I will admit that during the parts where the characters discussed satanic ritual cults I got a bit lost because, oddly enough Satan worshiping was omitted from my Indonesian language text book. It is well-made, frightening and is further evidence that the Indonesian film industry is starting to come into its own and make some real quality cinema.Īs the blood red title card smashed on the screen Laura leaned over and said 'I don't think there are English sub-titles' which is OK because I can understand enough Bahasa to follow along. This is a ghost story, therefore, that takes place in a house that is itself a ghost of colonialism. The film takes place in a farm house that would not be out of place in Indiana, which is apparently because in the 1980s the government was still mandating the preservation of old Dutch farm houses.

It relies on the simple fact that there is perhaps nothing scarier than an old Indonesian woman, eerily lit and doused in cadaver makeup smiling in a way that would make Stephen King shit his pants.Ī lot of this is accomplished through production design and setting. It does so by expertly cultivating an extremely creepy feeling through mood, tone and foregrounding characters while spooky silhouettes flash in the background. The back-end of the film degenerates into a bit of a low-key zombie carnival but a good horror film will always transcend the boundaries of the genre, and this one does. Set in 1981, it is about a family whose sick, creepy old mother dies and then a bunch of weird Satanic shit ensues.

This one is more or less an Indonesian riff on Rosemary's Baby (and it's actually a remake of an older Indonesian film). Horror movies are, by definition, generic. I fear for the day when an American studio executive discovers it and remakes it into something truly horrifying - a stale, dumbed down American rehash of another person's better work. This is a film that could play in any theater in the world director Joko Anwar taps that particular morbidity that can scare anyone, no matter where they are from. It cost around $300,000 to make and has been one of the highest grossing films of the year in Indonesia. The Indonesian film industry, like anywhere else, has been following this trend and they really hit a home run with this year's Pengabdi Setan (The Devil's Servant). These films are cheap to make, they provide an abundance of thrills, and they have been killing at the box office lately. We also happen to be living in a time when the horror genre is gloriously resurgent. It's not such a stretch to feel like there is some kind of magic here. This is a land of volcanoes, jungles and ancient ruins, where the earth often bleeds mist and fog. And on the island of Java, where I live, a particular kind of mysticism prevails to this day.

For one, this is a country where many people genuinely believe in ghosts. There is something about Indonesia that lends itself to horror movies.

Indonesian horror movies