The Indonesian horror film Pengabdi Setan has two parts, made 5 years apart. The first film by CJ Entertainment is called Servants of Satan (2017) and is a remake of 1982’s Slaves of Satan. In the new gothic “horror” director Joko Anwar went further than the original and mixed everything: an attempt to bring back the dead, ghosts, risen from the dead, sectarians, demons, a satanic cult, a contracted fee. Strange voices seem to be reading a spell, like in “The Evil Dead,” and towards the end there is even an analogy with “Omen.” The remake turns out to be sinister and dark, an alternate reboot of the cult Indonesian film directed by Sisvoro Gautam Putra.
The sequel to the mystical drama “Satan’s Servants 2: Communion” was renamed in Russian distribution as “Spell: The Thirteenth Floor” (2022). To the usual for this genre of ghosts and demons added natural disasters, man-made disasters, the prediction of 29 years ago about the coming apocalypse, tragic accidents. This is a tightly knit horror film with a national flavor, which is presented to us as a stand-alone work.
What is the movie “Pengabdi Setan” about
The Suwono family, living in a rural backwater, finds themselves below the poverty line. They used to subsist on the income of the mother of four children. She used to be a popular singer and still gets royalties from a recording studio. But by the early 1980s, the commissions had become paltry as records almost stopped selling. There was no money even for medical treatment for Mavarni herself, who was fading from an unknown illness. The eldest daughter, 22-year-old Rini, cared for her ailing mother until her passing. The widowed Suvono mortgages the house and leaves for work. The children are left in the care of their grandmother, waiting to move to Jakarta.
Rini does not believe her brothers when they tell her about the strange things that happen after the funeral. Tony (16), along with his mother’s songs, hears her calling from the radio. Ten-year-old Bondi wanders the cemetery to force the spirit back into the body. Little Ian, mute from birth, is haunted by ghosts he talks to.
On the advice of the local pastor, Rini begins to pray to get rid of these apparitions. The girl’s friend Hendra is convinced that the house is not the soul of the deceased or a ghost, but a demon. There is no salvation through prayer. The evil spirit formerly lived in Mawarni’s body and now takes on her form. The Suwono children try to learn from their grandmother about their mother’s strange affliction, which resembles possession. But the woman dies in a well, having written a letter to her friend shortly before. Hendra goes to the man to discover the mystery of the Suwono family.
It turns out that the grandmother was against marrying her son to a singer who, in addition to her frivolous occupation, was infertile. However, the couple suddenly began to have children. Because her daughter-in-law became terribly ill, the grandmother assumed that she had not prayed to God for the birth of children, but had turned to the powers of darkness. The shocking information was confirmed by Tony’s discovery: in a magazine he had read about a woman who had joined a cult to be able to conceive. The cult members made her promise to give Satan her last child, when she would be seven years old. The youngest of the Suvono children had just reached that age.
Tragedy struck when the father arrived to take the family away from here. The house was attacked by the living dead, and at night some people came and took Ian with them. The movie ends with Rini and her father and two brothers living in a high-rise house in the city a year later. Next door to Suwono is a young couple who have their own plans for this family. They are followers of a cult whose members worship the king of hell.
The Meaning and Morality of the Story of Satan’s Servants
Joko Anwar made the film as if it were a real story. There is much in it that is dark, creepy, frightening, and secret. What could be more terrifying than selling your soul to the devil? You can take a risk and make a deal with him, to get what you want, to live your life beautifully. But you have to pay for everything at some point. And one does not know what the price will be. The uncomplicated moral of the film is obvious: do not mess with Satan and his cult servants. It will cost you more money.
The idea is developed in the second film, made in 2022 and not the original title “Satan’s Servants 2: Communion”, but “Spell: The Thirteenth Floor”. The characters from the first part, who escaped to Jakarta, move into a social “high-rise” located in a vacant lot. It seems that life is getting better: Rini will go to college, Tony met a nice girl. But mysticism and misfortune do not recede. An elevator breaks down in an unfortunate apartment building, and ghosts roam through the apartments. A squall storm hits, killing people: the priest, neighbors, and friends of the main characters.
Bondi and his buddies go into the commandant’s room. There on the walls hang strange pictures of the place where the house stands – it used to be a cemetery. Tony discovers that the neighbors have records of his mother’s songs and photos of people he knew, and their father’s suitcase contains severed human fingers. It turns out that Suwono was a policeman and was involved in a Satanic cult case. He persuaded his wife to join the cult so that she could have children. In return, he had to kill a thousand people.
The circles of hell continue: the father dies, and in the apartment above, Rini finds her younger brother. Ian, who disappeared three years ago, is now in charge of the devil worshippers. Toward the end, the same mysterious couple that appeared in the first film appears.
The director’s main message appeals to those who still believe that Satan does not exist. The darkness and mysteriousness of what is happening on the screen illustrates the greatest cunning of the king of hell – he has many faces and is capable of masterfully changing masks.
