THE DRAFT! (aka SETAN ALAS!, 2023)

Streaming on Screambox!
Directed by Yusron Fuadi.
Written by Yusron Fuadi, Richard James Halstead, B.W. Purba Negara, Anindita Suryarasmi.
Check out the trailer here!!

Five students gather at a house in the middle of the woods only to discover that they are a part of a horror movie that is constantly being re-written by a frustrated writer seeking to write the perfect horror film. As the writer goes through the different drafts of the script, the five students have to endure the horrors he comes up with in the story. But with the students savvy as to what is happening, they try to turn the tides on the writer and identify and conquer the tropes all horror movies go through in order to survive.

Reminiscent of last year’s meta-horror DELICATE ARCH with heaps of SCREAM, ADAPTATION, UNTIL DAWN, and CABIN IN THE WOODS tossed in, THE DRAFT! still feels fresh despite these similarities. The best parts of this film occur when the group are conscious that they are in a horror film and have to take on the various challenges thrown at them by using characteristics they create for themselves. Seeing the group forge their own destinies because the writer hasn’t taken the time to do so is something that highlights the writer’s blind spots while winking hard into the camera about how poorly developed characters often are in horror movies. Over and again, these characters prove to be smarter than the guy writing them.

That said, I wish more of the premise would have come about naturally in the film. The idea that these guys are all starring in a horror movie first starts out as some kind of coping mechanism come up with after the death of one of the kids. This seems to be a pretty mighty leap but one of the kids is adamant that this is what is happening and slowly turns the rest of the group to believe this theory. In order to convince the group, a whole lot of explaining of what is happening has to go on and much of the film consists of the kids simply standing around and hypothesizing about what is going on, how they are existing solely as characters in a script, and debating on how to manipulate that to survive what the writer throws at them. A whole lot of the talky-talk going on that I feel drives the point home too hard. The kids are too certain that they are these characters in a screenplay and accept this odd premise too whole-heartedly too quickly.

Still, THE DRAFT! proves to be a very fun movie despite the truckload of exposition dropped. The acting is solid, with all of the character tropes being represented, yet still, the actors make the roles their own. I like the various threats the kids face as they have this battle of wills with the writer. It proves to be quite the existential little film. THE DRAFT! makes you wonder if someone really is up there writing all of the crazy stuff that occurs in one’s life. While low in scope and staying within the confines of the house in the woods for most of the film, THE DRAFT gets a lot of bang for its buck with the monstrous threats looming from all sides. I liked this meta-horror flick quite a bit, despite the fact that it explains itself for the cheap seats in the audience a bit too much.