Limbaswang (2021) Review

 

Summary (No Spoilers):

Limbaswang (2021) is a short film following two sisters working on a farm when one sister uncovers a strange old box in their backyard. What that box contains brings their family misfortune.

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In-Depth Review (Spoilers Ahead!):

 

An eerie introduction shows a seemingly possessed woman chained to the wall, covered in blood. She fills an empty dog bowl with sand and spits in it, seeming to be ritualistically chanting for "Limbaswang" as she lets the sand sift through her fingers. This is super effectively creepy, especially with the addition of what seemed to be traditional singing and a drum beat.

 

And then it changes to a desert setting, with two sisters arriving to work on a farm, tending to the animals and tilling the soil. The main girl finds a bloody old paper inside a fancy old box when doing so. 

 

The main girl repeats its chant ("Come upon me, spirit from beyond"), seemingly for possession because... what else could it possibly mean? I wonder why she even repeated it honestly. That feels like a bad idea.

The earth shakes and images flash over the shot, which is a little cheesy, but it gets the job done, and the sounds and shots over it are pretty eerie.

The main girl shows the box to her sister, her appearance now a little blood-covered for some reason, and it says the word "Limba" on it in huge black letters. The sister finds old pictures within it, the pictures seemingly taken in sepia color. After looking them over, her sister tells her to sell the box.

Alone, the main girl lifts the box as blood drips from her head and flies buzz around her. She has an eerie expression. 

 

It switches to a full moon, with a room that's all smoky from candles and incense. A long-haired woman (presumably the main girl) kneels before the altar, making guttural creepy sounds as she runs her hands all over it and praises "Limbaswang," just as was done in the first scene. The sounds are pretty freakin' creepy, a bit like in Ju-On.

 

 

 

The possessed sister is then seen chasing her sister, both still in their nightclothes, and attacks her, leaving her sister bloody. There's somehow a creepy crawling scene following it as they make their way through a narrow passage in a chase, and the sister manages to run away pretty easily considering... well... the possessed sister crawls super freakin' slow.

The sister sobs as she hides in the room full of incense and candles. She approaches the altar and freaks her shit seeing it and the bloody note. And somehow the possessed sister crawls out from under the bed (not really sure how, unless she crawled through the floorboards... or chewed her way through the walls... or found a secret trapdoor under her sister's bed... well, that feels a little too convenient).

 

 

 

The sister freaks her shit even harder, obviously, screaming and running away to the fence outside.

The possessed sister, being super extra, crawls on the ground after her upside down, and she manages to attack her sister, dragging her to the ground and biting her neck. She hovers over her and pushes her sister's mouth open wide, presumably spreading the infection.

One sister crawls on the ground as the other sister stands, cackling in a possessed voice, and blood drips down her face.

A woman who is presumably the mother returns the next day and asks for the sisters at the entrance, screaming when she sticks her hand through and gets grabbed. Guess it's spreading.

This was an interesting short film, certainly worth a watch as it's under 20 minutes in length. The combination of makeup, acting, sound, and visuals was pretty cool, even if the story has been seen many times in horror, so that part was a little lacking in terms of original content, so I give this a 3/5.