Long heralded as among the best Indonesian genre efforts from the heyday of the country's exploitation offerings, Sisworo Gautama Putra's celebrated “Satan's Slave” is among the most recognizable and popular films during this time. With a remake helmed by celebrated modern auteur Joko Anwar with a sequel to that emerging in the coming days, the power and influence of the original still holds sway and influence to this day, which signals the commercial impact found within.
After the death of his wife, businessman Munarto (W.D. Mochtar), and his two kids Rita (Siska Widowati) and Tomi (Fachrul Rozy), try to observe the proper rituals and burial rites that will allow them to move on. On the first night after their mother's death, Tomi sees his dead mother but does not talk to her. The next day, he takes the advice of his friend and visits a fortune teller, who warns that his whole family is in great danger and may die, and advises him to fortify himself with black magic. As they continue to fight back against the supernatural forces, the family is plagued by visions of ghosts and demons, and people around them soon start to die, which they realize it all started after the arrival of their new and mysterious housekeeper and race to stop it before it consumes them.
“Satan's Slave” is easily one of the country's best horror movies. 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 Tomi 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. The idea of the normally calm and respectful son suddenly being non-responsive or even threatening toward others works really well. Those aspects all combine 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 Darminda arrives to help with the household, it's no surprise that an increase in supernatural action occurs. This ranges 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“Satan's Slave.” One of the few drawbacks is the seemingly obvious nature of what's going on, yet none of the family seems to be aware.. It's plainly obvious that once Darminda 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. This includes the makeup 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.
A fantastically entertaining genre effort that's equal parts atmospheric and cheesy, “Satan's Slaves” comes off as perhaps the best of this period of the country's genre output and an easy classic mention. Any fan of bizarre genre cinema, Asian horror in general, or those who saw the remake and are curious about the original should look into this one
