Zombies are soooo last decade. Although the Walking Dead franchise still bravely keeps the undead flag flying on TV, most horror fans have moved on to find their scares in other dark places. Few will have expected much from the new Indonesian late-to-the-party effort, The Elixir, directed and co-written by Kimo Stamboel.
Whilst the film doesn’t really do much new with the genre, it gets not only a pass but a pretty decent thumbs-up by virtue of the sheer energy and visual ingenuity it demonstrates and its commendable effort to populate its story with interesting characters rather than just biteable cyphers.
A family party is disrupted when an out-of-control van hurtles into the crowd, sending people flying like skittles. Out from the driver’s seat stumbles a man who’s clearly no longer a man, and he embarks upon a savage throat-ripping attack on the terrified party-goers. We then flash back five hours to when we meet up with members of the party family gathering uncomfortably at the home of Pak (Donny Damara), the family patriarch who owns a herbal remedy business called Wania Waras.
The atmosphere is distinctly icy, and there’s much acrimony and bitterness amongst the family; young mother Nes (Mikha Tambayong), whose own husband Rudi (Dimas Anggara) has recently cheated on her, is at odds with her own former best friend Karina (Eva Celia), who has married Nes’s widowed father. Her brother Bang (Marthino Lio) is kindly but awkward and spends his time playing computer games.
Pak is considering selling his business, but when the company takes possession of an amazing new elixir with extraordinary restorative powers, he decides that perhaps he won’t sell after all. His family, anticipating benefitting financially from the sale of Wania Waras, is frustrated by his decision, even as they’re impressed by the effect the elixir has had on Pak; the years have fallen away, and he seems to be a new man. But it’s not long before the side-effects kick in and the carnage begins…
The Elixir does a great job in deftly establishing its characters to the point that it’s almost a shame when things start to fall apart and the running and screaming begin. But through all the ensuing madness, Stamboel keeps a watchful eye on his characters so that we become properly invested in them and their ghastly plight – and it genuinely is ghastly. The effects of the elixir spread quickly once the first couple of victims are infected; the action is fast, furious, frenetic and frankly ferocious, and there are a number of spectacular, bloody set pieces that punch well above the film’s weight – particularly sequences where a truck full of passengers (including young children) is overwhelmed and a local police station is besieged, Dawn of the Dead style.
The zombies are something different too; they snarl and tear, but their faces are often twisted into grinning rictuses, they’re distracted by sudden noise and, especially eerily, they’re fascinated by rain, which causes them to freeze and gaze skywards in awe, their bodies contorted and twisted. Once it gets going, The Elixir never lets up the pace, powering along through a sea of guts and gore with some hugely imaginative and genuinely spectacular high octane sequences even as it rarely loses sight of the character beats set up in the first act. The Elixir is the perfect antidote to zombie movie ennui; you’re unlikely to regret taking a quick swig.
The Elixir is streaming now on Netflix
