satanic films – Horror Ghouls

The Devil’s Rain (1975)

Posted on August 11, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

― There have been films about earthquakes, airplane disasters and blazing infernos… but there has never been anything like THE DEVIL’S RAIN! … or nothing like this fluffy, silly Satanic horror movie that only could have come out from the mid ’70s. Horns up!

Just to make no mistake what subject matter we’re getting ourselves into, the film opens with tasty hell paintings by Bosch over the intro credits. We then get thrown right into, yes you guessed it, a rainstorm where Mark Preston (William Shatner) is looking for his father. After he gets home to his mother Emma and some other old guy named John, his father, Steve, suddenly shows up outside the house, looking like a melted hobo freak from Tromaville. Steve has escaped from the Satanic cult leader Jonathan Corbis to warn the Preston family about a mysterious book, which Corbis expect to be delivered to him at a place called Redstone. Steve mumbles “In nomine Satanas“ before he melts away to a small puddle in front of Mark and his wife.

We learn that the Prestons have hidden a Satanic Bible for generations, and now they order Mark to just give it to Corbis. Nah! Instead, he loads his gun and gets ready to hunt down this Corbis guy to blow his brains out, because who wouldn’t. If it was that simple. A voodoo doll is nailed to the steering wheel on his truck. Uh-oh. Mark then hears screaming from the house where he finds John hanging upside-down with a bloody face. The house has also been completely trashed, as if a tornado of poltergeists had swarmed by. Emma is gone and seems to have been kidnapped by Corbis’s cult. All this happens in just a seconds. Talk about some vulgar display of power. Eleven minutes in and the film is already all over the place. Mark finally takes the roadtrip to Redstone which looks like an abandoned old ghost town and maybe an old set for a western movie. After Mark eventually gets captured by the Satanic cult, we then switches over to Mark’s brother Tom (Tom Skerritt) and his wife Julie who’s a psychic of some sort. She can see into the past, or something like that. Tom get the news that his brother is missing and the search begins in the Mexican desert. Good luck and remember to drink a plenty of water.

According to the original poster for The Devil’s Rain, it can promise us “Absolutely the most incredible ending of any motion picture ever!” Yes, with an exclamation point. No clickbait bullshit, because hear this: the last five minutes or so has more gooey and grotesque melting body horror than The Incredible Melting Man (1977) and Body Melt (1993) combined. Not too shabby for a half-obscure ’70s low-budget horror. And look out for John Travolta’s very first screen presence, which he’s not much proud of as he only remembers it as a terrible movie. Travolta has been in way, way, waaay worse movies than this, and that’s a fact. Then we have the actual Mister Satanist himself, Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan who worked as technical advisor on the film and had a small cameo as the The High Priest. The chanting we hear from the Corbis cult are words from The Satanic Bible, yes the one and only that LaVey wrote and published in 1967. And with that being said, Ernest Borgnine, who plays the cult leader, would never be in a film that deals with devils and satanism again after the film was plagued with “eerie incidents and accidents“. That’s a shame, since he seemed to be having a ball playing the over-the-top demonic cartoonish villain with the most evil psychotic grin that only Kenneth Copeland could match. His presence in full demonic form is nothing but mesmerizing where he looks like a mix of Ron Perlman from Hellboy and the Beast from Beauty and the Beast. Delightful stuff!

But the one that didn’t smile in the slightest, was director Robert Fuest, who was on the brink of a nervous breakdown while filming somewhere in bumfuck nowhere in a dusty hellhole in Mexico with very limited resources. Rumors say that the film was financed with mafia money and several actors didn’t get paid, including Ernest Borgnine. A chaotic shitshow, in other words. After a disastrous theatrical release which garnered mostly negative reviews and earned a spot on Roger Ebert’s “Most Hated“ movies list, Fuest was reduced to spending the rest of his film career on obscure TV shows and even more obscure TV movies. It wasn’t until 1982 that he got his final theatrical release, which was the Greek soft porn Aphrodite. Showbiz…what can you say. Leaving on that note, The Devil’s Rain may sound like one of the worst movies ever made. I wouldn’t say it’s even close. It’s a flawed incoherent mess for sure, but an entertaining incoherent mess with some solid production values, vibrant look, a nice n’ eerie vibe, a cool-looking villain and, a glimpse of the origin of the iconic Michael Myer’s mask… and, of course, lots of melting satanists. The only thing missing is a nude woman ready to be sacrificed on an altar, but oh well, not everyone can be Nude for Satan, I guess.

Director: Robert Fuest
Writers: Gabe Essoe, James Ashton, Gerald Hopman
Country & year: Mexico/USA, 1975
Actors: Ernest Borgnine, Eddie Albert, Ida Lupino, William Shatner, Keenan Wynn, Tom Skerritt, Joan Prather, Woodrow Chambliss, John Travolta, Claudio Brook, Lisa Todd, Anton LaVey
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072869/

The Sonata (2018)

Posted on August 7, 2026August 11, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

Rose is a young and very talented violinist, but she’s also a bit of a loner. Charles, her agent and manager, has been taking care of her and functioned more or less as a parental figure ever since Rose’s mother died when Rose was only sixteen. When it comes to her father, who is none other than world famous composer Richard Marlowe, she has never personally known him as he abandoned his family and became a recluse shortly after Rose was born. And now the guy is dead, which to the news Rose at first gives a “whatever, I’m busy“ attitude. Who can really blame her, though, the man was basically nothing but a stranger she never met. Rose has still inherited his mansion which is located in France, and she decides to go there in the small hopes of maybe finding out something about why he decided to leave his own family all those years ago.

Once there, in the gloomy and desolate mansion, she finds some sheet music for the sonata her father had been working on for the last twenty-or-so years. She sends a sample of it to Charles, who is immediately intrigued and sees potential for wealth and fortune. The final piece of a famous composer! Once he starts digging, he finds that Richard had been a member of some satanic cult who believed that music could be used for summoning the Antichrist himself. And Rose starts experiencing strange things around the mansion…

The Sonata is a supernatural horror thriller from 2018, directed by Andrew Desmond from a screenplay by Desmond and Arthur Morin. It also stars Rutger Hauer in a smaller role, and this was his final film before his death the following year. The film was shot almost entirely in Latvia, in the 19th century Cesvaine Palace.

This is one of those supernatural movies where you get a good amount of that misty, gothic atmosphere. It’s never really venturing into any real scares, but it’s always giving off that certain spooky vibe. The movie starts off from Richard Marlowe’s perspective (played by the late Rutger Hauer), filmed in a pretty interesting POV style where we witness an act of self-immolation. So, we already know that some weird, spooky shit is going on here. And yes, it does play out the rest of the film as a straight-forward supernatural mystery thriller, with a satanic cult, mysterious disappearances, and of course several paranormal incidents. Just like in The Ninth Gate, the mystery unfolds through cryptic esoteric symbols, hidden messages in artwork and the solving of puzzles in order to unlock some dark, demonic forces.

The music, of course, also plays a significant role here. The ficitional Op. 54 “Rose Sonata“ was composed, orchestrated and conducted by Alexis Maingaud, and performed by solo violinist Olivier Leclerc with the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France. With much of the movie’s concept relying on some unfinished evil sonata, it would be expected that the music here would add to the overall feeling of the film. And it certainly helps with providing the perfect setting for the story.

While never bringing much new do the table, The Sonata is a pretty fine gothic supernatural mystery thriller which delivers mostly on a spooky atmosphere, a nice location, and of course a lot of violin playing.

Director: Andrew Desmond
Writers: Andrew Desmond, Arthur Morin
Country & year: France/UK/Latvia, 2018
Actors: Freya Tingley, Simon Abkarian, James Faulkner, Rutger Hauer, Catherine Schaub-Abkarian, Matt Barber, Christopher Brand
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7149066/

They Will Kill You (2026)

Posted on May 15, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

Asia Reaves and her younger sister Maria are trying to escape from their abusive father, but this doesn’t go too well. It ends up with Asia shooting him (not dead, though) and running away while abandoning Maria. Asia is, of course, arrested and has to spend a long time in jail, all the while Maria has to remain in their father’s custody.

Fast forward 10 years later, we see Asia arriving at a place called The Virgil, which is some kind of exclusive high-rise building in NYC. She’s there to become a new maid, and as the building manager Lilith Woodhouse welcomes her inside, Asia quickly learns that this place is filled with a wealthy cultist elite. And yes, they’re satanic and commit human sacrifices…what a shocker. As Asia was planned to be their latest sacrificial lamb, things take an unexpected turn as she’s come prepared and stacked with lots of weapons, plus badass fighting skills like she’s been taking lessons with Pai Mei. And things really turn deadly, bloody and crazy! Asia finds herself in a bigger challenge than expected, though, when it appears the satanic cultists respawn like low-level enemies in a video game, no matter how many times they are killed. A nice perk they’ve been given after all the human sacrifices…

They Will Kill You is an action comedy horror film directed by Kirill Sokolov, co-written with Alex Litvak. The movie was filmed in Cape Town, using the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society building, CGI’ing the hotel’s name “The Virgil“ on it. Virgil is a reference to Dante’s Inferno, where the ancient poet Virgil is leading Dante through the nine circles of hell. Sokolov said that the inspiration behind the film came from when he and his wife moved to a different city in Russia, where they rented an apartment on the 17th floor. They started joking amongst themselves how the whole building probably belonged to some kind of cult and that eventually they’d end up sacrificed. I’m sure there’s a lot of large apartment buildings that will easily give off that kind of feeling…

Prior to watching this movie, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. Something fun and fast-paced, sure…but would it be as bloody and crazy as I hoped? Well, it certainly was, because goddamn, does the movie hit hard with its blood-soaked frenzied ride! There are the good old blood-fountains, a fair amount of gore and totally insane scenes like the one involving a disembodied roving eyeball. Wicked! It was what I had hoped it would be and then some, for sure. It does absolutely not hold back, there’s so much over-the-top moments that I got some Braindead and Re-Animator vibes all mixed with Kill Bill and a dose of the good old Sam Raimi. And, if I’m going to be completely honest…I actually got more of a Sam Raimi feeling from this film than Send Help from earlier this year…

Zazie Beetz who plays Asia, delivers her performance with just the right amount of ferocious and unhinged brutality. Her little one-person-army is kicking satanic ass all over the place while she must battle her way through the hordes of cultists. They Will Kill You is bloody, ultra-violent and outrageous in such a fun way, and as far as horror-action movies go this is top-tier entertainment. If you want a thrill-ride filled with blood fountains and craziness, you should definitely check this one out!

Despite this being such a fun, bloody and upbeat movie, it didn’t fare too well at the box office with $19 million against its $20 million budget. Oof. Perhaps this had a bit to do with Ready or Not 2 being released at the same time, who knows. Hopefully it will grow in popularity over time.

Director: Kirill Sokolov
Writers: Kirill Sokolov, Alex Litvak
Country & year: USA/South Africa/Canada, 2026
Actors: Zazie Beetz, Patricia Arquette, Myha’la, Paterson Joseph, Tom Felton, Heather Graham, Willie Ludik, David Viviers, Gabe Gabriel, Viktoria Korotkova, James Remar
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31728330/

Hellhole (2022)

Posted on May 1, 2026May 1, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

We’re somewhere in Poland in 1957, where a priest enters a church with a baby that bears a unique scar. He’s not there to drop the baby off for some nuns to take care of, though, he proceeds to try killing the infant. Fortunately for the baby, the Milicja (the Polish militia) enters the place and shoots the priest dead.

Fast forward to thirty years later, we meet another priest: Father Marek. He arrives at a Polish monastery where women are brought in to undergo an exorcism. He’s vetted and checked before entering the place, but when he starts unpacking in his room we see that the suitcase he’s brought with him has a concealed compartment where he’s hidden a gun, a flashlight, and some other stuff. Seems like he’s come prepared…but for what? We’ll find out.

Marek is then taken to a room where they’re performing an exorcism on a woman. All kinds of textbook-exorcism stuff go on in there, with a cross suddenly starting to burn, a shaking bed, and the usual demonic shenanigans. When Marek investigates the room later, he discovers that things are not exactly what they might seem at first glance, though. Marek’s mission at the place is, in fact, to investigate some cases of many missing local women which he believes has something to do with this place. And things are certainly happening in this dark, foreboding hellhole where everything looks rotten, and the food being served is so horribly foul and nasty that it looks even more biohazardous than the fridge contents in Resident Evil 8.

Hellhole (original title: Ostatnia wieczerza, which literally means Last Supper) is a Polish horror film from 2022, written by Mirella Zaradkiewicz and directed by Bartosz M. Kowalski. It is available on Netflix as one of the Netflix originals. It was filmed in Lubiaz, Poland.

Starting off, this movie doesn’t offer too much new to the typical demonic/possession genre, but it’s atmospheric and creepy, much aided by the setting and visuals. It’s very mystery-fueled for the most part of the film, where you follow Marek as he keeps investigating the place and finds the one ominous thing after the other. And poor Marek pretty much finds himself in Hell already, with no means of actually leaving the place and being served the worst meals possible. Yes, those nasty meals have a deeper meaning, of course.

While we follow Marek on his investigative routes (and in between him violently vomiting for obvious reasons) it all becomes a little muddled with a mix of him finding apparent hoax effects that the monks use during the “exorcisms“, to him experiencing some really weird supernatural devilry. It never manages to elevate the atmosphere and creepy settings to some real scares, though, and it’s definitely a little slow at times, but it does gradually reveal bits and pieces along the ride which is pretty much what I crave and expect from mystery-based stories: just give us a few nuggets here and there and keep us wondering for a while still. Then…we get towards the final part of the movie, and oh boy, things certainly take a different turn! In some ways, it reminded me a little of how the buildup was presented in They’re Watching, even though those movies have very little in common otherwise. I’m talking about the somewhat “generic“ start which later presents you with something totally bonkers. Hellhole is one of those movies that saves the best parts for last, and there’s even a scene where it all also turned unexpectedly comedic. This certainly wasn’t a movie I expected to get some good laughs from.

With all of the above being said, Hellhole is for the most part a creepy, mystery-based horror film. If you want something with a sinister atmosphere, with some twists and turns and a fun finale thrown into that mix, then give Hellhole a watch!

Director: Bartosz M. Kowalski
Writers: Bartosz M. Kowalski, Mirella Zaradkiewicz
Original title: Ostatnia wieczerza
Country & year: Poland, 2022
Actors: Piotr Zurawski, Olaf Lubaszenko, Sebastian Stankiewicz, Lech Dyblik, Rafal Iwaniuk, Krzysztof Satala, Malwina Dubowska, Zbigniew Walerys, Antoni Augustyniak
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19724142/

Ghoulies (1984)

Posted on October 23, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Let’s get high, have some good laughs, and unleash the Ghoulies!

This 1980s nonsensical and messy chees-o-rama fest from none other than Charles Band’s Empire Pictures starts pretty much how you’d expect, or maybe not: with a bizarre Satanic Illuminati-like ritual in Rob Zombie’s Halloween-basement dungeon where the baby boy, John, is ready to be sacrificed. The baby gets put on an altar where a demonic-looking dude with green-glowing eyes, Malcolm Grave, is about to kill the baby with a dagger. Among the small group of cult members, we also have the small grotesque troublemakers that are the Ghoulies who seem to enjoy the show. The ritual gets stopped by his wife because it turns out that the boy is actually their child. Ok, that’s some fucking dark shit! Whore! He’s mine, he says. A talisman is put around the boy’s neck so he can’t be touched by evil. Now that the baby is useless, it gets taken away and saved by Wolfgang, one of the cult members. Malcolm instead sacrifices the wife with his Satanic powers by bursting her chest open, off-screen, of course. And for what purpose? Who knows.

Then we jump to many years later where John has grown up, and has inherited his father’s mansion with his girlfriend Rebecca. And he was, of course, too young to remember what once happened in the basement. But one who clearly does is Wolfgang, who raised him and now works as a traumatized caretaker. Nothing much has been done with the place as it’s filled with rats and cobwebs. Down in the basement which the caretaker Wolfgang should have been clever enough to seal off already a long time ago, John finds the old ritual outfit of his dad and a Satanic diary. Nothing bad can happen now, nothing at all.

John and Rebecca are supposed to be in their college year, yet they look to be in their mid 30s. Rebecca wants to throw a party where we meet a bunch of goofy characters. The ones who stick out are the two stoned nutbrains, who must have been completely strung out for real during the making of this schlockfest. Can’t blame them. After some breakdancing and retarded pickup lines such as They call me…DICK! But you can call me…DICK! (go and fuck a cactus, dick, without rubber). John has an idea: Let’s do a ritual. But you, unfortunately, have to wait a little longer for the Ghoulies to show up, because… well, I guess he has to grow his Satanic powers up a few levels.

The original story for the Ghoulies was supposed to be very different from the final product, with a much darker and serious tone. But when director Luca Bercovici first saw the ghoulies in motion, he spat out his red wine, laughed and said: this movie should be a comedy! John Carl Buechler, who designed the cute little monsters, actually took offense. Because how dare you call these monster creatures, which I’ve worked so hard on, funny?! So, the script got rewritten to a comedy, a script that looks like it was made up as they went along while the cocaine floated in the air, and actors were recast. So yeah, it’s no surprise that the tone is all over the place at most times. In the midst of filming, the production got sued when some illiterate at Warner Bros claimed that the title Ghoulies was too like Gremlins, which was in production at the same time as Ghoulies. WB, of course, lost. The messy and bumpy history behind the film is enough to fill a whole book.

And if you’re expecting something like the aforementioned Gremlins or maybe Critters, you’d be disappointed. The ghoulies themselves are more of a sideshow here that pops up now and then just to show off some decent old-school puppetry effects. Here we have Clown Doll Ghoulie, the Fish Ghoulie (aka the Toilet Ghoulie), Bat Ghoulie, Rat Ghoulie, and then we have our personal favorite: the adorable Cat Ghoulie (heart emoji). The few scenes we have with the ghoulies are fun enough, and we get to see more of them in the sequel. Because here we also have to make room for… a dwarf warrior couple, from Nelwyn, I guess, because the script just said so. Malcolm the dead Satanist, who’s the main villain, rises from his grave outside the mansion. He then shapeshifts into a blonde milf to seduce Dick and strangle him with her tongue. No blowjob for Mr. Dick. The film finally gets flushed straight down the toilet by a bullshit ending that would fit more in a filler episode of Goosebumps. Not that it would make more sense, but still.

And speaking of toilets: the poster, which is way more iconic than the film itself, and had the first tagline They’ll Eat Your Ass!, caused some uproar when it scared the kids from using the toilet. Jaws made people afraid of swimming, Psycho made people afraid of showers, and Ghoulies made kids shit in buckets and stink out the whole neighborhood instead of sitting on the toilet. A mob of angry parents wrote letters to Charles Band’s office to let them know, in the middle of the Satanic Panic storm and all. Priceless! All these letters should have been added in the ending credits just to put the icing on the cake.

Director: Luca Bercovici
Writers: Luca Bercovici, Jefery Levy
Country & year: USA, 1984
Actors: Peter Liapis, Lisa Pelikan, Michael Des Barres, Jack Nance, Peter Risch, Tamara De Treaux, Scott Thomson, Ralph Seymour, Mariska Hargitay, Mariska Hargitay, Keith Joe Dick, David Dayan
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089200/

The Antichrist (1974)

Posted on October 14, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Ippolita is a young woman who has been paraplegic since a car accident when she was 12. The accident killed her mother, and left her broken in more ways than one. The doctors have diagnosed her paralysis as purely psychosomatic due to mental trauma rather than any physical issues. She’s also gotten very reliant on her father, the wealthy Rome aristocrat Massimo, and more or less craving his attention nonstop. Her attachment issues skyrockets when she finds out that Massimo has gotten romantically involved with a woman named Greta.

Ippolita, wanting more of her own life and especially to get rid of her paralysis, eventually reaches out to her uncle who is a Vatican cardinal. He only recommends her to get in contact with a parapsychologist named Marcello Sinibaldi, who uses hypnosis on her because he believes that she’s having unconscious memories of her past lives. One of these past lives is none other than a witch (well, of course!) who entered a covenant with Satan and was burned at the stake. Ippolita is possessed by her ancestor’s spirit, and even regains her ability to walk, which she does only under a dissociated state. During this state she ends up killing a tourist after seducing him in her own witchy way. Then things only escalate, where Ippolita becomes fully possessed and lets everyone know that she’s learned a few bad words like “cock“ and “whore“. Especially cock, which seems to be her new favorite word. Ippolita is now ready to let her witchy, demonic side out in full. Mamma Mia! Time to call the exorcist!

The Antichrist (original title: L´anticristo), also being released under the title The Tempter, is a supernatural horror film from 1974, directed by Alberto De Martino and co-written with Gianfranco Clerici and Vincenzo Mannino. Yet another cash-in on the success of The Exorcist (1973), but despite all the cheese and nonsense in this film I don’t think anyone can beat The Turkish Exorcist, Seytan. Its place as number-one in the most baffling and hilarious exorcist ripoffs remains unsurpassed.

While this film is another blatant The Exorcist ripoff, it is on a completely other level than the aforementioned Seytan. The Antichrist actually harbors some qualities, especially in the visual department. Joe D’Amato worked as director of photography on this film, under his real name Aristide Massaccessi. This easily explains why the movie feels fairly competent visually, and combined with a score composed by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai, there are actually some scenes which manage to deliver some decent atmosphere. It doesn’t take long until it stumbles between each of those, however, as the pacing is quite off at times and the special effects are mostly goofy. Ippolita’s character isn’t exactly the most sympathetic to begin with, but her change into a murderous, horny, foul-mouthed witch becomes more ludicrous than shocking. Hearing an adult woman say cock will never pack the same punch as hearing a 12-year old say your mother sucks cocks in hell.

There are some scenes that goes straight into wtf-land with some surreal fantasy-dream-nightmare visuals, and of course we get a rather lengthy Satanic orgy in Satan’s garden in Hell (or wherever it’s supposed to be). With all that talk of cock it was about time she finally got some. Despite some good things, the film is struggling with the pacing issues and some rather laughable scenes which are actually supposed to be scary. Or at least I think so. We have a disembodied flying hand that chokes a guy, a hilarious levitation scene, and so many other things which I suppose are supposed to be horror elements, but just makes you chuckle instead. It’s a totally confused mixture of witchcraft, satanism, possession, sleaze, and goofy effects. But is it still entertaining? Hell, yes!

Overall, The Antichrist is a movie that can be a fun watch if you want to see a sleaze ‘n cheese ripoff of The Exorcist. If you’re in for a challenge: take it as a double-feature with The Turkish Exorcist, Seytan!

Fun Fact: Carla Gravina, who plays the role as Ippolita, revealed that she had some trouble playing the role and would never accept anything similar ever again. After starting the shooting of the film, she said she started to feel some kind of strange disease coming on, which she described as differing between an intense cold, feeling dizzy, getting a feeling of emptiness, headaches, lack of appetite, and so on. Doctors diagnosed that it was most likely due to overwork and “curious psychic influences“…

Director: Alberto De Martino
Writers: Gianfranco Clerici, Alberto De Martino, Vincenzo Mannino
Original title: L’anticristo
Also known as: The Tempter
Country & year: Italy, 1974
Actors: Carla Gravina, Mel Ferrer, Arthur Kennedy, George Coulouris, Alida Valli, Mario Scaccia, Umberto Orsini, Anita Strindberg, Remo Girone, Ernesto Colli
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071150/

Satan’s Slaves 2: Communion (2022)

Posted on October 13, 2025October 14, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Three years have gone since the incidents in the first film. And since they lived in a reclusive yet more idyllic area by the woods, they decided it was a good idea to move into a Jakarta apartment building with neighbors up, down, left and right. Because don’t fear thy neighbor. Doesn’t sound like the dumbest idea, but when you first take a look at the place, you’d take the quickest U-turn back to the cabin in the woods and just tell demons to fuck off and touch some grass. Because I’m telling you, when you have a place like this that makes the building in Evil Dead Rise look like a five-star hotel, it’s better to just live in a tent or just under a bridge. Woof.

The place and setting also vaguely reminds me of a Hong Kong horror film called Rigor Mortis (2013). It’s one of those final destinations where you move into just to hang yourself in the tiny living room. So yeah, the setting itself plays the biggest part in Satan’s Slaves 2: Communion. So if you don’t fear thy neighbors, you’ll certainly fear thy place. Or in the worst case, both. Welcome to hell.

A quick trivia: the building used in the film was found by one of Joko Anwar’s followers on X. It’s located on the border of East Jakarta and Bekasi and has been abandoned since 2008. The only change is the open fields seen in the film. Here’s an exploration video of the place, done by a local YouTuber, where the images speaks much for themselves.

Despite being free from the ghosts n’ demons, life hasn’t been too kind to the struggling, near to the lower-class family Suwono. The financial safety they have left is close to be flushed down the toilet as the oldest daughter, Rini, works a dead-end job at a factory after dropping out of high school to be a surrogate mom for her two younger brothers. And where’s their dad, Bahri? He always comes home just in time for dinner, looking depressed, burnt-out and not saying much. One of the brothers adds some positivity to the conversation with his high ambitions to become a full-time gigolo when he grows up. Yay! At least, there’s no disgusting urinating on the floor here, like we saw in the first film (whatever that was about). But Rini has had enough of the situation and plans to leave for a university while she still has the chance before she turns 30. She couldn’t choose a worse day to leave as a big storm hits.

And with the storm comes something wicked… and to make matters even worse, the place gets flooded, the electricity cuts off and all the tenants are trapped in the building. So, the University has to wait. And we learn very early that an ancient burial site surrounds the place. Of course. A legion of ghosts will have a field day.

It starts subtle enough (or maybe not so) with kids almost being sucked into the chute by demonic forces, ghoulish figures that pops up to give some effective jumpscares, and we have a nice static nod to Poltergeist (1982). It gets more physical, to say the least, with an elevator scene where a group of kids dies in a heavy, brutal way. A dozen other residents also dies by the elevator crash that gets piled up in the cramped apartments, disturbing La Ilaha Illa Allah—chanting can be heard throughout the hallways, like in a certain fire temple way back in the day. The supernatural aspect is only the icing on the cake with the isolated surroundings and the sight of the fresh dead bodies lying around.

Writer and director Joko Anwar takes full advantage of the location where not a single room or hallway looks safe or welcoming. Although the old-school approach we saw in the first one is still here, Satan’s Slaves 2 has a way bleaker and nihilistic tone where the atmosphere is as heavy as the concrete environment. Communion also has its fair share of references and nods sprinkled throughout, but manages to be its own thing. And speaking of, there’s also some Stranger Things going on with a group of kids who explore the even more obscure rooms and corners of the building to find some hidden secrets as the storm rages.

We also see a glimpse of the underworld, or The Further if you will, in a very effective way, which I hope we get to see more of in a sequel. So much potential to develop a great franchise here, or at least, a trilogy.

And yes, this sequel is more connected to the first one, apart from just focusing on the same family where there’s still some dark secret to unfold (as in most families). That said, Communion is way more about the atmosphere, mood and the overall mysterious vibe than the story itself, like in the best Lucio Fulci kinda way. It’s unsettling, nightmarish and hellish. A haunted house ride, masterfully directed by Joko Anwar with sharp sound-design, superb make-up effects and just overall a morbid visual treat for all horror ghouls.

Satan’s Slaves 2: Communion became another big win for Joko Anwar and Indonesian horror as it became the highest grossing film in that country in 2022. After its limited theatrical release, it got acquired by Shudder, and as of now, there’s no physical release of the film. Thanks to the Norwegian streaming site SF Anytime, we got the access to see it.

Writer and director: Joko Anwar
Original title: Pengabdi Setan 2: Communion
Country & year: Indonesia, 2022
Actors: Tara Basro, Endy Arfian, Nasar Annuz, Bront Palarae, Ratu Felisha, Jourdy Pranata, Egy Fedly, Muzakki Ramdhan, Fatih Unru, M. Iqbal Sulaiman, Ayu Laksmi
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16915972/

Prequel: Satan’s Slaves (2017)

Original: Satan’s Slave (1982)

Satan’s Slaves (2017)

Posted on October 12, 2025October 12, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

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)

The Gate (1987)

Posted on October 11, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

The movie opens with the nightmare of Glen, a 12 year old boy. He dreams that his home is abandoned, and he goes out to the backyard to enter his tree-house, where is gets struck by lightning. He wakes to a somewhat uncanny coincidence as he sees that some workers in the backyard have cut down the same tree. He and his friend Terry later discovers that the removal of the tree has unearthed a large geode, and at the same time Glen is catching a splinter and leaves a little bit of blood behind. And of course we know that this little detail is going to have some sort of significance later on…and yup, shortly afterwards some strange things start happening.

Then Glen’s parents are going to leave town for three days, and Glen’s older sister Alexandra (whom he refers to as Al for short) will look after him. Al, being a 15 year old girl, immediately gets in contact with her friends to make proper use of the situation and throws a party. While she’s partying with her friends downstairs, Glen and Terry are in Glen’s room. Terry’s brought with him his LP of a heavy metal band called Sacrifyx, as he found a booklet inside the vinyl album that describes some eerie resemblances to the hole in Glen’s backyard and the strange events that followed. They play the record backwards, which of course ends up opening the gate fully. Good work, lads. Downstairs, Glen and Terry discovers that Al and her friends are playing some sort of levitation game, and wants Glen to try it. At this point I was surprised they didn’t bring out a ouija board too just to out the cherry on top. Supposed to be just a silly game, Glen starts levitating for real, causing everyone to freak out. And that’s only the beginning. Something has started a chain of supernatural events, all of it in preparation for something bigger to come…

The Gate is a supernatural horror film from 1987, directed by Tibor Takács and written by Michael Nankin. The movie was a co-production between Canada and the United States, and has since its release gotten itself a cult following.

There are always some films you watch at an older age, and think “oh boy, I wish I’d seen that one when I was a kid“. The Gate is definitely one of those. It’s got all the perfect ingredients for a spooky movie that can be watched and enjoyed by a younger audience. The plot is somewhat simple: children discover that a gate to hell has opened in their backyard, and they must try to close it before all hell literally breaks lose. The kid characters are your typical “smarter than average and definitely smarter than the adults“ kind, which were often a thing in movies like this. Most interactions are between the protagonist Glen, his buddy Terry, and the sister Al, and their chemistry is fine. None of the characters are especially memorable, but they work for the setting.

The movie is using several techniques for the visual effects, including some good old-fashioned stop-motion animation, forced perspective, and of course the classic rubber suits. Ah, the good old 80’s. Towards the ending we get some really crazy scenes with all kinds of demonic and otherworldly elements, including tiny demons (which reminded me a bit of the subspecies in Subspecies), a zombie, and of course a big, big bad. And all of it because of a heavy metal band! Fits right in with the 80’s Satanic panic.

The Gate is a fun 80’s horror with lots of cool practical effects and the typical whimsical 80’s tone, filled with heavy metal, demons, practical and stop-motion effects. It’s one of those light-horror movies speckled with a lot of whimsical fantasy and fun times, never getting heavy in the gore or anything that could be considered particularly scary, which makes it work pretty good as a gateway horror. Fits fell with the title too, I guess.

In 1990, a sequel called The Gate II: The Trespassers was released. A 3D-remake was also scheduled to have a release in 2011, but nothing ever came of that.

Director: Tibor Takacs
Writer: Michael Nankin
Country & year: Canada, 1987
Actors: Stephen Dorff, Christa Denton, Stephen Dorff, Louis Tripp, Kelly Rowan, Jennifer Irwin, Deborah Grover, Scot Denton, Ingrid Veninger, Sean Fagan, Linda Goranson
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093075/

Drag Me to Hell (2009)

Posted on October 18, 2024September 5, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

The year is 1969, and the young medium Shaun San Dena gets a visit from a desperate couple who wants her to save their son. After having stolen a necklace from the gypsies, he’s fallen ill and have started hearing evil voices. Before she can even start a proper séance, the boy is quite literally dragged to Hell to never be seen again. Then, we fast forward to present day in Los Angeles, where Christine Brown works as a bank loan officer and is hungry for a promotion to become assistant branch manager. Her boss gives her some advice: she will prove her worth if she can show herself as someone being able to make tough decisions. She gets her chance pretty soon afterwards, when an elderly woman named Sylvia Ganush asks for a third extension on her mortgage. Despite Ganush literally begging on her knees, Christine refuses her pleas because she wants to show off her “tough decision making“ to her boss. Promotion, here we come! Later, in the parking lot, the elderly woman decides to give Christine a payback for shaming her and denying her pleas for help, and after a long struggle Ganush rips a button from Christine’s coat and curses it. Uh-oh. Christine is soon haunted by a dark spirit, which is attacking and tormenting her. She decides to beg Ganush for forgiveness, but before she can do so she finds out that the old woman has passed away. Not only that, but the curse that’s been cast upon her will have her tormented by a powerful demon for three days, before she will be dragged to Hell.

Drag Me to Hell is a supernatural horror film from 2009, directed and co-written by Sam Raimi with Ivan Raimi. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and became an immediate success. It grossed $90.8 million worldwide on a $30 million budget, and won awards and received generally very favorable reviews. Originally, the story for the film had been written 10 years prior to the film going into production, under the working title The Curse. After finishing the script for the film, Raimi was busy with the Spider-Man film series so it took a while before the film could be pushed forward. Raimi wanted it to be a PG-13 film, with less gore than his earlier horror films, stating that this time he wanted to do something different. He wanted to make a suspenseful movie with wild moments and a lot of dark humor, and in all of this he definitely succeeded.

The movie starts with a punch during the opening scene, where a little boy is quite literally dragged to the depths of Hell itself to burn forever while his terrified parents can’t do anything but watch in horror. And all over a stolen necklace…not exactly eternal damnation-worthy, but curses aren’t always supposed to be fair. Seeing this we know what Christine is at risk of, which heightens the suspense. While the protagonist isn’t all that innocent (she could have helped the old lady, but she chose to focus on her promotion instead), her actions are still not so awful that we think she deserves to be cast into Hell. Yes, we root for her, but we also can’t help but watch in glee when things turn into total demonic frolic mayhem, with scenes that are both funny and delightfully spooky. While the film does have its cheesy moments, its all done with a lot of excitement and manages to blend the dark humor with the horror elements very nicely. It’s all done in a boisterous Halloween spirit, managing to be a great load of fun. The special effects used in the film is a good variation of different techniques: green screen, prosthetics, puppets and cgi, and different effect houses were utilized, including Phil Tippet‘s studio.

Drag me to Hell is a blast from start to finish, and a perfect watch during the Halloween season!

In early 2023, Raimi revealed that Ghost House Pictures was actively trying to come up with ideas for a sequel. Well…we’re now in the late part of 2024, and while Drag me to Hell 2 is listed on IMDb, there’s absolutely no info about this sequel at all. So I’m not holding my breath for that one.

Director: Sam Raimi
Writers: Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi
Country & year: USA, 2009
Actors: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao, David Paymer, Adriana Barraza, Chelcie Ross, Reggie Lee, Molly Cheek, Bojana Novakovic, Kevin Foster, Alexis Cruz
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1127180/