Synopsis
Mantra Surugana is a 2023 Indonesian horror film that weaves together classic scares with deep-rooted myth and real-world trauma. The story centers on Tantri, a first-year student who arrives at a university dorm eager for new beginnings. Instead, she finds a darkness that eclipses her brightest dreams.
Very soon after settling in, the atmosphere shifts. The walls creak at odd hours, silhouettes dart at the edge of her vision, and hushed voices warn of students who never returned from the night. Tantri tries to shake off the chill, chalking it up to nervousness or local gossip. Yet when a fellow resident disappears in daylight, her skepticism turns to obsession. She cannot rest until she learns what the night is hiding.
Her quest unearths Surugana, a demon born of a forbidden incantation. Dormitory archives tell of a buried ceremony, one stained by sexual violence and buried emotional wounds. Surugana is no ordinary ghost; it is trauma itself, crystallized into a predator. Every woman who faced cruelty and was forced to forget adds fuel to its fire, and now the dormitory is once again its hunting ground.
As Tantri digs deeper into the dorm’s forgotten history, the past rears up to bite: somebody has whispered the cursed mantra again. Every secret she digs up makes the walls pulse with danger. Soon the visions start—bloody handprints across the mirror, faces twisted beyond the living, dreams that stretch into daylight until she can’t tell if she’s still asleep.
Her closest friends slip one after another—one friends spills secrets until she breaks, another vanishes after a late-night knock. The demon has teeth, and it’s gnawing on their old scars. Tantri understands: it doesn’t just want them dead, it wants their hurt.
Now she has to race the clock for the counter-ritual that can lock Surugana away for good. The final showdown is a mirror—she faces the demon and the shame she’s never spoken. When the smoke settles, the ending hangs like a breath: Tantri might have pushed the darkness back, but the way the shadows crawl at the door tells her this fight might only be on pause.
Cast & Characters
Sitha Marino as Tantri – Tantri is a first-year college student who keeps sight of her dreams even when terror picks at the edges of her new life. Sitha breathes life into her intelligence and kindness, letting viewers see the strength hiding behind every worried glance.
Fergie Brittany as Asta – Asta starts the semester as a down-to-earth roommate who rolls her eyes at ghost stories. When the curse seeps into the building, her disbelief cracks into nightmares. Fergie’s shift from doubt to raw terror pulls the audience tighter into the campus mystery.
Luna Sabrina as Fey – Fey’s laughter fades the moment the curse finds her. Her past, tangled with loss and silence, reveals why the spirit clings to her. Luna’s quiet unraveling serves as a haunting mirror to the trauma driving the curse.
Supporting Cast – Rania Putrisari, Yusuf Mahardika, Rafael Adwel, Dewa Dayana, and Cindy Nirmala form the restless dorm family. Each student, whether searching for clues or facing the curse’s grip, weaves another strand into the dark web closing around Tantri.
Cindy Nirmala as Dahlia / Surugana – With a voice that crawls under the skin, Cindy shifts from the grieving Dahlia to the vengeful Surugana. Her chilling duality holds the audience between sympathy and dread.
Directed by Dyan Sunu Prastowo – Dyan layers Indonesian folklore over the everyday struggles of youth, crafting a horror that questions how history haunts the present while keeping viewers gripping their seats.
Writers: Budhita Arini, Ervina Isleyen, Raditya
Their screenplay uses supernatural horror as a metaphor to confront sexual violence, generational trauma, and the price of silence.
Themes and Symbolism
- The Haunting of Trauma
More than a standard ghost story, Mantra Surugana turns horror itself into a stand-in for unspoken trauma. The demon that stalks the campus embodies the ache of those who were never believed. The scares serve as a mirror, forcing us to see the cost of ignoring past violence. - Campus as Battleground
The university dorm, usually a backdrop for friendship and first freedoms, transforms into a vault of buried pain. Safety and dread rub against each other in every corridor, twisting shared spaces into sources of dread. By the final act, the campus itself becomes a restless character, a skeleton of corridors that carry centuries of unconfessed cries. - Ritual and Belief
An ancient mantra opens the story and intertwines horror with ancestral beliefs. The mantra’s chant, though rooted in folklore, becomes a lens for critique: rituals that should protect can also imprison, whether in prayer circles or administration offices.
4. Female Solidarity vs. Silence
Tantri and the other women in the dorm show the push and pull of female bonds, denial, and the weight of complicity. Some want to drag the truth into the open; others hush it, scared of the price. This clash mirrors society’s own struggle to hold power accountable, reminding us that silence can be a choice, not just a void.
5. Fear of the Unknown
Instead of spelling out where the demon comes from, the film wisely keeps the backstory loose. This choice turns the fear into something raw and instinctive. Shadows, hush, and half-heard sounds drive the tension, which tightens even more during the last act.
Visuals and Style
Mantra Surugana pours itself into atmosphere. Dim hallways, flickering candles, and staircases swallowed by dark are its rooms. Handheld camera work pulls the spectator close while also making them uncomfortable. Every whisper, footfall, and groan of wood is turned up in the sound mix, so the silence itself seems to move.
Practical effects ground the horror, especially during Surugana’s appearances. The demon’s empty gaze and decayed skin avoid the slickness of CGI and land as truly upsetting. Dreams and waking bleed together, forcing the viewer to wonder what is real—just as the film’s own plot keeps spinning that same question.
Reception
Though Mantra Surugana did not top the box office charts, horror fans have embraced it for its fresh approach and emotional honesty. Critics and viewers alike singled out Sitha Marino and Cindy Nirmala for their gripping performances, and many applauded the film for facing grim social issues without softening the horror.
Some fans felt the pacing dipped in the middle, and a few jump scares seemed borrowed from older films. Still, the majority believe that the story’s daring themes and its deep roots in local culture give it a glow that many bigger-budget films lack in the Southeast Asian scene.
Conclusion
Mantra Surugana is not just about the fright on the screen: it is a haunting call for justice, using the supernatural to speak for those who cannot. It balances regional folklore with raw trauma, leaving chills that stick to the mind and the heart.
By telling horror as a story of memory and unspoken wounds, the film speaks powerfully to today’s struggles. It forces us to reckon with the price of forgetting and to wonder if the past can ever really stay buried. Following Tantri, we learn that the darkest spirits are often the ones we refuse to face.
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