Kimo Stamboel

In 2004, Stamboel released his feature film debut Bunian based on a screenplay he co-wrote with Virra I. Dewi. The shooting took place in Sydney, Australia, where he was studying at the time.[3] Filming took place over the course of 2002 and 2003 as the crew and cast were only available during the weekends.[3] Timo Tjahjanto, who would later become his partner as The Mo Brothers, worked on the film as a freelance cameraman.[3]

Working together as co-directors for the first time, Tjahjanto and Stamboel released the 2007 short film Dara.[4] The short was later included in the 2008 anthology film Takut: Faces of Fear. Well received by the public, they decided to develop a feature film based on the short and released Macabre in 2009 with Julie Estelle and Shareefa Daanish in the lead roles.[5] The film received praise during its run at several film festivals and launched the two into mainstream recognition. Stamboel and Tjahjanto appeared among the patrons of Herosase in Joko Anwar's The Forbidden Door.[6]

Stamboel and Tjahjanto then directed, produced, and wrote the horror-thriller Killers which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. It received positive reviews upon release with a 73% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. Their next project was the 2016 action film Headshot which stars Iko Uwais and Chelsea Islan. For their work on Headshot, Stamboel and Tjahjanto were nominated for Best Director at the 2016 Citra Award but lost to Riri Riza (Athirah).

Stamboel's next project was announced in 2018 to be an adaptation of popular horror-fantasy online game DreadOut.[7] He began writing a screenplay for the film adaptation in 2014 but eventually decided to create an origin story while working closely with the game developers.[7] The film was released in January 2019. While working on DreadOut, Stamboel also served as a co-producer in Timo Tjahjanto's The Night Comes for Us which was released by Netflix in October 2018.[7]

He followed this up with the release of The Queen of Black Magic (Ratu Ilmu Hitam), a remake of the 1981 horror classic film of the same name produced by Rapi Films in November 2019.[8] Joko Anwar wrote the screenplay while Ario Bayu and Hannah Al Rashid lead the ensemble cast. At the 2020 Citra Award, the film won two awards out of six nominations with Ade Firman Hakim winning Best Supporting Actor and Gaga Nugraha winning Best Visual Effects.[9]

In February 2020, Stamboel's directing partner Timo Tjahjanto on his Twitter account hinting at a possible sequel to Macabre.[10] However, no official confirmation has been made.

Stamboel will replace Rizal Mantovani in the director's seat of the third Jailangkung film.[11] He will also co-write the screenplay with Rinaldy Puspoyo.[11] The film will have a new cast with Citra Award nominated actress Titi Kamal (Mendadak Dangdut), Dwi Sasono, Syifa Hadju, and Muzakki Ramdhan in starring roles.[11]