KKN di Desa Penari was released back in 2022 and received massive success. It is a movie that is adapted from a twitter thread that narrates the horror story from a group of students who did student community service in supposedly east java. There are many mysteries surrounding it that took two lives of the student. I personally have read the thread. The story is haunting and quite sensational. When the movie was released I did not get the chance to see it and only about two weeks ago, I watched the longer version of it at the cinema.

The story follows a group of students who were tasked to do community service from their university. They ended up going to the jungle-side of East Java in a small mysterious village whose inhabitants are mostly seniors. They were tasked to improve the living situation in the area and apparently, the village, suffering from drought, was in need to fix the water pipe and water flow to the village. As the group of students consisting Ayu, Bima, Nur, Widya,Anton, and Wahyu walk through the village, they were already given warning not to cross a certain mark in the village as it is the place of the spirits and is sacred for the locals. They were also seeing many tombs that were covered and it was haunting. Only later revealed that there used to be sacrifice of young women in the village and those tomb covered are those who were sacrificed. At first, their project went smoothly until they began to experience disturbances from spirits and the ghost of a dancer with a connection to some of the students. Will they be able to escape the village unscathed?

KKN di Desa Penari, although following a simplistic adventurous style of documentary horror, what makes it relatable for many young Indonesians is that at some point, they experienced that. KKN or community student service is something required to do for students to finish their study. They go to remote villages which often still hold their own ways of living and are detached from technology and advacements. The students are sent to the villages to transfer their knowledge and improve the living situation of the people. I personally experienced this and certainly horror stories were part of my experience. It was not as horror as that movie but I understand why it can be the highest grossing domestic as I am sure many would love to feel a bit of nostalgia from their past experiences. The acting was quite okay and thanks to the story that people have read on twitter, it created another sensation and sparked the curiosity of many. Perhaps, safe to say that some of the movie-goers watched the film because they have read the twitter thread and wanted to see it being on screen.

The sense of horror was felt because everything sort of supports the story. From its angle, props and the location that they picked. It took me a while to actually write the review as I can still sense it's haunting narrative and the music that were extremely eerie. Apparently this movie had a theatrical release in the US especially in LA and NY. So, you certainly can find the English sub of this film. .I think it was one of the top horror films that I have watched so far. I definitely recommend you to watch this although like many Indonesian good movies, it requires a bit of context to understand the movie. But after all, it got my 7 out of 10 approval as a good horror film.