‘The Draft!’ Is A Charming Indonesian Meta-Slasher [Fantastic Fest 2024 Review]
The Draft! follows five college students who fall into your typical horror movie character tropes. The jock, the nerd, the pretty one, the rich one, and the popular one are all accounted for. Together, they’ve decided to go away to an isolated cabin in a very familiar plot point in countless genre titles. They even encounter a weird old guy, to really drive home that you’ve seen this movie before. However, as shit begins to hit the fan, they realize they might be characters in someone else’s story. This is when The Draft! gets delightfully chaotic as it veers toward the intersection of fun and meta.
Amir (Winner Wijaya) is the Mindy/Randy Meeks of the group. He realizes the squad is living out a very familiar story and gathers the supporting evidence. He’s the voice of reason, asking important questions while everyone else freaks out and overreacts per their character arc. I love Amir because he’s a horror fan who notices stuff he can’t help commenting on. He knows they’re battling classic zombies because “zombies can only sprint after 2000”. He also gives us the best meta moments like when he calls attention to the techniques the film uses like the “cheap dark color grading”. Amir is tasked with explaining to the survivors that their friend is dead, and they are being terrorized because of some lazy writer recycling tropes. This is when the world of the film really opens up. We get a front-row seat as the group battles sudden rewrites, multiple attempts to insert zombies, and brutal deaths.
Also Read: ‘Grave Torture’ Review: Joko Anwar’s Latest, Now on Netflix
The Draft! has no business being as charming as it is. As a writer, I found myself cackling but also relating too much. We all act like revisions will be the death of us, but for the five characters in this “bastard writer’s” work, it actually will be. Director and co-writer Yusron Fuadi has lovingly crafted a meta love letter to horror fans. The Draft! pays homage to everything that came before it while poking fun at tired tropes that our horror runs on. I also cackled when there was a reference to the Indonesian horror king Joko Anwar. This movie is for the genre nerds, and I am definitely in that demographic.
The Draft! is an Indonesian horror-comedy after our hearts. It takes elements of The Cabin In The Woods, Scream, and The Evil Dead and blends them together in a violent and funny movie that knows what it’s about. My biggest complaint with The Draft! is that sometimes dialogue fought the music that was supposed to be underscoring moments. With all things considered, it’s not the end of the world, but I wish the audio was mixed in a way that would let us hear the characters who have charmed us into sticking this zany ride out with them. While I don’t believe every movie needs a sequel, I wish I could spend more time with this group. I know they could have so many ridiculous situations thrown at them. And I would enjoy every second of it.
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The Draft
Summary
The Draft is an Indonesian horror-comedy after our hearts. It takes elements of The Cabin In The Woods, Scream, and The Evil Dead and blends them together in a violent and funny movie that knows what it’s about.
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