‘The 3rd Eye 2’ (Mata Batin 2, Inner Eyes 2) – is a follow up to Indonesian supernatural thriller ‘The 3rd Eye’. Known for directing horror movies like Suzzanna: Buried Alive, Sabrina, The Doll and The Doll 2, Rocky Soraya teams up with screenwriters Riheam Junianti and Fajar Umbara, to take the story forward in this sequel.
‘Third eye’ in dharmic spiritual traditions symbolically refers to the gate to another spiritual realm. It provides a vision to perceive beyond the ordinary things. Rocky Soraya bases his plot of the film around this mysterious religious concept.
Abel (Bianca Hello) and her younger sister, Alia ( Jessica Mila ), possess a psychometric ability. They can communicate with spirits through the ‘Third eye’ to help them in achieving salvation and peace. Alia’s untimely death, while communicating with the spirits, compels Abel to get things together, introspect her life, and move on.
In search of peace of mind, she joins an orphanage belonging to the married couple Fadli (Jeremy Thomas) and Laksmi (Sophia Latjuba). The unusual behaviour of a loner girl, Nadia (Nabilah Ayu), makes everyone uncomfortable around her.
Alia suspects of the oddity in Nadia’s reclusiveness, but she doesn’t pay heed to it. The strange happening around her confirms her doubt. Before she could realise the gravity of the situation, she gets involved in another metaphysical event that holds a secret to the death of Abel.
The writers and Rocky Soraya collect discrete ideas from several modern horror films and compile them together. They are stitched together incoherently, almost mocking it. The budget scale of the movie has been upped, and the lavish production design of the orphanage clearly reflects it. The sequence shot in the hell is quite bleak and horrific.
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Unfortunately, the writing of the film fails to capitalize on the sleek production design. Even with the introduction of the new characters, the basic structure of the film appears similar to ‘The 3rd Eye.’ The movie rehashes the narrative without the addition of an interesting idea.
The narrative isn’t brave enough to break free from the horror conventions. On top of it, it suffers from loud background score that could harm your eardrums, no joke here. The excess use of jump scare makes it difficult to invest in the story. Rocky reveals the card earlier in the first act, leaving no room for any twist to sit right with the audience. So much time is spent in exposition and jump scare, that hardly anything is left for actors to perform, except screaming.
The 3rd Eye 2 Rating: ★★★★★
The 3rd Eye 2 Trailer
Cast: Jessica Mila, Nabilah Ratna Ayu Azalia, Sophia Latjuba
Director: Rocky Soraya
Running Time: 115 minutes
Stream on: Netflix
Links: IMDb
