Satan's Slaves (2017)

December 2, 2022 12:00 PM

[TRAILER] After the death of Rini's mother, something is disturbing her family. When a famous singer dies from a mysterious illness, her family feels her presence linger, and a horrifying saga begins. Rini and her siblings care for their sick mother in the countryside, but after the matriarch passes away, evil entities terrorize and even possess the family. To protect her little brothers, Rini traces back the roots of the evil and learns the horrifying truth.

Starring Tara Basro, Bront Palarae, Dimas Aditya, Endy Arfian, Nasar Anuz.

An Indonesian horror film from writer/director Joko Anwar.

91% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Currently streaming in the US on Shudder. Also available for digital rental. JustWatch listing.

posted by DirtyOldTown (3 comments total)

This is a banger. I wish I saw it with a crowd, as it has terrific jump scares. Also a cool underlying mythos and terrific character development with the family.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:50 PM on December 2, 2022

This is very good, but the sequel is EVEN BETTER, as though that was the movie Joko Anwar had in mind the entire time and this was the setup.

I wouldn't go into the second without seeing this first (and again it is good) but the sequel outdoes it in nearly every way.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:29 AM on December 3, 2022

I watched this today and enjoyed it. I particularly liked the music at the beginning, in the walk through the graveyard (it reminded me of Rosemary's Baby for some reason, which could have been bit of a spoiler if I had thought about it more carefully).

The director was clearly having fun with it, and the whole approach--doing things three times for a payoff on the third--reminded me of comedy, but that didn't make it any less delightful for me.

I also liked the characterization, which is an area some horror movies skimp on.
posted by johnofjack at 3:00 PM on December 11, 2022 [1 favorite]