Does The Elixir heal or eventually kill? Details from Netflix's latest Indonesian horror, revealed

Netflix's latest Indonesian horror film The Elixir will not only give the audience jump scares all throughout but also glue them to their seats for two hours straight with a highly intense and engaging plot. Directed by Kimo Stamboel, the movie centers on a family whose patriarch (and the head of the family business, a company called Wani Waras) Dimin, runs the medical trial of a herbal substance named Abadi Nan Jaya on himself that leads to devastating results.

This magical potion aka The "Elixir" has age-reversal abilities which is however very short lived and what comes next is gut-wrenching: a graphic zombie transformation which is something we have definitely not seen before! Dimin becomes the first victim of this herbal product leaving his family and an entire Indonesian village in danger. Keep reading to find out more about the magical (or rather lethal) "Elixir".

What happens in The Elixir?

The Netflix horror movie opens with multiple storylines that eventually converge to one place and the narrative shifts back in time. At the heart of the story is a young woman named Kenes (aka Nes) who is seen visiting her father (Dimin)'s house with her son Raihan and better half Rudi to sign a business deal. However, Dimin has already tested The Elixir aka Abadi Nan Jaya on himself that almost instantly turned his grey hairs, wrinkled skin and brittle bones to that of a young man.

On the other hand, his young wife Karina (aka Madam Kar) has a bitter face-off with Nes on her arrival; the reason of their tumultuous relationship is not revealed until later (Karina was Nes' best friend since childhood and after Dimin's wife's death, she got married to him). However, Dimin gets excited after seeing the magical results of the age-reversing "The Elixir" and wants to sign a business deal with a big corporate firm named Nusa Farma to save his own company.

The revelation at the start of The Elixir leads to a heated family argument and amidst all that, Dimin suddenly starts coughing blood and his skin starts transforming with blister-like patches. His eyes turn reddish white and face distorts giving him the ultimate demonic look that no one could imagine even in their worst nightmare.

Dimin attacks his servants and also tries to kill his family members, until his son Bambang shoots his father in the head and puts an end to things. However, three of the servants have already been affected by the virus born out of The Elixir.

While two of them instantly turn into zombies and start attacking Nes and her family, the other one (who is still in human form), goes to seek help from the village chief's house. However, he turns into one of the monsters while driving and crashes his car, after losing control, into the chief's house party, leading to the first major outbreak.

Soon, the whole village gets infected leaving only a few people: Nes, Raihan, Rudi, Bambang, Karina, one police officer named Rahman and his fiance, Ningsih. In an attempt to survive the deadly outbreak, all these people fight together while running from one part of the village to another but sadly, only Karina and Raihan make it till the end.

What exactly does the "Elixir" do? Here's what we know

The "Elixir" can neither heal nor kill - it converts the host into a zombie-like creature that only hunts by the sound of moving objects and the smell of fresh blood. A patent of Wani Waras, the "Elixir" does have certain age-reversal abilities but it comes at a cost. The cost is slow and painful death. It leads to the infestation of a deadly infection (seemingly a virus) that mutates the host into a zombie and leaves it to feed on people who have not been infected yet.

Moreover, as it appears, the virus can no longer be contained as at the end of The Elixir, we see one zombie following Karina and Raihan while on their way out of the village. On the other hand, an old woman named Mrs. Grace is waiting for Dimin's response on the newly launched herbal product.

But sadly, she has already tested the potion on herself and the results have started to show. This clearly indicates how the infection has also reached the city of Jakarta and now the government must seek ways to contain it with full force once the outbreak happens - probably leaving options open for a sequel to The Elixir.