The Draft! – Movie Review | Fantastic Fest (3/5)

THE DRAFT! is an Indonesian horror movie with a very meta approach. It’s a fun watch that also offers a few jump scares along the way. Even the ending worked for me. Read our full The Draft! movie review here!

THE DRAFT! is an Indonesian meta-horror movie (org. title: Setan Alas!) celebrating its International Premiere at Fantastic Fest. Its one downfall – by no fault of its own – is that we recently watched a horror movie with a similar approach.

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Our review of the somewhat similar horror movie DEAD TEENAGERS >

However, I have to say I think this one ultimately succeeded better. Initially, I would say Dead Teenagers did it better, but the ending of The Draft! is actually stronger. Basically, a hybrid with the best of both would be ideal.

Continue reading our The Draft! horror movie review below.

Classic horror movie setup

In The Draft!, we meet five college students who decide to get away for a weekend at a very remote villa. It’s meant to be a fun trip but not much goes according to plan. There’s no electricity and everything just seems slightly off.

Things go from bad to worse as someone dies during the first night in this house. The person has clearly been murdered and now it seems like they can’t leave the place. A powerful dark force is clearly at play here.

Could it be a horror movie screenwriter?

Rewrites and revisions galore

This movie manages to flip some of the most familiar horror movie tropes. The characters in this horror movie quickly realize that this is exactly what they are: Characters in a horror movie.

And the screenwriter isn’t happy with his work so he keeps doing rewrites and revisions. That means nothing and no one is safe. Even if you die, you may not continue to be dead. Or you could die in a different way by someone else’s hand.

The title of The Draft! almost reveals how this isn’t a finished product, but rather one that is still a work in progress.

Maybe zombies will appear? But what kind of zombies? And is that a full moon I see? What could that result in?! Imagine Cabin in the Woods but then put a few extra spins on it.

Including characters that cringe at their own bad dialogue!

The Draft! screening at Fantastic Fest 2024

Yusron Fuadi is the director of The Draft! (org. title: Setan Alas!) and also co-wrote the screenplay. He previously wrote and directed the genre-hybrid Tengkorak (2018) which has an extremely intriguing plot as well.

The other screenplay writers of this movie are Richard James Halstead, B.W. Purba Negara, and Anindita Suryarasmi.

The runtime is 1 hour and 24 minutes, which works well for the story. Especially as some time is used on the actual ending, which I enjoyed. It took a turn I wasn’t expecting but which suited it perfectly.

As stated initially, this meta-horror approach was something we also saw in Dead Teenagers (one of the movies in an anthology trilogy). However, I wasn’t crazy about the ending of that one and much preferred this one.

The Draft! is reviewed as part of our Fantastic Fest 2024 coverage.

Details

Director: Yusron Fuadi
Script: Yusron Fuadi, Anindita Suryarasmi and Richard Hames Halstead
Cast: Adhin Abdul Hakim, Winner Wijaya, Ibrahim Alhami, Haydar Salishz, Anastasia Herzigova, Putri Anggi Waluyo, Ernanto Kusumo