Pengabdi Setan

Following the death of their mother, a family grieving her loss is inundated with numerous hauntings and visions of her ghost coming back to haunt them, and as they try to investigate the cause of everything find themselves subjected to a malicious demonic curse and race to stop it before it consumes them.

This is easily one of the country's best genre efforts. Among the film's best aspects is the incredible atmosphere present which is impressive overall. The early setup involving the family grieving over her death and likely to be easy targets as is, there's some great work here bringing up the idea of the curse affecting them. Those first scenes later that night, with the silent house except for the ticking clock, the sudden appearance of the mother's ghost tempting the son out into the night creates an eerie quality to things. Seeing how he suddenly acts afterward towards the rest of the family or his friends which are highly uncharacteristic signaling something is wrong with him only helps to enhance the atmosphere as the idea of the normally calm and respectful son suddenly being non-responsive or even threatening towards others works really well. Those aspects all combine together to make the film quite creepy and chilling in the early stages to get off to a great start. This setup work helps to make the later aspects of the curse even more chilling. Once the fake psychic arrives to help with the household, it's no surprise that an increase in supernatural action occurs ranging from the small things like the closed gate or the nightmares to much more overt attacks including the ghost appearing to torment them even if nothing else occurs. The scenes of the cult members taking the family into the basement where they engage in the sacrifice rituals add a lot to the atmosphere which starts with the more obvious systematic dispatching of the family in what seems like accidents. These incidents all come into place for the wild finale which goes for crazy ghostly action including bungled exorcism efforts, a shockingly atmospheric resurrection ceremony in the local graveyard, and then the final attack using the zombified ghost bodies to attack the others. Given the cheesy nature of the effects here and the subtle religious dig to provide the motivation for everything, these factors provide more than enough to hold this up. There aren't too many flaws here but there are some issues with this one. One of the only drawbacks is the seemingly obvious nature of what's going on yet none of the family seems to be aware of what's really going on. It's plainly obvious that once the new housekeeper arrives there's an increase in supernatural accidents and maladies yet there's nothing done about it. The convenient matter in which she keeps showing up after everything has wrapped up with a knowing smirk creates a truly suspicious case against her, and with the family being as religious as they are not to sense or catch on to those antics much earlier strikes as somewhat illogical. As well, there's the aforementioned cheapness of the special effects which helps to add a deranged atmosphere but can come off cheesy at points including the make-up effects on the gore to the cheesy look of the prosthetics, and the rather sloppy way they matte the figures on-screen to showcase solid objects passing through them. While not completely detrimental, these provide the only features to bring it down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.

Normally these IMDb reviews are all different, and the various reviewers criticize other reviews, etc. But not the case for Satan's Slave here. First of all, we all agree that the movie isn't much like Phantasm at all. Except for a scene or two of a teenager on a motorcycle and him visiting a fortune teller (neither of which affect the plot), there aren't many similarities. However, we all also agree that this is an enjoyable horror film. The house scenes at night were shot well and look pretty creepy. The evil maid was spooky. The story of finding God to help overcome the devil is not original, but it's done well in this film. All in all, it's worth renting or finding it for free on youtube.

Despite of the makeup that too ordinary for a horror film, the story plot was frightening enough until now. Perhaps if we watch this movie in the recent time, I'm sure it's nothing compare to any modern horror film. But when you watched this movie back in the 80s, inside the theater, it could gave you a nightmare.

SATAN'S SLAVE is a supernatural / occult film from Indonesia. After the family matriarch dies, a mysterious housekeeper (Ruth Pelupessi) moves in to put things in order. Horror, satanic shenanigans, and unexplained deaths ensue.

Utterly absurd from start to finish, this movie is a lot of fun to watch! It features: Ghosts, vampires, zombies, black magic, a flying, killer chandelier, and an ultimate showdown between good and eeevil. Some of the "terrifying" sequences and the not-so-special effects therein are genuine gutbusters!

Maximum praise must go to Ms. Pelupessi, whose skunk-eyed stare could curdle milk! She's the best part of this hilarious masterpiece...

The Munarto family has recently lost its matriarch, and the teenage son Tomi (Fachrul Rozy) is not dealing with it very well. He is seeing visions of his late mother (Diana Suarkom) on the property, and soon his older sister Rita (Siska Widowati) is likewise experiencing strange, supernatural things. It becomes clear that there are unkind spirits on the property, and the arrival of a new housekeeper, Darminah (Ruth Pelupessi), will not ease anybody's concerns since the viewer can tell that she does not have the best interests of this family at heart.

Overlooked by the mainstream audience in North America, this intense Indonesian horror film would make a good double feature with another picture from that country, "Mystics in Bali". This one lives up to the word "horror", with plenty of spooky, sinister atmosphere to spare. It does not take long for the bad stuff to start happening. Fortunately, this family is likeable enough (W. D. Mochtar, who's also in "Mystics in Bali", plays the father / widower) that one can easily root for them. Most importantly, in a country where peoples' faith is often quite strong, this isn't a particularly religious family, so outside forces urge them to find God in a hurry.

The cast is good (Pelupessi is a standout), the imagery is creepy, there is some effective gore on occasion, and the story steadily builds to a fantastic climax. There is even some amusing humor on occasion that never detracts from the overall seriousness of the tale.

If one is looking to discover Asian genre cinema, I would definitely recommend this one to interested parties.

Eight out of 10.