The 2024 Indonesian movie on Netflix called Monster revolves around two schoolchildren named Alana and Rabin who get abducted by a man named Jack. Jack feels like the real monster in the story, as it becomes clear he has done this before. But he is not alone; his wife, Murni, is also involved in these abductions. The film has no dialogue as such. And honestly, there is no need, as the atmosphere of terror with panting and screaming is enough to fill the void. Despite the horrifying situation, Alana and Rabin show incredible courage to escape. Their struggle to survive from the monsters becomes more intense and involves killing to survive. The movie does not have many characters, only four main ones: Alana, Rabin, Jack, and Murni. So let’s look at the cast and characters of Monster, directed by Rako Prijanto.
Spoilers Ahead
Alana
Anantya Kirana playing Alana in the movie, literally stole the show with her acting. Despite her young age, she shone through by showing both horror in her eyes and courage to survive the situation. When she and her friend Rabin were abducted by a strange, bearded man named Jack from their school and then held captive in his trunk, you immediately got the sense that this girl would do anything to survive. For instance, when Jack took her friend Rabin inside the house, Alana did everything she could, even risking her own life, to get them both out of the desolate house. She saw Jack cutting up another child’s body with a chainsaw, but this didn’t scare her off; she was determined to save Rabin. Even though she was scared, Alana mustered the courage to stab Jack with a knife. Although it was by mistake, she remained calm and tried to hide the body so Jack’s wife, Murni, wouldn’t find out. She even found a telephone and called the police. When the police arrived and Murni killed the officer, Alana still managed to hurt Murni’s leg and get herself and Rabin out of the house. She then got into the police car to call for help. Alana’s quick thinking and bravery helped her and her friend escape that horrible situation as the police arrived on time, which was really commendable.
Rabin
Rabin’s character, played by Sultan Hamonangan, was another kid who got abducted by Jack from their school. From the very beginning, Jack seemed fixated on capturing Rabin. It was unclear why, but it felt like Jack had some serious hatred toward young boys. Rabin was taken by the monster and couldn’t escape on his own. However, with his friend Alana’s help, he managed to survive. The terror he faced was huge, especially when he saw the bearded man cutting his own wrist right in front of him. It was horrifying, and Rabin felt like there was no way to survive. I mean, a man who could hurt himself could easily hurt him too. Ultimately, with Alana’s help, he did survive. Experiencing such terror at such a young age must have had a significant impact on him. Thankfully, with his friend’s courage and support, he survived, which was a big win.
Jack
Jack is the real monster in the story, and his character is played by Alex Abbad. I recently saw Alex Abbad’s performance in another Indonesian movie, “Falling in Love Like in the Movies,” and really liked it. In this movie, though, his character is both horrifying and disgusting, but the way he played his role is truly something else. To be honest, the movie really lacks the thriller aspect, but his performance is the only thrill that will send a chill down your spine. For instance, from the get-go, how he determinedly followed the two kids from their school, abducted them, and took them to his isolated house, it felt like this wasn’t the first time he had done such a thing. He had done this before because another little boy was hidden under his bed, and he had multiple pictures hidden in his drawers of several young boys he had kidnapped before. It’s like his daily job, where he had a full setup of cameras to take their pictures and a chainsaw to cut their bodies down, sending them off to a specific delivery person. I don’t know if he was involved in organ smuggling or not, but whatever he was doing was very shady. The swarming of cockroaches around the house felt like paid actors to show how terrifying he was. He didn’t fear hurting himself; he cut his own wrists, and even when he was cutting the boy’s bodies with a chainsaw, it felt like he was cutting a cake. The sight of blood didn’t seem to make him squeamish, which was truly horrifying. Anyway, the way that man got killed by the young Alana was truly ironic. After all, the man who had been killing little children was killed by one.
Murni
Murni’s character in the movie, played by Marsha Timothy, is equally horrifying. This woman knows that her husband is engaged in kidnapping young children, cutting their bodies, and sending them away, but the movie doesn’t clearly show their motive—why they were doing such things and why they had so much hatred for young children. Was it past trauma or anything? We don’t know that. Anyway, it makes sense why this woman was so obsessed with killing Alana and Rabin, as Alana killed her husband Jack to survive. When Murni found out he’d died after calling her husband’s phone and finding him in the bushes, she was determined to find the killer. At first, she wasn’t very brave and didn’t realize it was a kid who had done it. She thought it was someone else’s, so she tried to escape. But once she realized it was Alana, she felt superior and tried to terrify the young children by chasing them with an axe. Honestly, after a while, it got quite boring as the children kept running away, and she kept chasing them with the axe, trying to kill them. She didn’t succeed, though, as the police arrived in time and shot her down. The monster had to fall, and I was glad she did.
