The first red flag had to do with the poster for this movie. Its similarities to another certain Hollywood horror film (*cough* Fantasy Island *cough*) was just too obvious to be a coincidence. (It was more like a Nailed It! version than an actual homage.) The second red flag had to do with the first trailer that was released. I had no doubt in my mind that the filmmakers knew exactly what they were doing when they put that tease together. It was going to cause a ruckus and they were counting on it. While the notion of it being “softcore porn” was a complete exaggeration, the notion that this movie was nothing more than shameless clickbait was well and truly justified. Pulau is a movie that needs to be seen to be believed, but not in the way you think.
I walked into this with an open mind. I didn’t care about the noise and scuttlebutt on the Internet. I was going to watch this movie and make up my own mind. I did. And I can now tell you that this is a movie that fails on a catastrophic level. This is shoddy filmmaking through and through.
Monkeys on Typewriters
Pulau essentially tells the story of a bunch of young adults who, after losing a bet on their vacation, end up stranded on a deserted island that happens to be haunted by a vengeful spirit. It’s pretty standard horror fare that we’ve seen play out many times before with varying degrees of success. Where the makers of Pulau fail, however, is in their decision to build their movie around a script that was seemingly written by a 14-year-old. Cheesy lines, questionable character choices, and all around bad dialogue made this movie impossibly difficult to sit through.
Now credit where credit is due, the actors in the movie seemed to doing the best that they could with the material given, especially Amelia Henderson, who appears to be the primary protagonist of the movie. My main gripe is with the writers and the filmmakers. At no point was it clear what movie they were trying to make. Did they want to lean into the skin flick that was shown in the trailer because they knew that was their only way of selling it? Or were they trying to craft something different? At the premiere, I was baffled as the director and actors seem to claim that Pulau wasn’t just a horror film, and that it was a love story more than anything else. I’m not sure what their definition of “love story” is, but this isn’t it.
Story and dialogue aside, there were also a host of other issues that plagued this movie: from pixelated drone shots, to late 1990s CGI, to continuity errors. Let me give you just one example of this. While making a movie, there is an old trade secret that is used for creating smoke on screen without the use of a smoke machine. If you want to create a spooky ambience, you take an egg tray, light the corner on fire, and let it slowly burn, creating a small and steady stream of smoke. It’s a cheap and creative alternative to spending a lot of money on a smoke machine. Everyone does it. It becomes a problem, however, when you leave said egg tray in plain view of everyone watching as the camera slowly pans on the house behind them. It’s lazy. It’s insulting to the audience. And it demonstrates the kind of lackadaisical approach to detail that plagues the entire production.
Why Is This Movie?
Which brings me to the elephant in the room. Miss Pui Yi. Like the stunt casting we see in almost every local production, this one too was done for publicity and nothing else. I’m sorry boys, but she’s only in the movie for less than five minutes. What’s more, there is no reason for her character to be there. It doesn’t serve the story in any way. (Yes, it was recently revealed that 10 scenes were cut from the movie, the majority of them with her, but even then, there was nothing within what was left that implied that hers was an essential role.) In fact, half the cast in this film felt redundant. So much so that every scene will leave you wondering why they’re there and what their purpose is.
If I was being generous, there is maybe about 10% of Pulau that is worth saving. There is some potential here with regards to the whole mythology regarding the vengeful spirit. And Amelia Henderson’s character was somewhat interesting. There was one fleeting moment within the third act that made me go, “If they had just stuck with this and run with it, Pulau could have been a pretty decent horror film.” But nope. Instead they went and committed the cardinal sin of storytelling. I’m not going to spoil it, but for me that was the final nail in the coffin for this movie.
Do not watch Pulau. It is a waste of your time. But even more than that, it is a colossal waste of your money. And that’s the real insult isn’t it? The people making this have absolutely no scruples about taking your hard earned cash and giving you this garbage in return. You wouldn’t put up with subpar goods and services anywhere else. So don’t fall for this con either. You deserve better. We deserve better. God knows we are capable of so much more than this pseudosexy, immature, and terribly written horror. Pulau is a stain on our long history of filmmaking.
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