As someone who doesn’t frown at jumpscares, I actually enjoyed some parts of Rizal Mantovani’s Pusaka. Usually, one would think the use of tropes tarnishes a good horror, but Mantovani makes sure to use the tools in his arsenal to maximum effect. Based on an Indonesian weapon, Keris, the movie shows us the consequences of fidgeting with an ancient blade that is perfectly harmless when left alone.
Spoilers Ahead
What happens in the movie?
Desperate to keep their company running, Nina and her group take a job for a rich family, surveying an old villa full of artifacts and turning it into a museum. It doesn’t sound too bad at first, but the group is given only three days to finish their work. The owner of the villa, Randi, greets the group and gives them a little tour before things go downhill. Randi’s sister Bian seems upset about them staying the night in the villa, and when Sandra tries to gossip with Bian about one of her co-workers, Hanna, Bian refuses to play along. Now Sandra is someone who, for some unknown reason, is obsessed with Hanna. She keeps bringing up Hanna’s traumatic divorce story and her leaked video on an adult website. But when Sandra goes out of her way to bully Hanna, David tries to intervene. In a tussle, they discover a secret door to the basement, and the room is full of ancient artifacts. This is where we learn about Keris, a dagger that is known for wreaking havoc on the battlefield and helping certain Kings win full-fledged wars. Just when the group is invested in hearing about the lore of Keris, Sandra decides to pick up Keris and play with it. Her hand gets cut in the process, and she gets possessed by the dagger.
What does the Keris want?
The dagger Keris in Pusaka works differently than your average blade. According to the history expert of the group, Professor Dirga, this is supposed to be the seventh Keris, a dagger so powerful it killed its own creator. This weapon is so lethal that whoever wields it is bound to lose their mind and become bloodthirsty. With each life the blade claims, it forms a curve, demanding seven lives to restore its original form and release the person it possesses. So naturally Sandra is zombified and out for blood, and her first kill is Professor Dirga. The group tries to save the professor after he’s initially struck by the blade, but Sandra eventually peels the skin from Dirga’s face, her hands guided by an ancient monstrosity. As Sandra claims her first kill, Keris forms a curve to signify the beginning of the seven kills. Randi is scared for his life, and he admits his father covered up an incident that involved a burglary. Apparently, the burglars tried to take the wrong thing, and his father returned to find his security and the burglars dead, except the last person, who was possibly wielding the dagger. Instead of getting rid of the dagger, the collector just upped the villa’s security, hiding the dark secrets within its walls.
Does David kill Sandra?
Sandra, under the possession of Keris, basically proves to be unkillable. When Darmo, the security guy, comes inside the villa to look for everyone, Sandra decapitates him while Ade gets the front-row view of the horror. Sandra stabs Darmo repeatedly, proving that all the blade wants is blood. To make things worse, if someone is even scratched by Keris, they become infected. So Nina fails to avoid a slash of the blade and eventually gets killed. David gets stabbed while trying to save Hanna, and Bien, too, gets injured. Hanna momentarily manages to knock Sandra out, and Randi takes Keris with him. They realize that, without the blade, Sandra is vulnerable. When Hanna runs a lawn mower over Sandra’s head, and she starts to regenerate once again, David takes the opportunity to grab Keris and kill Sandra effectively. But little did he know that if the host is killed, Keris just takes over the next infected person. David goes cuckoo, and immediately kills Mayang, Professor Dirga’s assistant.
Why does Randi kill Ade?
When Randi got hold of Keris for a bit, Sandra chased him and cut a part of his throat with Keris. Randi saved his life, but then blames Ade for leaving him alone. But Ade has had enough of rich people just bullying him, and he decides to stand up for himself; perhaps the fear of death made him a braver person. But Randi isn’t someone who can tolerate the truth, and when Ade calls him out on his privilege, Randi decides to smash his head in for such audacity. Randi figured that if he made it till seven people were killed, he could make it out alive. This killer instinct kicks in and Randy starts plotting murders left and right. When possessed, David shows up in the basement; Randi smartly pushes a huge statue on top of him, leaving David stuck and crippled. Hanna eventually goes against her heart and kills David.
Who survives the night in the villa?
During Pusaka’s ending, just when Hanna kills David, Randi makes the calculations and realizes that he needs to kill one more person to end the horror. Seeing as it’s only Hanna and his own sister left alive, Randi attacks Hanna. Hanna, however, manages to kill Randi on her own. But the blade has still only claimed six lives, as Ade and Randi were killed with different objects. Hanna discovers Bien slowly getting infected, and she decides to end the madness once and for all. Hanna had suffered a lot in her failed marriage, and the trauma was already too much for her to cope with. She found out about David having feelings for her, and then she’d had to take his life the same night. Hanna simply refuses to live a life this tragic, and she uses Keris to kill herself. The blade once again goes back to its original form, leaving more than seven bodies behind. Bien remains the only survivor of this mayhem, and you can see the parallel between Bien staring into nothingness and the first scene of Pusaka, where we can see the only survivor being traumatized from the burglary incident years ago. Whenever someone wields the seventh Keris, bloodshed is inevitable.
Can there be a sequel?
Six months later, the villa is shown to be repurposed as a museum, as intended, with the deadly Keris on display. The only person responsible for the madness was Randi’s father, Senior Wisangko, who valued his collection more than people’s lives. It’s ironic how his last wish of opening the museum was fulfilled in exchange for the lives of innocent people. We don’t know what happened to the only survivor and the heir to the museum, Bien. Whether she was escorted safely or arrested by the police is an unanswered question for now, but it is very much possible that she will come back if there’s a sequel. Since the infamous dagger is still out in the open, and it takes just one small mistake to unleash the wrath of Keris.
