Menjelang Ajal: Torment near death that is difficult to ward off with prayer terrorizes a family. What sin did they commit?

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Introduction

When selling your soul to a Djinn, goes horribly wrong, you have no one else to blame except yourself. No matter how good your intentions were. Menjelang Ajal is not the best Indonesian horror and it has its flaws, but its still a good entry. Directed by Hadrah Daeng Ratu, he’s made a number of horror movies such as The Corpse Washer (2024), Sijjin (2023), Dosa Musyrik (2024), and the most recent is Kitab Sijjin & Illiyyin (2025).

“A single mother who owns a food stall uses a charm for business success. After the shaman who provided it dies, the spirit demands payment and begins to terrorize the family. It becomes the children’s mission to find a cure, but it is also dangerous.”

Characters

Shareefa Daanish (as Sekar) was awesome. Shs’s already a prominent figure in the horror genre and have already starred in more than 10 productions under the genre. Great performance and there was one scene where she threw a chair at the children and it almost hit them, I love it that they didn’t cut that from the movie.

The 3 siblings, Caitlyn Halderman (as Ratna), Daffa Wardhana (as Dani), and Shakeel Fauzi (as Dodi)—all were true to their roles. Great casting in my opinion.

Good Effects and K1lls

The effects were decent to be honest, much better than that of Strange Frequencies: Taiwan Killer Hospital. Most of Menjelang Ajal did were practical effects which was great.

The k1lls were bloody good as well, not as creative but the simplicity of it added another layer of horrific impact.

Predictable Ending (Spoiler)

This is my issue with Indonesian-made horror movies, almost all that I’ve seen has that “hook” at the end. They’d show us one last scene of “It’s not over yet”, giving its viewers a cliffhanger, and very few of them actually pushes through with a sequel.

While I get what they’re going for, they’re doing it too frequently that it loses its charm.

What I Didn’t Like (Spoiler)

This is just with the direction, it didn’t make much sense for me.

• When they were doing the ritual on her, why won’t they tie her up? Its one of the stupid decisions that would lead up to a conflict.
• Towards the end, with the 1 on 1 fight between the shaman and the mother, where did the shaman apprentices go? Coffee break? When it was time to do the prayer/ritual, all of them came in and sat down like nothing happened, whereas the shaman was bloodied all over.

Final Thoughts

Menjelang Ajal is a so-so Indonesian horror with good effects, there are flaws but it has its merits as well. Indonesian horror continues to strive for greatness in this blood-soaked genre.