It’s not just ghost stories from the Indonesian cinema that make their to the West. But of all the genre thrillers, romances, histories and action pix bought for distribution, financed by Netflix or however they’re exported, it strikes me that horror movies showcase this world class cinema in the most flattering light.

“Soul Reaper” is a slick, gorgeous looking tale of demons hiding away in nightmares which one teenaged schoolboy reluctantly visits or experiences by touching others whose spirits are somehow entangled there.

The dreamscape is vividly realized. The effects are impressive, mostly non-digital, relying on actors, makeup, settings and practical on-set “magic” to achieve their jolts and frights.

The story, leaning on nightmares, visions, demonic folklore, “mysterious deaths” reported by the media and a kid who enlists schoolmates in trying to get to the bottom of things at a remote village that ties the victims together, is a lot to process.

But engaging and wholly engaged leads compensate for its shortcomings enough to say, “Not bad.”

Respati, played with a haunted, animated conviction by Devano Danendra, is a teen tortured by his dreams. His dead mother torments him and wherever her corpse is, sometimes stalking and chasing him (dragging one leg as she does), his dead dad is sure to be close by, maybe in the Volvo where they died together in an accident.

“Why didn’t you die WITH them?” is the otherworldly cry (in Indonesian, with subtitles) that sticks in Respi’s mind whenever he wakes up in a sweat.

His grandfather is concerned. His doctor is easily convinced to “up the dosage” of whatever anti-psychotic sleep aid the kid is on.

Only his classmate and bestie Titrta (Mikha Hernan) takes seriously Respati’s claims of visions, touching strangers on the tram and sampling their own dreams and the “coincidences” regarding these mysterious deaths that TV news is covering.

But that’s before the New Girl from Jakarta, Wulan (Keisya Levronka) shows up and instinctively gravitates towards Respi and Ta. She’s sophisticated, worldly and she knows things.

Folkloric “massage oils” and sleep paralysi and visions of a ghostly forest where a stranger he sat next to on a bus is strangled by tree roots are just the starting point for Respi’s journey, with Ta reluctant to come along but game-for-anything “weird girl” Wulan down for pretty much anything.

“Don’t worry. It’s totally safe,” she lies, intentionally or unintentionally.

What we’re watching could be a “Nightmare on Elm Street” with dead grannies and without a Freddy Krueger, a hero’s journey into “dream reality” where “souls reside while we’e asleep.”

The dreamscape encounters are derivative even as the effects that intrude on this trio’s reality remain first rate.

There’s a lot of ground covered but not a lot that’s novel or engrossing in this vision of a dream afterlife. But director and co-adaptor Sidharta Tata (“Ali Topan”) manages some decent shocks for this somewhat lumbering but distinctly Indonesian take on the Everyday Horror that faces dreamers who believe in demons.

Rating: TV-MA

Cast: Devano Danendra, Keisya Levronka and Mikha Hernan.

Credits: Directed by Sidharta Tata, scripted by Ambaridzki Ramadhantyo and Sidharta Tata, based on a novel by Ragiel JP. A Well Go USA release.

Running time: 1:52