The Elixir Review
Director: Kimo Stamboel
Date Created: 2025-10-23 18:28
3.5
The Elixir Review: Directed by Kimo Stamboel, Abadi Nan Jaya is an Indonesian horror film that runs for around 116 minutes. The movie stars Eva Celia as Karina, Mikha Tambayong as Kenes along with Donny Damara as Kenes’ Father, Dimas Anggara as Rudi, Marthino Lio as Bambang and others in important supporting roles. This horror film mixes family drama and zombie chaos quite literally into one wild potion.
The Elixir Review
The story centres on a family that runs a classic herbal remedies store. Pandemonium erupts after a fresh concoction of a beverage that will restore an individual’s youthfulness and vitality hits from the dad. The seemingly miraculous drink has horrific side effects, unleashing a zombie epidemic that accelerates faster than it could ever be contained. From this point, The Elixir proves to be a high-octane survival novel that includes pandemonium, guilt, as well as a few comedic family relations that come with laughter as often as suspense.
Honestly, zombie movies are a bit formulaic. Something scientific or medical gets out of control, and everyone’s just running for dear life. So yes, the movie The Elixir isn’t very original. It’s a bit predictable in almost every respect. What it gets perfectly, though, is executing that formula with conviction.
The film never truly gets a chance to get suspenseful; it plunges headfirst into action. I liked that it didn’t get too weighty. Mashing up standard Indonesian settings, culture, and family antagonism adds a pleasant, fresh angle to the formula. It was a bit predictable to know generally where it was headed, but it was still necessary for it to keep going to discover just how this particular family would find a way to mess this up.
Director Kimo Stamboel, who specialises in raw horror, devotes more time to minute-by-minute survival than overlong expositions. There’s no scientific explanation, but lots of running, screaming, and panicking decision-making. Usually, that irritates me, but for some unknown reason, it works for The Elixir as it comes out as organic chaos. The characters make bad choices, but in a calamity, who wouldn’t?
One of the good things about Netflix’s The Elixir was that, slowly, its characters became more compelling as time passed. At first, everyone seems annoyingly silly or flummoxed, screaming at one another, doing idiotic things, and not listening. But as it gets more desperate, you get to see small moments of care, bravery, and regret.
Eva Celia as Karina shines with a powerful, passionate performance. She embodies a woman torn between doing what’s right for her friend and doing what it takes to survive. Mikha Tambayong shines as Kenes, torn between doing what her father wants, having him marry her best friend, and doing what’s ethically/right. Both of their on-screen relationships as best friends turn step-mother-daughter-turned-survivors, enrich what otherwise might’ve been a simple bloody manhunt.
What didn’t sit with me, though, was that some side characters are introduced just to disappear a few scenes later, most notably Ningsih and Rahman, who didn’t get a decent arc worked out for them. The movie could have taken a little more time bringing us aware of them before they became zombie chow. It’s that which makes this Indonesian horror film The Elixir not as awesome as its predecessors; it doesn’t give us enough emotional investment with every loss.
If you’re coming to watch the Indonesian movie The Elixir for high-theme or new plotlines, you’re going to be disappointed. But if you’re here for zombie goodness, this delivers. Makeup work as well as practical effects, are just wonderfully done. CGI overuse has been kept away here in favour of grittier, more realistic-looking images, which I personally appreciate.
There’s a certain Indonesian-ness to its unfolding that you’re not going to get with your standard Western zombie movie. Setting, local culture, even that family business selling out of traditional herbal remedies, this feels distinct from your standard Western zombie movie. Horror needn’t necessarily come out of high-tech labs; it gets concocted out of local backyard materials that everyone holds stock in.
I also liked that they use rain and thunder as a plot device, not as a deus ex magic, but as a time of disorientation for the undead. It’s a small stroke of creative invention that serves to loosen up a bit the predictability of certain survival sequences.
Though, as far as pace and description, as much as I enjoyed its pace and descriptions, it stumbles slightly here and there. Not telling us much about the nature of the elixir itself was a disappointment. We really never learn why it changes humans to a zombie state or its actual chemical/mystical make-up. It may have added a bit more depth to it.
The tone also shifts abruptly at certain points; sometimes it’s serious, sadistic, or gruesome, but at others it appears to be black humour. This inconsistent formula might confuse a few viewers who are looking for a more consistent horror experience. And yes, at certain points, characters are just that silly in judgment that it dispels suspense rather than generates it.
Though it has such flaws, it will never get stale. It will keep you hooked since there’s always something that’s about to happen, whether it’s a fresh attack, a narrow escape, or a moral dilemma that will challenge the family tie.
Netflix The Elixir Review: Summing Up
In the end, it’s not a great film, but at least it’s a fun one. It knows it’s a messy, mawkish, at times absurd zombie fest, but it holds fast to that flag with pride. I had seen so many zombie films, they start getting a bit same-old, after a certain point, but this Netflix Original was different for me with its local twist, out-of-the-box thinking, and its horror with family drama fusion.
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