A new Indonesian horror film, The Draft!, takes a metatextual approach to the slasher genre, drawing comparisons to Scream and The Cabin in the Woods. The film, directed by Yusron Fuadi, is set in a villa in the jungle rather than the traditional cabin, and it wastes no time in acknowledging and deconstructing familiar horror cliches.
The plot follows a group of stock characters – a jock, a nerd, an irritating guy, a tomboy, and a girly girl – who find themselves in a villa with no phone signal, regular power cuts, a nearby Dutch cemetery, a creepy uncle, visions of a little girl in white, a cursed well, and a forbidden room. The characters quickly realise they are living out a horror movie, leading to discussions about the improbability of their situation.
As the film progresses, it becomes increasingly wild and silly, particularly when it focuses on Indonesian horror tropes. Fuadi draws clear inspiration from The Cabin in the Woods, but the film acknowledges the lineage of self-referential horror that stretches back through Scream to Halloween and Psycho. The Draft! suggests that horror is not yet in danger of eating itself, as the genre continues to be remixed with entertaining results.
