Corpse Bride and that one subplot from Beetlejuice Beetlejuice come together to make a film that you can’t even listen to on your commute.
“From Restu to Mawar…”
You know, I’m genuinely surprised at how few films have been based off of podcasts. Considering the sheer breathd of content, and their overall popularity, the fact that the McElroys haven’t managed to make Lunch Squad or whatever into a feature film seems almost like a missed opportunity. I’m not mad at this – far from it – but I’m just shocked we haven’t seen more of it. Well, it seems that over in Indonesia, they’ve figured it out, as we have Do You See What I See, a horror film that could honestly have been an episode of Magnus Archives.
Based on an episode of Mizter Popo’s podcast of the same name, Do You See What I See tells the story of Mawar (Diandra Agatha), a college student who, on her 20th birthday, goers to the grave of her parents and wishes for a boyfriend. Somewhere, a monkey’s paw curls a finger and before long her two friends Vey (Shenina Cinnamon) and Kartika (Sonia Alyssa) notice she’s behaving differently, talking about a mysterious boyfriend they never see. Ghostly apparitions haunt them, too, and they decide to visit the school psychic Lin (Sarah Felicia), to figure things out.
In many ways, the movie plays a lot like an episode of something larger. It feels like it should have been bookended by Jonathan Frakes asking us if we believed in love at first sight, or the Goosebumps theme. There’s something about the pacing of it that screams campfire story, not full-blown horror movie. As such, it lacks the bite that a movie of its length should have. Everything, from the intertitle informing us of its source material, to its almost immediate corruption of Mawar suggests it should have been 30 minutes, tops, and then followed by two more equally medicore stories.
Do You See What I See could have actually been very interesting as an anthology film, telling us more stories from the podcasts in shorter form. That could have given the film a bit more life – something it, and it appears its main villain clearly needs. The fact that everything seems to have more or less wrapped up with still half an hour left is indicative of how badly paced the entire thing is. If it didn’t drag on, we could forgive the fact that it was lacking in particularly interesting characters, plots or (vitally) scares.
It’s not like there’s anything inherently wrong with it either. I can’t point to a scene and say “this is horrible”. It’s just all very bland and uninspired, doing very little new; none of the jumpscares are original, the story is nothing new by any stretch of the imagination, and everything from beginning to end is just … Acceptable as a movie. Nothing more, but nothing less. I’ve seen worse horror films, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Do You See What I See is worthier of your time than they are. At least Train of the Dead had some memorable directorial, acting and CGI choices. Do You See What I See – at least to me – was at its only memorable when we learn about her dead parents’ machinations and that was the final thing to happen. Spoilers, I guess.
Ultimately it is what it is: a capitalisation of a popular podcast, aimed to bring audiences in through association with another product. Whether the movie itself is good or not isn’t really the point. It doesn’t seem too crazy an idea to think that there might be more episodes – because that’s what this is, episodes – of Do You See What I See, but I doubt if they’ll bring anything more to the format. This film is reminiscent of those Youtube Red vanity films, where every video essayer insisted on becoming a movie star: it’s dry, uninspired and obviously more of an exercise in seeing what can be milked from a popular source than an attempt at actually good filmmaking. Throughout the movie I couldn’t help but answer Do You See What I See’s titular question rather bluntly, with a resounding “I hope you don’t”.
Verdict: The best thing about the adaptation from podcast to movie is that at least this film isn’t sponsored by Squarespace.
Overall entertainment: 4/10
Violence: 2/10
Sex: 0/10
Scares: 0/10
Silly, dumb-looking moments: 10/10
Mawar’s crazy eyes: 10/10
Props: Honestly the cast are putting in way more effort than they need, and should be commended for it.
Director: Awi Suryadi
Writers: Mizter Popo (podcast), Lele Laila (screenplay)
CAST
Shenina Cinnamon – Vey
Diandra Agatha – Mawar
Yesaya Abraham – Alex
Sonia Alyssa – Kartika
Sarah Felicia – Ms Lin
Jessica Shaina – Dona
Nyimas Ratu Rafa – Melati
Irgi Fahrezi – Suryo
Bunbun Melly – Mpok
The Asian Cinema Critic 