HAUNTU MALAYSIA — Attraction in Petaling Jaya

Hi! I went to Hauntu Seri Panggung at the Curve last Saturday. I am a huge fan. I’ve been to the haunted ‘Colle Eastern Hotel’ the Linc twice and I enjoyed it so much. Hauntu is truly a one-of-a-kind immersive horror experience, and was so excited to try ‘Seri Panggung’.

1. First, let’s start on a positive note. The actors were fantastic! Widuri was believable as the frightened kg girl (with a fantastic singing voice!); while Mak Minah was so engaging in the way she speaks and dance. So impressive! Well done to the actors!

2. The storyline is very interesting. Children looking for their mother at this eerie, mysterious dance academy. The decision making at the end was so delightfully nerve-wrecking and you guys built up the suspense really well! Memang saspen gile weh terjerit-jerit nak decide dah la tu scene paling scary.

3. The setting - wow. Kudos to your set designers! Colle Eastern Hotel was gorgeous and exudes that authentic haunted hotel feel; and Seri Panggung did not disappoint. The traditional kg house was filled with furniture reminiscent of my Opah’s home, the dance studio and even during that final scene (no spoilers)— everything transported us to the storyline. Good job! (Just one komplen lah - apsal gelap sangat, so sayang you guys already created such authentic kampung setting but we can’t fully appreciate coz so gelap. Dim is alright sebab rumah kampung kan and to give that eerie feel but not la totally gelap, guys!)

4. Ok now - the neg. There was this part where Widuri asked everyone to ‘pray’ to the ancient guru. It was in a secluded corner, with a deity statue on a table. I don’t mind a black magic storyline. I don’t mind if the character who is the one praying to the statue - but I was very uncomfortable with the character asking everyone to join in and even repeat the prayer along with her.

5. Now when this was happening, I did not join in, but I tried to memorize the prayer or ‘magic words’ as I see it (something like om om kumari om) because I thought it would come up later (just like how we read the files before the starting of ‘The Investigators’ at d Linc where in the middle of play a character would randomly asked us about what we read.) However here, the prayer lines never came up again, so that ancient guru bit was kinda unnecessary to involve us. And also, why would us the ‘children’ be ‘praying’ to the ancient guru? We just want answers about our mother!

6. If you wanted to show that Widuri wanted so much to be ‘Seri Panggung’ (coz the ancient guru is the one who bestowed the title) you can just have a potrait of the ancient guru and Widuri could just keep talking to the potrait so devotedly.

7. There are so many ways to go about this, without resulting in making Muslim participants ‘pray’ to a ‘deity statue’ which is unacceptable in Islam. I’m sure you would say eh tapi ramai je Muslims who went did participate wholeheartedly in that scene, and I cannot speak for them personally - but I, as a fellow Muslim, I am saying it, that I strongly implore Hauntu team to edit this bit to avoid any future misunderstanding. It is, after all based on a traditional Malay setting. In one P Ramlee movie, the characters recite things like ‘hey mambang tanah, mambang pokok bla bla’ as they meditate, and it’s widely known for Malays to say things like ‘maaf tok, anak cucu tumpang lalu’ when in a jungle or unfamiliar place - but never worshipping a statue. A ‘deity statue’ should not be in the mix when it comes to Malay folklore. Hauntu team should be more mindful when setting storylines.

8. The character Mak Minah taught us to ‘fight’ the evil with a traditional dance move and that was awesome! Everyone was so into it! Build up on that. Tak perlu statue; let the participants use kuda kepang, gamelan and all the other traditional elements. Focus on traditional elements not religious elements. Tourists would love that kinda experience when they get to try!

Thank you for reading my long review. Sincerely, a...

31/8/23, Thursday, 8.30pm:

Had been to the LINC's Hauntu. 1st timer for The Curve's Hauntu. Booking for a slot and paying for the tickets were easy and fully online. Emails received and reminder via WA was a nice touch. There were 5 of us, 3 adults + 2 childrens. We were banded together with another group so total of 8 people for the 8.30 pm slot. The other group were nice and we had no problems in communicating and being a team. Appreciative feedback: After the paperwork are done (consent form for the childrens), we were given 2 lockers since we are made up of 2 groups so that was nice. Briefing was done elegantly just like a cinema setting on the whole hauntu concept, the do's and don'ts etc. The setting, props, use of digital technology, the actors were really great. More spaces here as compared to the LINC buat the standard and quality are at par.

Constructive feedback: Team to consider adjusting the background music or sound during the initial context setting done by the guy at the beginning in the cinema-like room after the intro video to give more clarity to audience. Music quite loud and some words re not clear to participants. At the end of it all, perhaps to bring the team back to a more condusive room for filling up the review and for Q&A's. We were out at the front of the Hauntu for filling up the survey and discussing on the ending and decisions made which can be heard by other groups who are about to enter Hauntu. On the part where there are involvement of speaking / praying to a figurine.. i know that the participants are not reqired to follow..but seeing the actors (i presumed is a muslim) doing it made me feel a bit uncomfortable. Please do have a check / review with the subject matter experts on this matter.

Overall, we had a great time and insyaallah, will participate in the next adventure / episode. Kipidap guys!

#hauntu...

Being a loyal fan of Breakout and Hauntu, we had been anticipating for this new outlet very much. We made all the efforts to travel down to KL just for this experience. However, unfortunately, it was a disappointing one.

We had another 8 players with us, they were nice, funny and friendly. However, bcuz of the height and size difference we were blocked by them throughout the experience. Imagine being there but could hardly see anything, clueless and just moved on. No actions were done by the NPC to help us even a little when we were struggling. We did make our efforts too, but the others were too immersed in the experience so it was futile.

Please provide a locker with locks. Even though there is a CCTV there, but it's still possible for someone to just steal and go. It's quite shocking that they actually let the players to put their belongings in an unlocked cabinet.

The storyline and the number of jump scares are hardly enough. There were too much unnecessary obstacle, for example too much door sill on the path. Horror wise, at the beginning it was okay but half way through it was just boring. Storyline is not well designed, the use of space could be better.

However, the good thing is the players had more role or action to do compared to the previous outlet.

We hope that the new outlet can improve, and we would love to visit here again for better experience.

Note that this comment is not meant to bring down anyone, but we are just expressing based on our experience just now. We genuinely hope that actions could be taken for the better version of the experience,...