When was the last time you couldn’t believethey just did thatfor an on-screen death in a horror movie or series? In the same year that had audiences gasping over thatgnarly yoga kill fromIn a Violent Natureand moviegoers trying not to vomit in theaters while watchingTerrifier 3, here’s a new one. Indonesian filmmakerJoko Anwar, who has made a name for himself in his home country and abroad with dark and shocking films, adds to 2024’s craziest deaths in horror with his most recent film,Grave Torture. The setup is simple in turning a washing machine into something to fear, and then the scene’s execution (pun intended)goes in a direction that not even the most seasoned horror fan could expect.
What Is ‘Grave Torture’ About?
After siblings, Sita (Widuri Puteri) and Adil (Muzakki Ramdhan), suffer a family tragedy, they are sent away to an Islamic boarding school in an isolated village whereSita becomes obsessed with “Siksa Kubur” or “grave torture,”an Islamic concept about the afterlife torment a deceased person suffers if their faith isn’t strong enough. Abuse from the school elders forces the siblings to flee, but as adults, they continue to struggle with trauma from their childhoods.Sita (Faradina Mufti) plans to finally disprove that thesupernaturalexists, and it involves working at a nursing home. Her search for answers will not only terrorize her but those around her when one of the residents at the nursing home suffers agruesome death.
Director Joko Anwar Is a Modern Master of Horror
Grave Torturehas the horror elements Anwar is a master at creating, namely the unsettling atmosphere that can be stifling as if an invisible fog is seeping off the screen. Something doesn’t feel right in the secluded family home inSatan’s Slaves(2017) or the apartment building that offers no safety in numbers inSatan’s Slaves: Communion(2022). InGrave Torture, Anwar hints at danger with ominous shots that linger a few seconds too long on a mundane object: the nursing home’s faulty washing machine that spins with the door open. After the one-hour mark,Sita’s quest to debunk “grave torture” has seemingly triggered an otherwordly presenceto haunt the nursing home.
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Buckets and buckets of blood.
Two residents living in the nursing home are husband and wife Nani (Christine Hakim) and Pandi (Arswendy Bening Swara). Pandi never leaves his wife’s side, claiming she is clumsy when he isn’t around. One night, when Sita notices a dark spirit lingering around the place, Nani is left devastated byfinding her husband cheating on her with one of the nursesand demands to be left alone. The emotional distress causes her to lose control of her body, peeing herself before getting sick. The discomfort from seeing how Pandi’s cheating has affected her brings sympathy from audiences, which makes what happens to Nani all the more horrifying.
Nani Doesn’t Deserve Her Shocking ‘Grave Torture’ Death
In horror movies and shows,unlikeable charactersoften have viewers root for the monster to attack, but it can increase the shock value when violence is put upon someone innocent, such as Nani. The older woman tries to clean her soiled clothes in the washing machine but realizes she’s missing her wedding ring. She searches for it in the machine, getting the top half of her body inside, with the obvious tension escalating. It’s not “if” the machine will turn on, but “when.” No sooner does this thought pass through,Nani accidentally turns it on, and the spinning drum rotates her body violentlya few times until it stops. That could be enough to kill Nani, but it doesn’t.
The impact of this deathcomes from how long it goes on.The slasher fromIn a Violent Natureimpales his hooks into a young woman, pulling and twisting, until flesh and bone are torn for the much talked about yoga death scene.Nani survives the spin cycle inGrave Torture, but her hair is now tightly stuck inside, the ensuing struggle to pull herself free looks as excruciating as it must feel.Nani then dies by ripping herentireface clean off, revealing the red muscle and veins underneath.If you think she will scalp herself, Joko Anwar, as usual, goes that extra step further.
Horror Continues to Surprise Audiences With On-Screen Violence in 2024
Anwar’s 2019 folk horrorImpetigoreis a fine example of the sadistic andmemorable deathshe puts into his stories where a curse on a village damns every baby to be born without skin. While a menacing supernatural presence has invaded the nursing home inGrave Torture, Anwar keeps it ambiguous (until the film’s last half) whether it caused the face-peeling death or if Nani really was just clumsy like her husband claimed.Grave Tortureearns a mention alongside horror’s other shocking deathsfor the inventive use of an everyday piece of machinery, and the special effects.
Death scenes in horror shouldn’t be predictable or bland, not in a genre where the stakes are (usually) high. Outside ofGrave TortureandIn a Violent Nature, recent movies have tested how far on-screen violence can go and then went further.Last year saw a lot of movies bring gore back to horror, after a period of much tamer mainstream horror releases. From Riley’s (Joe Bird) possession scene inTalk to Meto the entirety ofWhen Evil Lurks, you no longer have to look to B movies to quench your bloodthirsty. TV has followed suit, asChuckyupped the gore inSeason 3, with an umbrella that made it rain blood, gravity nearly turning a slashed throat into a decapitation, andtwo new fatalities forDevon Sawa.Hopefully, future horror movies will bring the inventive gore that Joko Anwar has always brought to his films. What’s next? A killer dishwasher?
Grave Torture (2024)
A woman’s quest to disprove the existence of grave torture leads her into terrifying encounters with cursed graves and the tormented souls of the damned. As she unearths sinister truths, her skepticism crumbles, culminating in a horrifying revelation that leaves her fate disturbingly uncertain.
Grave Tortureis streaming on Netflix.
Watch on Netflix
