Surugana Mantra Film Lifts Sundanese Ritual To Call The Devil In The Dark Space

JAKARTA - The Surugana Mantra film is scheduled to be shown in Indonesian cinemas starting on 27 July. The film will focus on a spell to summon the Surugana demon and involve students living in a house.

Surugana's Mantra film stars Sitha Marino, Cindy Nirmala, Fergie Brittany, Shabrina Luna, Rafael Adwel, Dewa Dayana, Yusuf Mahardika, and other supporting actors. This horror film by director Dyan Sunu Prastowo raised the culture of mantra from ancient Sundanese and the story behind it to be revealed through the story in it.

Chief Executive Producer of Peregrine Studio Ervina Isleyen said the film was made by lifting one of the traditions of the old script from Sundanese, the Sundanese mantra. The production also deliberately involved language consultants and ancient Sundanese history to find out more about the tradition of the spell.

"From the literacy submitted to us, before the arrival of Islam, the Sundanese people used a spell as their life," Ervina said as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, June 21.

The ancient Sundanese people have been accustomed to using mantras as part of their daily lives, especially when they want to ask for something good, such as asking for healing from disease, good harvests, and so on. Over time, the essence of the spell shifts in a negative direction when a person starts using it for bad deeds, such as hurting others.

The word 'Surugana' in the film is taken from the name of a demon who is believed to be born and is around the West Java region or at the Sundanese Land level. The Surugana Devil or has the real name Hurugana is usually called a mantra when a person has bad intentions and sends it to other people so that he gets sick or gets unlucky.

Ervina said the name change of the Hurugana demon to Surugana was advice from their Sundanese historical consultant because he was trusted when the devil was his real name, he would come to the person who called him and could have bad luck. Therefore, the title of the film changed its name to Surugana's Mantra to anticipate this.

"Hurugana is a demon occupying dark spaces, especially the dark human heart," said Ervina.

Meanwhile, director Dyan Sunu Prastowo said it took a long process and the selection of story ideas until finally Surugana's Mantra was chosen to be worked on. The process of making films cannot be separated from CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) technology to maximize the visuals in it.

"We really think about (the film)," said Sunu.