I’ve been keeping an eye on this sequel because I thought the first one was a pretty interesting direction for Indonesian horror, as you don’t see Catholic exorcism being used as the main horror framework all that often in Indonesia, so when the first film did well enough to pull in more than 1.4 million cinema admissions and sell to 53 territories, a second film was hardly surprising.
Now we’ve got Dominion of Darkness 2: Blood Covenant, also known by its Indonesian title Kuasa Gelap: Perjanjian Darah, and this time the filmmakers are bringing pesugihan into the mix.
This Time It’s About a Blood Pact
The new story brings Father Thomas, played by Jerome Kurnia, and Father Rendra, played by Lukman Sardi, back into the middle of another supernatural nightmare, and the film centres on pesugihan, an Indonesian occult practice associated with seeking wealth or power through a supernatural bargain, with the consequences of one such pact coming back to haunt the people connected to it.
It is set around a remote community in East Java, where an old blood pact has apparently created consequences that have lasted for generations, so when things start going badly wrong, Thomas and Rendra are pulled into an investigation involving possession and a supernatural force connected to that forgotten bargain, and I do like the fact that they’re not just repeating the first film’s basic setup.
There’s still an exorcism at the centre of it, obviously, because this is Dominion of Darkness and we’re not suddenly getting a romantic comedy here, but the idea of putting Catholic exorcism against an Indonesian supernatural belief gives the sequel somewhere different to go.
Rizal Mantovani Takes Over
One of the biggest changes behind the camera is Rizal Mantovani, who takes over directing duties from Bobby Prasetyo, who directed the 2024 original, and if you’re familiar with Indonesian horror, Mantovani isn’t exactly an unknown quantity – he directed Jelangkung, one of the films often associated with the revival of Indonesian horror in the early 2000s, as well as Kuntilanak and other genre movies.
The screenplay is credited to Andri Cahyadi and Robert Ronny, with Robert Ronny returning as writer and producer – the film is produced by Paragon Pictures and Ideosource Entertainment, with Prima Taufik also producing and Andi Boediman serving as executive producer. Yadi Sugandi is the cinematographer.
There’s also a nice little bit of crossover between the acting and production sides because Jerome Kurnia, besides returning as Father Thomas, has stepped up as an executive producer for the sequel, as he said he wanted to become more involved because he believes in the potential of the Kuasa Gelap property.
The Cast Gets Bigger Too
Alongside Jerome Kurnia and Lukman Sardi, the cast includes Kiki Narendra, Ferry Salim, Feby Febiola, Lydia Kandou, Sisca Saras, Venly Arauna, Keysha Angelica, Faiz Vishal and Pipien Putri.
Kiki Narendra plays the new character Father Wicaksana, while Feby Febiola makes her return to acting as Linda after a period away from the screen, and I have to say Im particularly curious about Kiki Narendra in this because he’s one of those actors who can make even fairly restrained characters feel like there’s something going on underneath, and he also reportedly researched church life and spoke with priests while preparing for the role, which is the sort of detail I like hearing about with a film dealing this directly with religious practices.
Pesugihan Gives the Horror a Very Indonesian Foundation
Rather than importing the familiar Western idea of a demon making a deal with somebody and simply putting it in Indonesia, Blood Covenant is taking an Indonesian supernatural belief and putting it directly into the film’s religious conflict – Pesugihan is associated in Indonesian folklore with people seeking wealth or prosperity through supernatural means, often with a terrible price attached, and the film’s blood-covenant idea takes that notion of getting something you want in exchange for something far more dangerous and builds the horror around the consequences, which gives the story a nice bit of cultural specificity.
It’s Supposed to Be Bigger, But Hopefully Not Just Louder
The production has already wrapped with a release date set for October 8, and Paragon says the sequel was deliberately made on a scale larger than the first film, including coastal locations and the huge church sequence – the producers have also described it as something more cinematic and ambitious rather than simply another chapter made because the first one did well.
What I’m hoping for here is that the bigger production doesn’t drown out the thing that made the first movie interesting in the first place, because Catholic exorcism versus pesugihan is a genuinely good horror combination.
You’ve got one set of beliefs trying to deal with another supernatural tradition, you’ve got a blood pact stretching back through generations, and you’ve got Thomas and Rendra having to deal with their own doubts at the same time.
That gives Dominion of Darkness 2: Blood Covenant quite a bit more to work with than simply throwing another possessed person into a room and getting the priest to start shouting Latin, and considering Rizal Mantovani is behind the camera this time, I’m definitely interested to see how far he takes it.
Trailer
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