A new Indonesian horror film is bringing an old fear back into theaters. Urang Bunian, directed by Rendy Herpy from a screenplay he co-wrote with Johansyah Jumberan, is set for release at CGV Indonesia on September 17, 2026. It was shot largely in Payakumbuh, a Minangkabau town in West Sumatra, and it centers on a supernatural being with backward-facing legs that leads travelers astray in the jungle. The cast includes Dimas Aditya, Adinda Thomas, Fauzan Nasrul, and Ruth Marini.
The title comes straight from regional folklore. Orang bunian — sometimes spelled “urang bunian” in Minangkabau — translates roughly to “hidden people,” and the belief predates the film by centuries. It belongs to a folklore family found across Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Brunei, and it's one of the more elaborate examples of a “hidden society” myth anywhere in the world: not a single monster, but an entire invisible civilization living alongside the visible one.
A Society, Not a Spirit
What separates orang bunian from most ghost or demon folklore is the sheer domestic ordinariness attributed to them. Accounts describe full communities — families, clans, even royalty — organized much like human Minangkabau or wider Malay society. They're said to build houses, hold feasts, and pass down status through generations, mirroring the world of the people who tell stories about them.
Physically, the bunian are described as nearly indistinguishable from humans, and often more beautiful. The detail that recurs most often in accounts is anatomical: many descriptions say the bunian lack a philtrum, the shallow groove between the nose and upper lip that every human face has. Some versions add that their eyebrows form a single unbroken line rather than two separate arches. Regional names for the same beings shift depending on where you are — orang bunyi (“people of sound”) in some areas, orang ghaib (“invisible people”) or orang halimun (“people of the mist”) in others — which suggests a shared root belief adapted locally rather than one fixed legend copied everywhere.
Crucially, orang bunian are not usually cast as villains. Most traditional accounts describe them as benevolent, or at least neutral, provided humans observe the right courtesies. They're said to be especially close to ritual specialists — the dukun, bomoh, and pawang who serve as healers and spiritual mediators in Malay and Minangkabau communities — sometimes acting as allies or informants for these practitioners. But the friendliness has limits. Minangkabau custom includes specific taboos for anyone entering forests or hills: don't travel alone, don't brag about yourself out loud, don't call out names carelessly. Break the etiquette, and the same beings who might help you are the ones said to lead you off the path and never let you find your way back.
The Bride Who Returned Decades Later
One narrative pattern shows up across many tellings, and it's the one that gives orang bunian folklore its eeriest edge: stories of men who marry bunian women, live with them for what feels like an ordinary stretch of time, and then return to the human world to find that decades have passed. Everyone they knew has aged or died. Their village looks unrecognizable. The marriage itself is said to sometimes produce children — invisible to human eyes, tied permanently to the hidden realm.
Folklorists have long noted the resemblance between this story shape and Rip Van Winkle in American tradition, or Urashima Tarō in Japanese folklore — a mortal who slips into another world, experiences what feels like a short visit, and comes back to discover time moved differently without them. The motif isn't unique to any one culture. What's specific to the bunian version is the marriage frame: the time distortion isn't an accident of magic sleep or an undersea palace, but a consequence of crossing into a society that runs on its own clock, bound by kinship rather than curiosity.
What the Film Draws On
Urang Bunian leans into the more predatory end of this folklore — a creature that actively misleads people in the Sumatran jungle rather than a marriageable neighbor from a parallel village. That's a legitimate strand of the tradition; orang bunian stories have always ranged from domestic and almost cordial to genuinely dangerous, depending on the region and the storyteller. Production reporting from Indonesian outlets around the Payakumbuh shoot describes local expectations that the film could perform well by following other recent hits built around Minangkabau settings and legends, a regional cinema trend that has picked up in the past few years.
Hidden Neighbors Elsewhere
The idea of an invisible, human-adjacent society isn't unique to Sumatra. Iceland's huldufólk — literally “hidden people” — are described in remarkably similar terms: a parallel community living inside rocks and hills, generally left alone unless provoked, occasionally intervening in the affairs of the visible world (Iceland's road planners have fielded public concerns about elf habitats seriously enough to reroute construction). European fairy and elf traditions carry the same core shape: courteous but easily offended neighbors who punish rudeness and reward respect. Closer to home, Philippine folklore's aswang and Malaysia's own pontianak show a different register of the supernatural — overtly hostile, monstrous, meant to be feared outright rather than negotiated with. Orang bunian sits in between: a society that can be your ally or your undoing, depending entirely on how you behave in their territory.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is orang bunian the same thing across Indonesia and Malaysia?
The core belief — an invisible human-like society sharing the same land — is consistent, but names and regional emphasis shift. Minangkabau tradition in West Sumatra is often cited as an origin point, while other regions use terms like orang ghaib or orang halimun for overlapping ideas.
Are orang bunian considered dangerous?
Traditional accounts lean benevolent, especially toward dukun, bomoh, and pawang who maintain respectful relationships with them. Danger tends to come from violating etiquette — traveling alone in their territory, boasting, or provoking them — rather than from unprovoked hostility, though some regional and modern retellings (including horror films) emphasize the predatory side.
What is the connection to Urang Bunian, the 2026 film?
The film borrows the name and the jungle setting directly from Minangkabau folklore, though it foregrounds a more dangerous, misleading version of the creature rather than the hidden-society-and-marriage narratives more common in older oral tradition.
Is there a real physical trait people say identifies a bunian?
The most commonly repeated detail is the absence of a philtrum — the groove between nose and upper lip — along with, in some tellings, unbroken eyebrows. These are folkloric identifiers, not documented physical evidence.
Learn More
- Southeast Asian folklore and mythology books
- Indonesian and Malay mythology guides
- Books on hidden people and fairy folklore worldwide
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Related Stories
Read more about Iceland's huldufólk, the hidden people for a parallel hidden-society tradition, or explore Malaysia's pontianak, the vengeful female ghost for a very different, more overtly hostile figure from the same region.
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