Satan's Slave

Satan's Slave (Pengabdi Setan) (1982)

Runtime: 96 minutes

Directed by: Sisworo Gautama Putra

Starring: Ruth Pelupessi, W.D. Mochtar, Fachrul Rozy, Siska Widowati, Simon Cader

From: Rapi Film

TIL that disco fashion, Linda Ronstadt & Phantasm made its way to Indonesia.

Last night's entertainment came courtesy of Shudder; as typical for me I've known of a movie for many years before finally checking it out. It was remade a few years ago as Satan's Slaves—sometime long into the future Slaves will be viewed, but at least as of now there's no rush on that. I went into the film rather cold on what it was even about-the Phantasm inspiration quickly became apparent, although first was a scene lifted from Salem's Lot... then again it was a great scene in that and was used effectively here.

The opening few minutes shows the matriarch of a rich family of four being buried after passing away due to reasons never expressed to the audience. That is done to the sounds of Islamic prayer and this is noted as religion plays a key role in the tale-Islam being that faith instead of Christianity is a twist from the norm, at least for me. The family in question isn't religious and is more preoccupied with wealth & in terms of the older teen daughter, she goes to outdoor parties where DISCO music is played-it took a phone app to reveal the tune was Carte Blanche's Do You Like It Like That; I would have liked the tune more if it didn't sound like a blatant copy of George McCrae's Rock Your Baby-and the younger teen brother goes the black magic route to try and quiet the spirits residing in the house... not a good idea. BTW, the brother has a poster of Ronstadt in his room where in big sis's, there's a poster of a seated woman back to the camera, nude except for a thong! Perhaps those two should be in different rooms...

Anyhow, there's hardly any gore in this; instead there's spooky happenings and while it doesn't go batcrap insane like contemporary Indonesian horror film Mystics in Bali, there's still wacky moments and things flying about. Instead, a woman is behind the spooky happenings and this does have some decent scares, although at times there are lulls in the plot. Unlike Phantasm, The Tall Man stand-in is not doing evil things for the sake of another dimension. Like in Phantasm, this operates on a dream sort of logic and has a creepy electronic score. Unlike in Phantasm, this also has disco fashion and a hilariously staged death via transport truck.

While not a must-see, it was still an interesting experience and to my tastes, this was fine overall.