‘The Haunted Apartment: Miss K’ Netflix Movie Review - A Spirited Dive into Indonesian Horror

Let’s talk about The Haunted Apartment: Miss K, the kind of horror movie that doesn’t try to chew your face off with gore or force you to sleep with the lights on for a week, but still manages to rattle you just enough to make you give that flickering hallway light a second glance. This 2024 Indonesian horror flick is a curious blend of eerie, emotional, and occasionally head-scratching, with enough style and soul to make it stand out in a genre packed with loud noises and formulaic screams.

The setup is simple but efficient. After the death of their mother, Alma and her younger sister Mia moved to Surabaya for a fresh start. Alma gets a job as the manager of the Sasmaya Apartments—an aged, towering structure with creepy vibes baked into its paint chips. Everything seems to be going okay until they’re forced to move into a unit on the ominous, supposedly sealed-off sixth floor. Specifically, unit 610, which comes with ghostly residents and a four-day curse. Naturally.

Now, here’s the thing: cursed apartments are hardly new. We’ve seen them from Japan to the US. But Miss K adds her own little regional spice to the pot. Rather than relying on horror’s usual bag of tricks, it leans heavily into the mood. It’s all about slow dread, not sudden terror. There’s no loud violin stab every time someone opens a cupboard. The movie instead lets you stew in the weirdness, which works, mostly. When the ghostly woman and child appear with their cryptic “four days, sunset” warning, it’s genuinely unsettling—not because of how they look, but because of how much the film makes you wait for the other shoe to drop.

Cinta Laura Kiehl, as Alma, holds the movie together with a performance that feels surprisingly grounded. She doesn’t scream her way through the film or play the helpless protagonist. She’s weary, determined, and occasionally confused—as one should be when your new apartment comes with a built-in deadline for death. Mia, her younger sister, is spirited, curious, and just the right amount of annoying to remind us she’s still a teenager. Their relationship gives the movie emotional stakes that feel real. You care about them more than you expect to.

Where the film stumbles is in its middle stretch. The tension starts strong but then drifts a little. There are moments that feel padded out, scenes that circle back to things we already know, and a few too many cryptic side characters who pop in, act weird, and leave without contributing much. The curse's origin is hinted at, but never really explored in depth. It’s as if the filmmakers were torn between keeping it mysterious and making it meaningful, and we end up with something that doesn’t fully satisfy either way.

Still, what it lacks in plot depth, it makes up for in atmosphere. The apartment complex is practically a character itself—dimly lit, echoey, full of strange creaks and out-of-place whispers. The lighting is low but not gloomy, the sound design avoids cheap tricks, and the editing leaves enough gaps for your imagination to wander just enough to make you uneasy. It's not so much that you're scared something will jump out—it's that you’re not sure it won’t. That kind of unease sticks longer than a quick scare.

The final act tries to pull the curtain back and give us some answers, but not all of them land. The visuals get a bit frantic, and the ghostly logic starts to wobble under the weight of the spectacle. You can sense the movie wants to end with a bang, but it winds up more of a smoky fizzle. It’s not bad—just muddled. There’s an emotional beat at the end that could’ve hit harder if the story had spent a bit more time building the lore behind the curse and the mysterious "Miss K" herself.

And speaking of Miss K—yes, she’s in the title, but she’s more of a concept than a character. The film treats her more like a shadow hanging over everything, which is fine in theory, but you can’t help but feel a little cheated that we don’t get to know her better. She’s an idea, not a presence. It’s a bit like being invited to dinner with a famous chef, only for them to cook from the other room and never come out to say hello.

That said, there’s enough here to recommend. The film is smart enough not to overstay its welcome, stylish enough to look good on screen, and thoughtful enough to make you think twice about weird noises in your building. It’s a film that knows its limits, plays to its strengths, and delivers just enough creep factor without becoming exhausting.

Is The Haunted Apartment: Miss K the future of horror? No. But it’s a solid, culturally distinct entry into a genre that too often recycles the same scares in different packaging. It’s spooky enough to entertain, grounded enough to feel real, and just quirky enough to be memorable—even if some parts feel like they’re still under renovation. All in all, a decent rental for a night when you want to be just creeped out enough to not get up for water after midnight.

Final Score- [6/10]
Reviewed by - Anjali Sharma
Follow @AnjaliS54769166 on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times