Irul: Ghost Hotel exceeds expectations (if you didn't have high expectations to begin with)

 

It was a good effort by M.S Prem Nath (Image courtesy of youtube.com)

With Kuman Pictures squeezing out horror movie after horror movie, we're always delighted when they announce their next project as it means more quality horror in the Malaysian market. Done are we with half-assed plots, casting for the sake of creating awareness for social media influencers or movies released just so some top executive somewhere can live off the kickbacks (you know what I'm talking about). 

Kuman Pictures delivers another satisfying project in the form of Irul: Ghost Hotel (Irul). Directed by Prem Nath Pillai or M.S Prem Nath, Irul tells the story of a production team filming a documentary about the Crag Hotel in Penang. They've also hired a team of paranormal investigators called The Seekers to help them investigate the site. Along with their guide Raju, a heavy-set, grouchy man, the three parties embark on the area to uncover the mysteries within. Unbeknownst to everyone, both Punitah, the producer of the production team and Raju, have ulterior motives or secrets of their own. 

We can't complain about the casting as the talents portrayed their skills very well in this movie. Irul stars Punitah Shanmugam, Senthil Kumaran Muniandy, Vicran Elanggoven, Durrgah Rajah, Amuthesan Rajaratnam, Sasitharan Rajoo and Ranjeetha Sivam. Despite good casting and acceptable performances, there were some portions of the movie where the acting was too rigid, but we'll ignore that. 

GoPros are all the rage, especially for wide-angled framed shots to emphasize the found footage genre. (Image courtesy of imdb.com)

Irul is portrayed as a found footage movie with scenes stitched together from different cameras. However, we at Asian Does Horror do appreciate a little logic when it comes to horror movies as the more logical a horror movie becomes, the scarier it is, because nothing's scarier than real life. To add to that, there's no explanation as to who found the footages or why they were combined, edited and released for public consumption. If there was backstory to support that, then it would've made it more terrifying. 

We're not complaining though. A lot of found footage horror movies forget to add that little detail in as it's more convenient to just show the movie from where they want it to begin than have to write in more backstory to support that. 

Malaysians when they see a "No Entry" sign, it's pretty much just a suggestion, like our traffic lights. (Image courtesy of imdb.com)

Going into the movie in detail, we were apprehensive after watching the prologue of the movie. A couple decide to celebrate their anniversary at the abandoned hotel and once they see a disturbing scene of a woman jumping into a well, the boyfriend decides to investigate. We're currently writing this from a Malaysian perspective, but what self-respecting Malaysian would ever go and investigate something like that in a place like this? We were raised to know better. But small details like that aside, the ambiance of Crag Hotel was extremely creepy and what we want to know from the production team is, where there any actual supernatural incidences on set? 😏

The ambiance of the Crag Hotel set was extremely satisfying and the subtle shadows and movements were acceptable. We just wished that there were more explanations on the woman that jumped into the well, why that particular house kept calling to Durrie, what's the story behind the small statue that keeps being moved, what's with the drawing on the wall & why did the priest give Punitah a similar drawing and was the Crag Hotel built after the highway or before the highway? There were some holes in the explanations and script and the reveal from Raju at the end didn't do anyone any favors. 

Mob mentality is the staple of Malaysian living. Whether on social media or in real life. (Image courtesy of Kuman Pictures)

Other than that, the scenes were pretty good except for the camera static that finds its way at the start of selected scenes when they go exploring. We appreciate subtle scenes of supernatural persuasion, but the static didn't do anything except cement the fact that these were found footages from a camera. 

However, we have to commend the art and special effects department for coming up with a very good design for the demon as well as Durrie and Ranjeetha's make up. There was no CGI in the movie (not that we observed) and we're happy that it was all shot without excessive special effects.

We'll be honest, we had our expectations for Irul when they released the trailer because Kuman Pictures knocked it out of the park with ROH, but when we actually sat down to watch Irul, yes, there were some scenes, details, story from the movie that we weren't too happy with, but they could easily be dismissed. 

All in all, Irul: Ghost Hotel delivers as a satisfying horror movie. Does it have rewatch value? Probably, if it's a slow day and you're just looking for background noise. Does it deserve a place in the halls of good horror movies? Probably, in the lower tiers. Despite Irul not being part of the four series ghost emoji club at Asian Does Horror, it's still a "should watch" horror movie for Malaysian horror fans out there. 

Asian Does Horror gives Irul: Ghost Hotel 👻👻👻 ghost emojis out of five.