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The Corpse Washer (Pemandi Jenazah, 2024) Movie Explained

 
Pemandi Jenazah

Pemandi Jenazah (The Corpse Washer) begins as it will end, transporting viewers along a dark, atmospheric journey staged against tradition and intrigue. Teenage woman Lela is forced by her mother Siti into their family's age-old tradition of washing the dead, and she fights against her revulsion towards corpses and her ambition to become a makeup artist. The story turns complicated when the women in their village, Ida, Ana, and later Siti, start to die under unexplained circumstances, with all three showing internal bleeding and barbed wire within their bodies.

Pemandi Jenazah

In investigating the case, Lela learns of a woman named Nur who is the closest friend of the victims and had been exiled from the village. The villagers think that Nur enticed their husbands and humiliated them. But the more that Lela learns, the more that she thinks that Nur might have been a victim of the same women who now lie slain. Flashbacks leave no question that Nur was brutally raped by the women of the village when gossip about infidelity began circulating—gossip that most likely had been fueled by jealousy and patriarchal blame-setting.

The horror escalates when Lela discovers that Rika, her brother Arif’s close friend, is Nur’s daughter. In a panic, Lela accuses Rika of carrying out supernatural revenge. The village erupts into mob violence, repeating history as they beat Rika mercilessly. In a tragic twist, Arif dies trying to save her. Siti’s ghost urges Lela to end the cycle, prompting her to shield Rika, but it's unclear if Rika survives.

The movie concludes with a twist. A new corpse reveals the same sign of the curse—implying either Rika's or Nur's ghost is still present in the village. Lela, who is also now an accessory to hiding evidence, quietly helps take revenge for the past.

Although The Corpse Washer creates a strong atmosphere and blames generational misogyny and guilt, its hasty and vague conclusion unravels too loose of threads. The climactic twist of the events, though rich in theme, is jarring and disorienting, which lessens the effect of the film's central message.