‘The Haunted Hotel’ (2023) Netflix Movie Review - Stay Out of that Room

If stormtroopers are terrible shooters, the horror movie characters are terrible listeners. No matter how many times you warn them to ignore strange noises or not to enter the basement, they seem to ignore your suggestion. Even during important rituals or exorcisms, they are unable to follow simple instructions and end up doing things they shouldn't. Such characters are often used solely for shock value or gore rather than as a means of creating genuine fear. Jump scares, which were once effective, have become predictable and overused in recent years, leaving audiences desensitized to their effects.

Meet Ningrum (Hami Diah) - our first victim, who is warned to stay away from the third floor of the hotel. Despite the warning, she goes to the third floor and hears the cries of a woman. She opens a door with no number and encounters a white-skinned woman who whispers, "Three days, Midnight." Terrified, Ningrum runs away from the ghost. Two things here caught my attention. First, I hoped Ningrum would meet her maker after seeing the woman, but she doesn't. Second, while narrating the story to her daughter, Ningrum mentions that her neighbors have been suffering since the hotel incident. However, her daughter logically explains that the ghost had nothing to do with the misfortunes of the neighbors.

These points led me to expect something different from Guntur Soeharjanto's The Haunted Hotel. So far, so good. But then, Ningrum dies after a few minutes, and the movie slowly reveals itself to be...meh. The hotel where Ningrum saw the spirit is called Ambar Mangun Hotel. When Raina (Luna Maya) and Fey (Bianca Hello) arrive at this location, Raina's grandmother informs Raina to stay away from the third floor due to some renovation work. Why doesn't she tell her the truth? Forget that. Why doesn't anyone block access to the entire third floor instead of just locking one door? I want to suggest the option of leaving the premises, but horror movie characters have a habit of sticking around haunted places. It should be noted, however, that the staff and guests leave the hotel after fatal incidents. Smart decision.

I wish "smart" were a word I could have applied to the screenplay - written by Riheam Junianti - as well. There were times when I wondered, "Did she ever read what she had written?" Raina, at one point, cries in frustration, "I hate secrets." Immediately, you feel like confronting her because she herself keeps a secret from Ardo (Christian Sugiono), her ex-boyfriend. It's mentioned that Raina has stopped praying and that she has distanced herself from the god. This obviously means that she will reconnect with the almighty towards the end. She, unsurprisingly, prays in the middle of an urgent situation during the climax and achieves success in her task. The implication here is that god helped her to overcome an obstacle. Moral of the story: Don't stop loving god. I laughed because Ningrum was killed right after she had finished doing her prayers. So, what exactly is the message here? Everything is too muddled, so it's futile to look for a clear answer.

Then, there are all the plot conveniences. The characters effortlessly piece together the third-floor woman's backstory by finding and arranging the pieces of a letter. Raina and Ardo encounter a man on a boat who takes them to the village leader. Upon arrival, they discover that the leader is the ghost's father. It appears that Junianti is so fond of the characters that she avoids making them uncomfortable (she must have thought, "Well, the characters are already spooked by a phantom. Let me make the investigation easy for them). Interestingly, the man on the boat resides in the same village where the phantom once lived as a human. However, he has no knowledge of the flashback event. Nothing, though, can beat the scene where the characters learn about a body's location. You can say that the information is just handed to them on a silver platter.

Say what you will about the vengeful bodach, she really knows how to clean up her mess. She promptly repairs a bed after hurling it at Raina in a fit of anger. Similarly, she moves a statue to frighten Fey but then returns it to its original position. If she had gone one step further and had done something about her blood-soaked victims, nobody would have found out about the murders.

Final Score- [3/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times