Lentera Merah is a long-standing campus magazine at the University of Indonesia (UI), known for its critical and bold writing. After the suppression of PKI members in the 1960s, Lentera Merah remains popular today, celebrated for its fearless, challenging voice.
The story centers on the five core teams of Class of 49: Iqbal, Dimas Beck, Arif, Teuku Wisnu, Wulan, Firrina Sinatrya, and Dinda, Kartika Indah Pelapory, along with Bayu and Rio, as they prepare to welcome new LM members. In the background lingers trauma from the past, as parents who once belonged to Lentera Merah have died one by one. Iqbal’s father, Abdi Yusef Muldiyana, remains the sole living link to that era, though he has gone abroad, leaving Iqbal and his mother to cope on their own. Ibu Iqbal, portrayed by Erly Ashy, is part of the family’s quiet, ongoing tension.
The selection process elevates a mysterious newcomer, Risa Aprilianty Laudya Cynthia Bella, whose analytical mind and charm win the sympathy of the seniors, even as Risa remains aloof. Before Initiation Night—the perilous ritual where candidates must locate the campus’s lantern of truth—Risa questions an article by Wulan, insinuating it resembles something written twenty years earlier. On the night Wulan heads to the library to verify the claim, the article seems to vanish, and she is attacked by a ghost, ultimately found hanging from the library ceiling with a chilling message: “65.” The ominous numeral is also connected to Bayu and Wulan in the clues they leave behind. The dean, shaken by the deaths, cancels Initiation Night, but the 49th generation group proceeds in secret.
From there, the team dives deeper into their lantern-searches, guided by Risa’s sharp deductions even as fear gnaws at them. Risa herself disappears, chased by the same unseen force, and one by one the LM members fall—Rio and Dinda among the first. Iqbal recognizes something is terribly wrong and brings Arif to the library to decipher the meaning of “65,” discovered beside Rio and Dinda’s bodies. Arif is wounded—stabbed in the stomach by a vengeful Dinda’s ghost—but Iqbal and Risa manage to slip away from the campus for the moment. Meanwhile, Abdi returns, and Iqbal’s mother receives a letter that hints at a buried history as Abdi walks back toward the campus on his own.
Inside the library, the remaining initiates find themselves trapped, and a deeper truth emerges: the 1965 LM archives contain the biodata of their parents and reveal that the new participants share blood ties with earlier LM members. The shocking discovery confirms that Risa is more than a victim of the past—she is a ghost seeking vengeance for those who betrayed her ideals. The protagonists watch an old footage from the initiation night, witnessing how Risa’s idealism led to her downfall at the hands of her seniors. Risa’s plan becomes clear: she intends to avenge every LM member by striking at those who wronged her.
In a grim turn, Arif is killed by Risa, and Abdi recounts how he ran into Iqbal after Risa’s past starts to collide with the present. Risa faces slander as a government opponent and is briefly confined to an unfinished section of the campus, where her corpse is buried after she struggles for breath. The remaining participants seek out Risa’s hidden grave and lay her to rest properly, only to have Risa reappear in a final, fatal act—strangling Abdi as her spirit’s anger erupts. With Abdi dead, Risa’s spirit finally seems to settle, and she vanishes.
The film closes on a somber note: Iqbal, overwhelmed by what he has learned and endured, heads toward Semeru to escape the mounting stress, while the Red Lantern building is shut down, sealing the long-buried history of Lentera Merah away from the living for now.
