Kiblat Movie Controversy Is The Spotlight Of Netizens And The Reason For The Laku Religious Horror Film

Para pemain film Kiblat dalam konferensi pers. (Special)

JAKARTA Belum juga tayang di bioskop, film Kiblat yang baru merilis trailer pada Kamis (21/3/2024), sudah membakar kontroversi. Film bergenre horor religi ini banyak mendapat kritik dari publik, termasuk dari tokoh agama hingga Majelis Ulama Indonesia.

The film Kiblat tells the story of a woman named Ainun whose life is lost. He follows the leader of the padepokan called Abah Mulya who is famous for being powerful and can cure disease and double money. As a result of this action, Ainun and his friends were hit by a mystical experience. They are terrorized by supernatural beings, including by moving towards Qibla during prayers.

Film yang dibintangi Yasmin Napper, Ria Ricis, Arbani Yasiz, Hana Saraswati, dan Denny Adhiswara ini dijadwalkan rilis pada 2024, namun hingga kini belum ada tanggal pasti. Tapi belum juga sempat tayang di bioskop, film Kiblat sudah mendapat kritikan dari publik.

Netray Media Monitoring monitors the conversation of netizens X, previously Twitter, about this film using the keyword film &&kilat in the monitoring period March 21, April 3, 2024.

As a result, 1.6,000 uploads were found related to keywords. These uploads were raised by more than nine hundred accounts with potential contacts reaching 74.1 million accounts, "said the Netray report.

Since the beginning of the trailer release, this conversation has begun to be seen even though it is still quiet on the five days of broadcast. It was only on the sixth day, March 26, 2024, that netizens' discussion about this keyword climbed and reached its peak the next day with a total of 592 uploads a day.

Netizens' conversations were dominated by a negative response of 385 uploads, and only 94 uploads gave positive responses.

At the beginning of the broadcast, netizens began to criticize the footage of the Kiblat film. One of the criticisms on the day H of the trailer release became the most popular upload. The @gf0rcex account argues that the Kiblat film will only make parto people who will perform prayer. In addition, he also thinks 'tiblat' is a sacred thing for Muslims.

Not only netizens, but this film that has not officially aired also received attention from religious leaders. Ustadz Adi Hidayat's comments regarding this film were widely re-uploaded by netizens. According to the ustadz, it is not legal to make film titles that are contrary to the moral values that have been rooted in the community. Warganet hopes that the statement of Deputy Chair I of the Muhammadiyah Central Leadership Tabligh Council will be input for filmmakers who will make films.

The spotlight also came from the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) on this Bobby Prasetyo film. MUI chairman Cholil Nafis considers the title of Qiblat used by films to be too discredited by religion.

"Many times use sensitive promotions and controversies to attract attention and many spectators. However, when it comes to religion, usually even cannot be watched," said Cholil.

Cholil said religion should not be used to reap profits. Therefore, actions taken by filmmakers like Qiblat cannot be tolerated.

"Often religious reactions are played by business people to reap material benefits. This one should not be allowed to be fought," said Cholil.

Responding to various comments regarding the title and poster of the film, the Kiblat film production house team to speak up. The upload @yan_widjaya said producer Leo Pictures, Agung Saputra, had met with the MUI management to apologize for the noise. Agung and his team even planned to change the title and poster according to MUI's appeal.

Films with religious horror themes have existed since the New Order era. At that time, the government through the Film Censorship Agency (BSF) issued a Film Production Code that strictly controls the glass screen. In a journal uploaded by Raka Putra Pratama in the Blog Medium, horror films at that time were required to present religious elements in order to pass censorship. Therefore, horror films in the New Order era gave rise to many kyai figures who were often considered not to be integrated with the storyline.

Meanwhile, film rules such as in the New Order are no longer the benchmark for Indonesian filmmakers. Religious elements in Indonesian horror films began to be absent at the beginning of reform, until they became a trend in this modern era.

According to the famous director Joko Anwar, religion is something that cannot be separated from the Indonesian people so that including religious elements in horror films is also needed to look relevant. According to him, religious elements contained in a film must be intended as strengthening messages or da'wah and not to scare the audience.

"But don't exploit religion. We have to respect religion that is upheld and appreciated by the Indonesian people as a religious nation, so we must respect it," said Joko Anwar.

"So it must be clear that the film's story is not just a surprise, a series of things, that's wrong," said the grave ceremony director.

The religious horror trend is also in the spotlight of director and screenwriter Gina S. Noer. He said religious elements are often used only to trigger jumpscare. Film lovers even always make this element a benchmark for the success of a film.