We’re in the Indonesian countryside, and the year is 1981. Mawarni, a once famous singer, has fallen ill and she is now bedridden. The royalties from Mawarni’s singing career are long gone as her popularity has faded, along with her health, so the family is also struggling financially. Their four children, 22-year old Rini, 16-year old Toni, 10-year old Bondu and 6-year old Ian who is deaf, are all trying to cope with the situation. The inevitable happens, and Mawarni dies. Shortly after her burial, Bahri, the husband, must travel to town in order to raise money for the mortgage payments. Rini, together with their grandmother Rahma, is now at home while experiencing strange events as they seem to be haunted by a ghostly presence. They also have the creepiest, most uncanny bathroom ever, with a well and all, where their grandmother eventually ends up dead inside. Was it an accident…or something else at play? Things go from bad to worse as there are more and more obvious signs of occult interference, and as Rini starts looking further into her deceased mother’s past, she finds there are ties to a Satanic cult.
Satan’s Slaves (Indonesian: Pengabdi Setan) is a supernatural horror film from Indonesia, released in 2017. It’s written and directed by Joko Anwar, and it’s a loose remake-prequel to the 1982 film which is called Satan’s Slave (and which we have already reviewed here on Horror Ghouls). Ever since starting his film-making career, Joko Anwar desired to make a remake of the original Pengabdi Setan. It was even his inspiration for becoming a filmmaker in the first place, after sneaking into a theater to watch it as a kid during the 80’s and then getting the full-on heebie jeebies from it. It’s the movies that scare the crap out of you as a kid that really gives the best inspiration later on, innit? Once he got everything sorted for the film’s creation, it took the production team four months (!) to seek out the perfect filming location to accurately represent the 80’s in which the film is taking place. Originally they wanted to film in Puncak Bogor, West Java, but the owner didn’t give them permission, so they had to continue the quest for the perfect place to film. They eventually hit the jackpot when they found an old house in the Pangalengan area, which they later redesigned to make it fit the 80’s aesthetic.
While the original Satan’s Slave from 1982 has some really good visuals and is quite atmospheric despite its rather cheesy vibe, it never really manages to come off as scary (probably a different story if you’re a kid during the 80’s sneaking into the movie theater to see it). Joko Anwar’s prequel/remake is totally different, delivering a brooding, dark vibe throughout. It mixes family drama, dark secrets, folklore and the occult in an investigative haunted house wrap, often reminiscent of the early Conjuring films. I guess you could say that Joko Anwar is Indonesia’s answer to James Wan.
There’s a lot of creepy visuals here, and the house where the family lives is always dark and gloomy. There’s even a bathroom with a well that looks like something straight out from a nightmare or a slightly surreal horror video game. Here, we do of course get several spooky scenes, including the death of the grandmother. As if the bathroom/well room wasn’t creepy and uncomfortable enough, there are also some scenes where two of the kids are urinating on the floor like the entire place is supposed to be a giant toilet. And no, this wasn’t supposed to be tied to any supernatural/occult stuff. It was…oddly disgusting. And I still have no idea why the hell this was a thing…
The story progression in the film is following a somewhat casual horror-investigation-mystery thread, where occult things start happening and the protagonist/s must try to figure out the who, why and what. With the title of the film, I guess it comes as no surprise that there is some kind of satanic goings-on here. And, yes, it’s in the veins of a regular “family gets haunted“ type of story, but with a different kind of flair than what we’re normally used to. I also really love the soundtrack, especially the vintage song Kelam Malam which has that perfect “spooky oldie days“ vibe (I’m also a sucker for oldies music). The songs were performed by The Spouse, Aimee Saras and ‘Tony Marle’.
Satan’s Slaves was a huge success in Indonesia, and ended up being the highest grossing Indonesian film during the year of its release, and it is indeed a very solid entry into the haunted house genre. There was later made a sequel, called Satan’s Slaves 2: Communion. And this one amps up the scares with a ton! Also check out Joko Anwar’s Impetigore from 2019.
Writer and director: Joko Anwar
Original title: Pengabdi Setan
Country & year: Indonesia/South Korea, 2017
Actors: Tara Basro, Bront Palarae, Dimas Aditya, Endy Arfian, Nasar Annuz, M. Adhiyat, Arswendy Bening Swara, Egy Fedly, Ayu Laksmi, Elly D. Luthan
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7076834/
Original: Satan’s Slave (1982)
