J

ust like many classic horror movies, Hantu Pohon Boneka (Doll Tree'€™s Ghosts) will take the audience on a tour of a haunted house.

The movie, based on an urban legend from the West Java capital of Bandung, centers on the sudden appearances of ghosts in every room in a house.

The parade of scares that make you jump out of your seat starts right away when Justin (Bertrand Antolin) and his girlfriend passing by a tree that has many dolls hanging from its branches.

Justin stops the car to go for a pee and ignores his girlfriend'€™s warning that he should ask permission first '€” as local custom dictates. As expected, the ghosts of a mother and daughter get angry and kill them.

From there the story starts to roll.

A family, following the death of the father, moves to a new house in Bandung. On their way to the new house they pass the doll tree. The brother, Vino (Stuart Collin), is driving the car.

All of a sudden, the little sister, Vivi (Reska Tania), warns Vino after seeing someone crossing the street. Vino believes no one is there, but he stops the car to check.

Vivi also gets out of the car and meets the child ghost, Tini (Yafi Tesa Zahara), who gives her an old, dirty doll from the tree.

The scares escalate at the new home when the family starts looking around the house and into their rooms.

The terror starts when a framed photo falls all by itself. The mother, Wida (Ayu Dyah Pasha), talks with a ghost she thinks is Vino. The real Vino feels the appearance of ghosts in his room and the big sister, Lisa (Nana Mirdad), hears a child laughing and running upstairs.

Vivi meets Tini again and they quickly become playmates.

While everyone is busy with their own activities, the housemaid, Bi Sum (Tuti Kembang Mentari), also feels strange things happening and starts to see ghosts.

Apparently, the ghosts do not only stay in the house but follow them everywhere '€” Lisa is terrorized at school, while Vino feels the mother ghost on the passenger seat of his motorbike.

Lisa tells what happened to her to her college friend, Lala (Icha Anisa), who has a sixth sense, and asks her to stay at her house. Before long, Lala suffers the same terror as soon as she arrives.

Curious, she decides to look around and discusses with Lisa ways to find out why the house is haunted.

Meanwhile, Bi Sum goes to a dukun (shaman) and asks his help to keep the ghosts away from the house. The dukun tells her to put small flower offerings at many corners of the house so the spirits cannot enter.

The trick works, but as a result the ghosts follow the others everywhere they go more often.

Tini then manipulates Vivi, asking her to put the offering away so she can come into the house and play with her again.

The terror gets worse as the ghosts start to seek revenge by hurting Bi Sum and Wida. It gets so bad that Vino and Lisa have to take their mother to the hospital and it makes Bi Sum quit her job.

The movie is the latest work by director Nayato Fio Nuala. The filmmaker, who is also known for using at least three other aliases, was in the spotlight in 2006 after dozens of young directors and actors returned their Citra film awards to protest the victory of his film, Ekskul, for using music from a Western feature film as part of its soundtrack without permission.

The National Film Development Agency (BP2N) later took back the awards it had given to the film and to Nayato.

In his latest movie, now in theaters, some scenes, however, may likely remind moviegoers a bit of the horror flick The Conjuring. The makeup of the ghosts is quite convincing but the child'€™s laughter comes out a little bit unreal and sounds like it is taped.

Overall, the plot is also very simple and predictable, making the story easy to follow if you are not busy covering your eyes as the scares happen every minute.