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I have to say this for the domestic movie industry: it’s always entertaining. Unfortunately, often not for the quality of the films it produces, but for the controversy it generates.

The latest example is the frighteningly titled “Hantu Puncak Datang Bulan” (“The Menstruating Ghost of Puncak”), a horror/soft-core porn flick that was scheduled to open on Thursday. The trailer for this cinematic masterpiece showed an unprecedented topless scene by actress Andi Soraya and some rather vigorous sex scenes; it looked more like a clip from YouPorn than a movie trailer.

Not surprisingly, the steamy teaser got the country’s moral guardians all hot under the collar, including the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), which demanded that the movie be banned, condemning it as a “moral terrorist.”

The Film Censorship Board (LSF), supposedly the only institution in the country with the legitimate authority to rate and ban films, however, stuck by its decision to give the movie the green light. But on Thursday night, the movie’s production house, K2K Production, decided not to release the film into theaters after receiving SMS threats from the hard-liners over at the FPI.

On the one hand, I’m pleased that “Hantu Puncak” won’t be sullying our movie screens. This, however, has nothing to do with all the moral gibberish being spouted by the MUI and FPI. Instead, it has everything to do with my belief that really bad horror movies like “Hantu Puncak” tarnish the reputation of the Indonesian film industry.

These horror movies are about as scary as the swan boat ride down at Taman Mini. The ghosts look as fake as the smile on Aburizal Bakrie’s face as he talks about how much he likes Sri Mulyani Indrawati. The makeup looks like it was done by a 5-year-old wielding a box of dull crayons. And the titles; well, they speak for themselves: “Hantu Binal Jembatan Semanggi” (“The Slutty Semanggi Bridge Ghost”), “Suster Keramas” (“The Hair-Washing Nurse”) and “Toilet 105.”

I contend that these filmmakers know their movies are so bad that they play the sex card just to generate a bit of controversy and get bodies into the theater. “Air Terjun Pengantin” (“The Bride’s Waterfall”) was little more than a risque exploration of Tamara Bleszynski’s body, while the main attraction of “Suster Keramas” was the presence of Japanese porn star Rin Sakuragi.

Even more alarming is that bad horror movies dominate the local scene, so when people think about Indonesian film, they think laughable fright flicks. That’s a shame, because we have some really good directors making quality movies that have won awards at prestigious international film festivals .

So, yes, Indonesian filmmakers should stop making movies about menstruating ghosts who like to wash hair and dress up like tarts and hang around Semanggi bridge, but not because the MUI and FPI tell them to.

As bad as “Hantu Puncak” may be, the filmmaker’s coerced decision to keep the movie out of cinemas is a huge blow to the film industry, and the creative industry in general. To start with, filmmakers here already have an institutional albatross to deal with: the government.

The 2009 Film Law gives the government the legal clout to control filmmakers. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism sided with the hard-liners against Maxima Pictures and its plan to bring Japanese porn star Miyabi to the country to star in a comedy flick. And the censorship board banned the planned screening of “Balibo” at last year’s Jakarta International Film Festival — strike three.

Here’s the thing; “Hantu Puncak” passed the censors, giving it the legal right to be shown in theaters. So by what right did the thuggish FPI threaten to ransack cinemas if “Hantu Puncak” was shown? This is entertainingly ironic: A fictional movie is called a “moral terrorist” by people who are notorious for their real-life acts of terror.

And where is the government? Its censorship agency passed “Hantu Puncak,” so why is it allowing the movie’s producers to be threatened and terrorized. When the government is dictated to like this by hard-liners, it not only does an injustice to the filmmakers, but also undermines its very legitimacy.

In the end, people should have the right to make their own decision on what is or isn’t moral. A movie is not the Bible or the Koran. It’s there to entertain, not offer moral guidance. Now, I’m not entirely sure what the menstruating ghost is trying to say. But if Indonesia wants to remain a democracy, everyone should have the right to say what they want — even through bad horror flicks.



Armando Siahaan is a features reporter for the Jakarta Globe.