Joko Anwar’s remake of Sisworo Gautama Putra’s Pengabdi Setan tells a story about consequences. It’s a well-crafted movie that sets a terrifyingly high bar for Indonesia’s horror movie scene.
This post contains spoilers and my personal opinion. Reader discretion is advised.
Pengabdi Setan (2017) is a perfect example of a successful viral marketing campaign that offers viewers with a complete experience of fear, excitement, and a sense of community to the audience.
I started writing this piece more than a year ago just after I watched the movie. For the record, this writing is long overdue.
By the time I started re-writing this article for the dozen times, Pengabdi Setan — which is known as Satan’s Slave in English — had opened in the top slot at Hong Kong cinemas and scored countless praises from critics all around the world (Jakarta Post, 2018).
This achievement is remarkable and not only for Indonesian horror movie scene but all Indonesian movies in general.
And as I said before, this movie offers a complete experience. I personally wanted desperately to watch it because other people had watched it before and they said it was awesome; that’s the community for you.
Creeping slowly into your darkest thought
The movie managed to build a near perfect ambience that creeps into the dark corner of your thoughts. It began with beautiful shots, soft-toned colours, wonderful, and eerie sounds, preparing you for an adrenaline-filled journey that keeps you at the edge of your seat.
It also had sneaky little moments of which you can’t help but remember every time you walk past a hallway. And, yes. I’m talking about the mother’s photo and the hanging blanket.
I enjoyed what I saw, obviously, but I can’t say that I love this movie.
As someone who loves detective stories, it’s easy to get me hooked on unexplained events at the beginning of a movie. I’m always longing to ask questions to myself, to test my logic and imagination on how the story will go.
The story had weaknesses — which I knew later on that the plot holes are actually intentional —as it jumped to many events without any proper introduction of what caused it in the first place.
Still, the movie was anything but bad. It had wonderful cinematography, dialogues, casts, pictures, and colours. The whole thing was amicable and, indeed, this movie sets a terrifyingly high bar for upcoming horror movies made by Indonesian filmmakers.
Spoiling the story
Pengabdi Setan’s main plot revolves around Rini, a beautiful young woman, who lives with her financially-challenged family (including her easy-on-the-eye father, her beautiful-but-creepy-former-singer-now-ill-and-really-looks-like-demon mother, her grandmother, and her brothers Tony, Bondi, and Ian) in the outskirt of a big city.
The house she lived in was an old house, decorated with wooden furniture, a phonograph that plays her mother’s record, completed with creaky stairs and an in-house dangerous opened well.
All side stories aside, this family is doomed because the mother sold her soul and her youngest child’s soul to Satan for reasons. I don’t recall any particular reason but I suspect she made the pact for having a child or successful career. See? Consequences.
The deal, however, was for vain. Years after the cursed transaction, the mother was sick. She couldn’t get up from her bed — let alone singing beautifully for the entire world to buy her record —, her family remained poor, and they had to let go the youngest child to the Satan-worshipers. So, what did she ask in the first place?
And please do tell me, what had the father done to support this family so far? What did the mother ask Satan anyway? Did she ask for money? Talent? A child?
How did she figure out the pact that sealed this ordeal in the first place? How desperate was she when she asked for it? Did she know all of this will happen in the future? If so, why did she do it anyway? Does the father always know? Did he not suspicious in any way?
It could be because of my lack of nerve to open my eyes the entire film, but I couldn’t answer even the simplest questions such as what is happening? Why is this happening? Who are they? What do they want? What did they say? When was it? Where was it?
Long story short, the mother died. The youngest brother is a demon. The grandmother died and become a nice ghost, albeit still creepy. The father — after briefly went out from town for work — moved Rini and her brothers to the city to avoid further harassment from Satan worshipers and its underlings.
Little did they know, they just started an adventure filled with witches and demons.
Go watch it
I said it before and I will say it again: go watch this movie, either if there’s a screening in your town or streaming services like iFlix. I can’t wait for the sequel to fill the plot holes I was bitching about earlier.
