Film Title: The Draft! (Indonesian Language film) Setán Alas!
Cast: Stars Adhin Abdul Hakim, Anastasia Herzigova, Anggi Waluyo, Haydar Salishz, and Winner Wijaya
Director: Yusron Fuadi
Writer: Yusron Fuad, Richard James Halstead, and B.W. Purba Negara
Distribution: Shudder + Scream Box + Big Tree Entertainment
Production: Akasacara Film and Vokasi Studios
Release Date: March 5, 2026 (Screener provided by Shudder | More streaming options below
Review by: Mother of Movies
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This review discusses the meta-narrative structure and specific character deaths/resurrections. If you want to experience the writer vs. character warfare fresh, bookmark this and come back after viewing.
Watch the Trailer Setán Alas!
When Your Own Story Wants You Dead
Indonesian horror The Draft! arrives at a moment when we’re all questioning who’s really in control, algorithms deciding what we see, AI writing our emails, corporations scripting our lives. So why not a horror film where the characters realize they’re trapped in a manuscript, battling an omnipotent writer who can kill, resurrect, and revise them at will?
It’s Scream meets Stranger Than Fiction with a Southeast Asian sensibility that understands cosmic dread doesn’t need Western aesthetics to land. Five teenagers arrive at a decrepit villa with all the classic horror movie ingredients: an old well, a forbidden room, a cemetery within walking distance, and a caretaker who appears like a jump-scare ghost. They immediately call out the tropes, “This is exactly how horror movies start,” before promptly ignoring their own warnings and splitting up anyway.
The self-aware horror genre has been strip-mined since Cabin in the Woods, but The Draft carves out fresh-ish territory by making the meta-commentary literal. When Ani’s boyfriend, Iwan, dies on the first night, a massive hooked knife protruding from his chest, it should be game over. Except the writer (shown smoking cigarettes in direct opposition to the trapped characters in far later scenes) can bring him back, rewrite his death, or turn him into a zombie antagonist. The characters aren’t just aware they’re in a horror movie; they’re aware someone is actively writing them into danger.
Budget Constraints as Narrative Device
Wati, the group’s resident nerd with the video camera, becomes the film’s conscience and strategist. He’s the first to articulate what’s happening: “I feel like we’re being written.” When the writer traps them by conjuring a cliff where the escape road should be, Wati calls it “lazy writing”, a dig at both the in-universe creator and horror screenwriters everywhere who use geography as a cage.
The film’s most inspired move is making the characters negotiate with their own narrative constraints. They realize that if one character asks another about a family gun stash, that exposition creates the weapons they need. It’s Chekhov’s Gun weaponized, literally. When zombies appear en masse, the characters mock the writer for attempting a set piece his budget clearly can’t afford. It’s cheeky without being smug, acknowledging the film’s own limitations while turning them into plot points.
The aesthetic supports this meta-framework beautifully. The villa is genuinely unsettling, with peeling wallpaper, broken furniture, and shadows that seem to breathe. The cinematography doesn’t try to hide the production’s modest scale; instead, it leans into claustrophobia, using tight frames and angles to make the space feel like a manuscript page the characters can’t escape. When the writer revises Budi’s death, forcing him to tear his own face apart, the practical effects are visceral enough to make Ani’s repeated grief feel real, even as she cycles through mourning him multiple times.
Resurrection as Torture
The emotional core is surprisingly affecting for a film this conceptually playful. The film understands that horror isn’t just about death, it’s about anticipating death, surviving it, and being forced to relive it. When the writer takes Wati’s leg in retaliation for the characters’ defiance, it’s not just body horror; it’s a power play, a reminder that autonomy is an illusion when someone else holds the pen.
The banter among the group keeps the tone from collapsing into nihilism. The chemistry reads as genuine. These feel like actual friends, not archetypes assembled for a body count. When they decide to defend themselves by learning every prayer they can, never picking up cursed daggers, and refusing to be alone, it’s both a survival strategy and a middle finger to genre conventions. They speculate the writer might have stopped drafting, maybe he ran out of money, lost interest, or simply grew older and moved on. It’s a strangely melancholic beat in a film about fighting for narrative agency.
When the Credits Roll Before the Story Ends
The ending refuses resolution. The film concludes with outtakes, a choice that feels both cheeky and thematically consistent. The story never gets made. The characters exist in perpetual draft limbo, their fates unresolved because the writer abandoned them. In 2026, when so many creative projects are left unfinished due to industry collapse, algorithm shifts, or simple burnout, it’s accidentally prescient. The Draft isn’t just about characters trapped in a manuscript; it’s about the anxiety of being a story no one finishes telling.
Does it overstay its welcome? Slightly. Around the midpoint, the cleverness starts to feel redundant; there are only so many ways to comment on horror tropes before the commentary itself becomes the trope. I dozed off briefly and missed nothing crucial, which suggests the film could’ve shaved ten minutes without losing impact. But the core concept is strong enough to carry it through for those less tired than I was, and the finale’s refusal to deliver catharsis is more interesting than a tidy bow.
Indonesian Cinema
Indonesian horror has been experiencing a renaissance, with films like Impetigore and May the Devil Take You gaining international attention. The Draft continues this trend, blending local folklore aesthetics with universal meta-horror language. Shudder’s acquisition signals its ongoing commitment to elevating Southeast Asian genre cinema, following successful releases like The Medium and Satan’s Slaves.
Online buzz has been minimal pre-release, likely due to the film’s niche appeal and lack of star power in Western markets. However, horror communities on Reddit and Letterboxd have expressed interest in the meta-narrative angle, comparing it to Cabin in the Woods and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare.
The Draft is rated:
3.5 Manuscripts that should’ve stayed in the drawer out of 5
Rating & Verdict “The Draft!”
Meta-Horror with Existential Teeth
The Draft is what happens when characters realize they’re trapped in a manuscript and decide to fight back. It’s Censor meets Into the Mouth of Madness, with enough self-awareness to be clever without collapsing into smugness.
![Scene from The Draft! directed by Yusron Fuadi], image courtesy of Shudder](https://vanessasnonspoilers.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Self-aware-horror-films-like-Cabin-in-the-Woods-1280x533.jpg)
Did You Love The Draft? Watch These Meta-Horror Mindbenders:
Cabin in the Woods (2012) – Joss Whedon’s deconstruction of horror tropes, where characters are manipulated by unseen forces for a ritual sacrifice. The ultimate “horror movie about horror movies.”
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994) – Freddy Krueger escapes fiction and terrorizes the real-world actress who played Nancy. Meta-horror before it was cool.
Censor (2021) is a hugely underrated hidden gem that blurs fiction and reality in the heart of both the film world and solving a historic crime.
Knife + Heart (2018) Reality and the film’s script collapse into each other as a female filmmaker is making a porn/slasher film.
Funny Games (1997) – Michael Haneke’s brutal examination of audience complicity, where home invaders break the fourth wall and rewind the film when things don’t go their way.
Triangle (2009) – Time-loop horror where the protagonist is trapped in a recursive nightmare, forced to relive and revise her own survival.
Cigarette Burns (2005) is a horror television film directed by John Carpenter, Part of the anthology series Masters of Horror. A cursed film that rewrites reality and drives viewers insane. The film itself is the trap; once engaged, you are part of its story.
Streaming Options
Setan Alas! (The Draft!) (2026) is streaming on:
The Draft! (2026): Meta-Horror Where Characters Fight Their Creator
Director: Yusron Fuadi
Date Created: 2026-03-05 19:55
3.5
