Movie Review: Labinak

Labinak is a 2025 Indonesian horror film that dives into supernatural terror and ritual cannibalism. It follows Najwa, a single mother who relocates to Jakarta for a teaching job at an elite school. Soon, she uncovers that the school’s founders are tied to ancient, cannibalistic rituals, and she and her daughter find themselves in danger of becoming the next victims.

First of all, what even is this? To be honest, I actually love the concept of the movie. While not groundbreaking, the idea of mixing horror with ancient cult practices could’ve been solid, especially if it had leaned into a unique local twist. But instead, what we got felt like just another generic ancient cult film.

The acting was okay, but the storyline felt half-baked. The movie seemed confused about what it really wanted to tell. Was it about the ghost? The cult family? The victim’s family? Or the cult as a whole? It tried juggling too many threads and ended up leaving most of them hanging.

There was one clever jump scare, I’ll give them that. But the rest felt jarring, uninspired, and at times almost lazy. Honestly, I haven’t seen a really good Indonesian horror film in a while. Too often now, the trend is to adapt stories from books, blogs, or viral threads. And while these are fun to read because our imagination makes them scarier, the movie adaptations almost always fall flat. Our minds create something far more terrifying than what ends up on screen.

In the end, Labinak (aka Kanibal) was a total snooze fest for me. I’m giving this movie a 2/10.