General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Satan's Slaves

Satan's Slaves (Pengabdi Setan) is a 2017 Indonesian supernatural horror film written and directed by Joko Anwar, a remake of the 1980 Indonesian horror film of the same title directed by Sisworo Gautama Putra. It was co-produced by Indonesia's Rapi Films and South Korea's CJ Entertainment and released in Indonesia on 28 September 2017.¹ The film became the highest-grossing Indonesian film of 2017 with 4,206,103 admissions, won seven awards from thirteen nominations at the 2017 Festival Film Indonesia, and was followed by a sequel, Satan's Slaves: Communion.²^•¹

Key fact	Detail
Original title	Pengabdi Setan; Indonesian supernatural horror, 106–107 minutes³
Director and writer	Joko Anwar, who also wrote the screenplay³
Production	Rapi Films and CJ Entertainment; producers Gope T. Samtani and Kim Hawon³
Indonesian release	28 September 2017; Malaysia 23 November 2017; Singapore 18 January 2018¹
Box office	4,206,103 admissions in Indonesia, the top domestic film of 2017; Rp155 billion ($11.5 million) grossed in Indonesia plus RM 6 million ($1.5 million) in Malaysia by the end of 2017²
Awards	13 nominations and 7 wins at the 2017 Festival Film Indonesia¹
Critical reception	91% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (23 reviews); 6.5/10 on IMDb⁴^•⁵
International reach	Rights sold to 45 countries, including Japan, Malaysia and Poland¹

Spoilers

Plot and setting

The story is set in 1981, with period haircuts and clothing, and centers on the Suwono family.³ After their house is sold to pay for the mother Mawarni's treatment, the family lives at the grandmother's house outside the city. Mawarni, once a successful singer, has suffered an unexplained illness for three and a half years, and her death leaves the family in financial crisis; the father leaves for work in the city.⁶ The oldest daughter Rini (Tara Basro) and her three younger brothers Toni, Bondi, and Ian remain at the shadowy house, soon haunted by an apparition resembling their mother.³^•⁶

Rini discovers that the family's past includes a dark pact that now threatens their safety, and the children must uncover the mystery to survive.⁶ Reviews describe the plot as a slow-burning haunted-house tale involving a demonic fertility cult that builds to a chaotic conclusion resembling a zombie apocalypse, recalling Hollywood horror classics such as Rosemary's Baby and Night of the Living Dead.⁷ In the Western horror scene the film is recognized for replacing the usual Christian imagery of possession stories with Islamic ones, such as an Imam's blessing in place of a priest-performed exorcism.⁸

Production

Joko Anwar has said that the original Pengabdi Setan was one of the films that made him want to become a filmmaker, and he applied to Rapi Films for the remake rights ten years before the film was made, while directing Janji Joni. Once permission was granted, he wrote the script in two to three weeks, having long carried the idea in his head.⁹^•¹⁰ He offered something new rather than copying the 1980 version exactly.⁹

The principal cast includes Tara Basro as Rini, Bront Palarae as the father, Dimas Aditya as Hendra, Endy Arfian as Toni, Nasar Annuz as Bondi, M. Adhiyat as Ian, Ayu Laksmi as the mother, Elly D. Luthan as the grandmother, and Asmara Abigail as Darminah.³^•¹¹ Ical Tanjung served as director of photography, Khikmawan Santosa as sound designer, and the music was composed by Aghi Narottama, Tony Merle, and Bemby Gusti.³ The producers maintained that a real spirit appears in the film: they hired 24 extras for a scene in which the dead rise again, but 25 undead figures can be seen in the shot.³

Box office and reception

The film topped the Indonesian box office for three weeks after its release and had drawn 4.1 million moviegoers as of 8 November 2017, making it the Indonesian box office champion of 2017; CJ Entertainment reported at that time that it was the fourth highest-grossing Indonesian film of all time.¹ Final admissions reached 4,206,103, ranking it first among domestic films of 2017.² The Indonesian film industry's export agency describes it as the first Indonesian horror film successfully distributed in international mainstream cinemas.¹²

On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 91% Tomatometer score from 23 reviews and an 80% audience score; IMDb users give it 6.5/10.⁴^•⁵ Critics highlighted its sound-driven suspense, with horror heard before it is seen, and its cinematography by Ical Tanjung drew repeated praise.⁸^•⁴

Awards

At the 2017 Festival Film Indonesia in Manado, the film received thirteen nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won seven awards: Best Child Actor (Adhiyat Abdulkhadir), Best Cinematography (Ical Tanjung), Best Art Direction, Best Visual Effects, Best Music, Best Sound Design, and Best Theme Song.¹ The Jakarta Post noted that it was the first horror film ever nominated for the festival's Best Film award.¹³

The film screened widely on the international festival circuit, including the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2018, Fantasia International Film Festival in Canada, Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in South Korea, and Udine Far East Film Festival in Italy, among others.¹⁴

Relationship to the 1980 film

The 2017 film is a remake of Pengabdi Setan directed by Sisworo Gautama Putra, a horror film famous in the 1980s both in Indonesia and internationally that became a cult movie as far afield as Japan and the United Kingdom.⁹^•¹⁵ Most sources date the original to 1980, though the International Film Festival Rotterdam program describes it as a 1982 classic.⁹^•³ Commentators describe the 2017 film variously as a loose remake and prequel, or, when considered as a whole, closer to a reboot than a straight remake.¹⁶^•¹⁷

Legacy

The film's success marked a turning point for Indonesian horror: commentators credit it with making subsequent Indonesian horror films take the genre more seriously, and it is frequently cited as a benchmark for the genre's revival in the 2010s.¹² A sequel, Satan's Slaves: Communion, directed by Anwar, followed and expanded the original story's lore.¹⁸^•¹⁹ By one later industry account the film ranked as the #6 local film of all time in Indonesia.²⁰

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Supernatural horror films › 2010s supernatural horror films

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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