Backwoods Wedding Bash and Slash: Jemputan Ke Neraka (2023)

Jemputan Ke Neraka (Malaysia, 2023)
Rating: ***
Starring: Janna Nick, Sharifah Sakinah, Hafreez Adam

A whodunnit outing from Malaysia, Jemputan Ke Neraka (2023) sets itself as a classic murder mystery bodycounter as soon-to-be married couple Ivy (Janna Nick) and Norman (Hafreez Adam) find themselves invited to the wedding of one of Ivy's college buddies, Lisa (Jasper Supayah). The event is to take place at a bungalow right in the middle of the woods, though upon reaching the venue, the two find very little activity going on save from another set of couples. Sofea (Amy Nur Tinie) and her partner, Fiq (Hariz Hamdan). Rania (Sharifah Sakinah) and her boyfriend, Adam (Nick Syaf). People Norman knew from high school and is rather noticeably uneasy to be around with.

The group eventually decided to look around and find the lady of the hour, all the while helping themselves to the fresh catering inside the house, but this is when they discover the horror of their little situation: fresh fingers in the stew and Lisa found stabbed to death, body hung from a makeshift noose. As the guests try to escape, Sofea is caught by a figure cloaked in black in the midst of the chaos and gets thrown off a floor, knocking her unconscious. Worse even is that the cars got tampered and, as any backwoods murder grounds normally do, there's no cell reception. Oh, and rain. Rain started to pour.

Forced to stay inside the house with a potential killer lurking around, the group devolves into guilty parties as a dark past starts to catch up on them and grim secrets are revealed, all of which involving a girl named Salina (Wafariena Roslan) who Lisa horribly bullied to the brink of committing suicide. 

For nearly an hour, Jemputan Ke Neraka (2023) took the time to build upon its characters and the predicament they're in, as well as tease in the details of the bullying bit by bit until we get the full picture of the torment when one of the characters finally spill the beans through a dramatic telling. Character dynamics are tested and shifted, red herrings are thrown in, it's a pretty standard murder mystery romp until more of the guests start walking in stabbed in the gut or gets attacked offscreen, culminating to some fair shots of stalk-and-stab action as the black cloaked figure begins to creep around the bungalow, pruning knife at hand, looking for victims to snuff.

To be truthful, the identity of the killer isn't too hard to figure out once the bullying story gets brought up, but what's intriguing here is whether the details of the bullying story is truthfully told or not; just when you thought you got the whole bulk of the events figured out, the film pulls another twist or two which gradually makes the incidents leading to the suicide far worse and, by that point, you kinda feel bad for the killer and maybe even root for them in their grudge-fueled killing spree. This being a PG-13 production, the murders are never gory, only bloody, and they're sometimes edited with cheesy slow-mo effects and fade outs. It even gets a bit cheesy at one point when, during the climax, we get a sappy song playing while our killer goes knife-frenzy on a fella and another wounded victim hobbles into the woods to hide, all the while the horrors of the bullying flashes in dramatic fashion.

The last few moments of Jemputan Ke Neraka (2023) concludes with even more twists, a satisfying set of last kills and a bittersweet end for all involved in the bungalow massacre, making this film a surprisingly decent watch despite its moderate production quality and so-so amount of carnal violence. The plotting and direction have their focus more on creating an engaging mystery and I'm glad to say this one fairly delivers, overlooking a few acting and plot twists that leaned heavily on the hammy side, of course. So if you feel like catching a good old-fashioned whodunnit with a Malay twist, then this one is an adequate choice! 

Bodycount:

1 male stabbed with a pruning knife

1 female found murdered and hanging from a noose

1 girl found hanged (flashback)

1 male stabbed in the gut

1 female had her throat cut with a pruning knife

1 male stabbed to death with a pruning knife

1 male slashed and stabbed with a pruning knife

1 female stabbed with a pruning knife

Total: 8