There is an ongoing debate on whether or not you should watch a trailer before deciding if a movie is worth your time and money. Some people avoid it out of (the very legitimate) fear of having the entirety of the story being spoiled, while others, like me, want to know what they’re walking into. In the case of Feisk Productions’ latest film, I was truly excited and surprised by its trailer. It looked bold, terrifying, and relatively well shot. My excitement, however, was very short lived.
This Land of Mine tells the story of a humanitarian team who set out to a remote indigenous settlement. After their boat gets damaged, they are left stranded on an island that’s inhabited by a forgotten tribe. As they begin to navigate the dangerous terrain, they realize they have become the prey to this mysterious tribe, who are hell bent on keeping their treasures to themselves.
This one looked it was going to be a risky horror film that centered around a topic rarely discussed in Malaysian filmmaking: cannibalism. Not only that, but the marketing for this film also claimed that it was one of the rare (if not only) Malaysian creature-features. My expectations were relatively high. But again, all of that was also, very, very short lived.
But let’s start with what works.
The cinematography is excellent. Every shot is well thought out and carefully crafted. The film actually looks good, which only added to the potential of what this could have been.
The cast is also very good. While all of them delivered some worthy performances, the one stand out was Firdaus Sufiyan in only his second major feature film. Without disregarding the rest of his cast mates, Firdaus felt like he truly embodied his character from head to toe, embracing every joy and fear that came with it. What’s more, the character’s annoying influencer persona made him someone you truly hated in the beginning but ended up sympathizing with along the way.
And that’s where the positives end, because where This Land of Mine fails is with regards to its script and story.
For a film that marketed itself as a gory, horror affair, there was painfully little of it throughout its 90 minute runtime. There are moments when it felt more like a dramatic parody of Tomb Raider. We spend an insane amount of time watching lead actress, Musyi Mohtar, rattle off lines of dialogue that feel overwrought and drawn out, adding little to the storyline, and taking away from the overall atmosphere of the film.
The vast majority of the lines spoken by the actors end up sounding like they shoved a 45 minute script into an online thesaurus and added as many unnecessary words as they could in order to lengthen its runtime.
Last but not least, the inclusion of a mythical creature, teased throughout the film, felt a little too unreal among all the otherwise grounded storytelling. While many of the things that the characters go through feel like terrifyingly real incidents that could possibly happen, the unfortunate addition of that creature really undermined the tone of the film. Maybe this was their way of creating something shocking, but it unfortunately just fell flat, in an almost literal sense.
Which is all a bit of a shame really, because This Land of Mine had an incredible amount of potential. If it focused less on the conventional and taken more risks, then they might have actually had something.
What they should have done was just go all out with the found footage aspect of the film and really lean into that cannibal story. The end result would have been a slightly controversial, yet incredibly bold movie, that would be proudly Malaysian made. Which is why it’s so unfortunate that it feels like they held back.
Now don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a terrible film. There is ambition here. But if Feisk are planning to make any more like this one, my only advice would be to be bolder, take risks, don’t be afraid, and just let go.
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