The Hole, 309 Days to the Bloodiest Tragedy – originally Bolong, 309 Hari Sebelum Tragedi Berdarah and now also known as Lobang Buaya in Indonesia, takes one of the most politically loaded locations in Indonesian history and turns it into the centre of a murder mystery involving mutilated bodies, superstition, corruption and a possible supernatural explanation.
A Murder Case With a Very Specific Pattern
Set in Indonesia during the early 1960s, the film centres on the village of Lubang Buaya, where a series of gruesome murders begins following a disturbing pattern, where the victims are killed on the 30th of each month, their bodies are found with large holes in them, and words such as “greedy” and “heartless” are carved into their faces. Nobody can agree on what is happening or who is responsible.
Some believe a supernatural entity known as the Hollow Ghost is behind the killings, others blame communists, and army officer Soegeng (Baskara Mahendra) is brought in to investigate everything, initially dealing with the case as a human crime rather than accepting the supernatural explanations being thrown around.
The official IFFR synopsis describes his investigation as confronting him with corruption and the military’s possible involvement, while the film gradually moves between crime mystery, political tension and supernatural horror.
The title is also directly connected to the historical setting, where the film uses the events surrounding Lubang Buaya before the 30 September Movement of 1965 as its historical backdrop – in the real events, six Indonesian Army generals and a lieutenant were killed during the failed movement, with their bodies subsequently found in a well at Lubang Buaya.
Hanung isn’t making a straightforward historical reconstruction of those events, though, because Adhya Pictures describes the film as drawing inspiration from the rumours, theories and unresolved questions surrounding the 1965 events, then transforming those ideas into a supernatural folk-horror story.
The IFFR description makes the same distinction, describing the film as a historical-mythical mixture inspired by the theories surrounding the 30 September Movement, but moving away from simply recreating history and towards folklore, superstition and political paranoia – that is a much more useful way of looking at the film than simply calling it “a horror movie about Lubang Buaya.”
Hanung Bramantyo Goes Back Into Horror
Hanung Bramantyo is hardly a newcomer to Indonesian cinema either, because he has directed films across a wide range of genres, including Brownies (2005), Cinta Tapi Beda (2012), Soekarno: Indonesia Merdeka (2013), Kartini: Princess of Java (2017), Miracle in Cell No. 7 (2022) and Gowok: Javanese Kamasutra (2025), where IMDb currently lists more than 60 directing credits for him – The Hole is also not his first recent move into horror, as his credits also include Trinil (2024), while The Hole represents a very different approach by combining horror with historical material and political allegory.
Baskara Mahendra Leads the Investigation
Baskara Mahendra plays Soegeng, the army officer at the centre of the investigation, and Mahendra has appeared in Indonesian films and series including The Perfect Husband, My Stupid Boss 2, The Big 4 and The Secret Recipe, as well as Hanung Bramantyo’s Gowok: Javanese Kamasutra.
He is joined by Carissa Perusset, Khiva Iskak and Anya Zen, with the film’s wider cast also including Mathias Muchus, where Perusset is particularly notable for her work in Indonesian cinema and television, while Khiva Iskak has also appeared in a number of 2026 Indonesian productions.
The Hole, 309 Days to the Bloodiest Tragedy had its world premiere at IFFR 2026 on 3 February, screening in the festival’s Harbour programme, where the film subsequently played at BIFAN 2026 in South Korea, where it was selected for the festival’s B Extreme programme.
Trailer
The Horror Is Really About What Gets Buried
This is where I think The Hole will become considerably more ambitious than its murder-mystery setup suggests – the film uses the literal holes in the victims’ bodies as part of its horror imagery, but the idea of something being buried and eventually coming back is also tied directly to the history surrounding Lubang Buaya.
Hanung himself has also been unusually direct about the political anger behind the film, with quotes him describing The Hole as a reflection of his anger about Indonesia and its unresolved historical trauma, particularly the questions surrounding the 1965 killings and later political violence.
So the supernatural material isn’t just there to provide a few ghosts and creepy murders, as the film is using horror as a way of talking about history that refuses to stay buried – the Indonesian theatrical release is set for 1 October 2026 as of writing, and that date is particularly loaded for this movie because the events surrounding the 30 September Movement unfolded across the night of 30 September and into 1 October 1965.
Check out some more Indonesian horror movies.
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