Five Friends

Five friends decide to climb a mountain. Before setting off they hear the local warnings: do not walk at certain hours, do not speak in certain places, do not look back. They treat all of it as a joke. As the climb goes on small oddities accumulate, and at some point their count of five stops adding up. One of them is not actually there. Bayu Skak's film comes out of the rising wave of Indonesian horror comedy. The narrative uses the mountain beliefs of Javanese tradition and draws its fear straight from that cultural background. It was shot largely in Javanese, an unusual choice in mainstream Indonesian cinema. Humour and horror are used not in turn but together in the same scene. Bayu Skak directs and acts. Who it's for: Viewers who like Indonesian horror, horror comedy, and narratives built on local folklore. Who it's not for: The jokes depend on the local language and culture and some is lost in subtitles. The horror elements also run in familiar shapes.