic horror tests. Director Guntur Soeharjanto, in his first horror outing, resorts to the very basic and cheapest jumpscares in almost every possible way. The story has a terrifying material but the presentation lacks suspense, shock, and atmosphere.
The script plunges into melodrama when it does not to. Furthermore, the characters will behave out of logic in a moment where they don’t need to. In a horror situation, people might understandably act illogically without any apparent reason due to poor judgment. Yet, even the poorest judgment has a systematic thought, which is absent from this movie.
Lampor: Keranda Terbang has all the necessary materials to craft a terrifying horror that hits close to home. The credit footage showing real claims to have witnessed real-life apparitions of the said ghost proves just how harrowing the materials can be. And yet, Lampor chooses to become a lackluster Darkness Falls‘ ripoff. I just don’t think anyone remembers that title as well.