A Political Thriller Wearing a Ghost Story

Read Time:5 Minute, 6 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
The Hole, 309 Days to the Bloodiest Tragedy (Bolong, 309 hari sebelum tragedi berdarah)
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Genre: Horror, Thriller, Crime, Folk Horror
Year Released: 2026
Runtime: 1h 53m
Director(s): Hanung Bramantyo
Writer(s): Hanung Bramantyo
Cast: Baskara Mahendra, Carissa Perusset, Khiva Iskak, Anya Zen
Where to Watch: shown at the 2026 International Film Festival Rotterdam

RAVING REVIEW: What happens when a nation explains its violence through myth instead of responsibility? THE HOLE, 309 DAYS TO THE BLOODIEST TRAGEDY doesn’t ask that question civilly. It drags it into the open, smears it with blood, and dares the audience to look away. Hanung Bramantyo’s film isn’t content to simply unsettle its audience; it wants to indict, and it understands that horror is often the most honest language for doing so.

Set in early-1960s Indonesia, the film centers on a series of ritualistic murders occurring on the 30th of each month. The victims are found with holes in their bodies and words carved into their faces, accusations masquerading as labels. Greedy. Heartless. These deaths become the stuff of rumor and folklore almost immediately. Some blame a supernatural entity, others point fingers at political enemies, and nearly everyone seems relieved that the truth can remain abstract.

Bramantyo’s smartest move is framing the story through Soegeng, an army officer tasked not with solving the murders outright, but with managing perception. His job is to quell speculation about military involvement, and that distinction matters. From the outset, THE HOLE positions truth as something dangerous, not because it is unknown, but because it is known too well by the wrong people.

Baskara Mahendra gives a controlled, increasingly haunted performance as Soegeng. He is not a hero, and the film never pretends otherwise. What makes his arc compelling is the slow realization that he isn’t an outsider investigating corruption, but a participant moving within it. When and what he says offer some of the film's most pressing moments; the lines land with the weight of confession rather than shock. This is a film deeply uninterested in absolution.

Stylistically, THE HOLE moves between crime procedural and folk horror without ever feeling like it is hedging its bets. The supernatural elements are treated with just enough ambiguity to remain plausible within the landscape, but the film consistently suggests that superstition thrives where accountability is intentionally absent. The Hollow Ghost is less a monster than a convenient story, something that allows violence to feel inevitable instead of orchestrated.

The historical context looms large without turning the film into a reenactment. The shadow of the ‘30 September Movement’ and the assassination of six generals in Lubang Buaya is ever-present. Still, Bramantyo refuses to anchor the narrative to a single interpretation of events. Instead, he uses history as a pressure point, showing how easily political discourse curdles into myth-making, and how quickly myth becomes justification.

The film favors atmosphere over excess. The countryside settings feel claustrophobic despite the openness, reinforcing the idea that there is nowhere untouched. Darkness isn’t just a lighting choice here; it is a moral condition. Scenes stretch just long enough to let unease settle, and the violence, when it arrives, is brutal but never gratuitous. Each killing feels deliberate, symbolic, and accusatory.

Carissa Perusset and Anya Zen provide essential counterpoints to Soegeng’s internal unraveling. Their characters ground the film, offering perspectives shaped by fear, complicity, and survival. These performances prevent the story from collapsing into a purely masculine examination of power, instead widening its scope to include those who live under its consequences rather than behind its machinery.

Where THE HOLE truly excels is in its refusal to offer cleaned-up answers. The mystery doesn’t resolve itself into a single culprit, as the film argues that focusing on a single perpetrator misses the point entirely. Violence here is systemic, rehearsed, and rehearsed again through narrative. The holes left in the bodies are less shocking than the ones carved into collective memory.

The deliberate accumulation of dread in the second arc occasionally risks repetition, and some investigative beats could have been tightened without sacrificing thematic weight. However, this slowness also helps to reinforce the film’s suffocating mood. Progress feels impossible because, in many ways, it is.

THE HOLE, 309 DAYS TO THE BLOODIEST TRAGEDY is not an easy watch, nor does it want to be, nor is it meant to be. It understands that horror rooted in history should leave bruises. By blending folklore, political thriller, and crime investigation, Bramantyo crafts a film that feels timeless and alarmingly contemporary. It suggests that when societies choose myth over truth, ghosts are not the worst thing they create. This is horror as reckoning, not entertainment. It lingers because it refuses to let the past stay buried, and because it recognizes that the most terrifying monsters are the ones we agree not to name.

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[photo courtesy of ADHYA PICTURES, DAPUR FILM, EST N8]

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