If you know anything about me, you will know I am a fan Joko Anwar and his horror movies, because he doesn’t seem particularly interested in making horror movies that fit neatly into one box, and Ghost in the Cell seems to be another example of that.
Labuhan Angsana Prison Is Already a Nightmare
The film takes place inside Labuhan Angsana Prison, where violence and corruption are just part of everyday life, where one of the prisoners is Anggoro, a feared inmate who is constantly clashing with the brutal warden Jefry, while another prisoner called Six has the rather unfortunate ability to see a red aura around people shortly before they die.
Things get considerably worse when a quiet new prisoner called Dimas arrives, as soon afterwards, inmates start dying in strange and increasingly violent circumstances, and it becomes clear that there is something supernatural moving through the prison.
The prisoners eventually realise that the ghost doesn’t appear to be choosing its victims at random. The people being targeted all seem to have something in common – violence, cruelty, hatred and the things they’ve done to other people – that creates a rather strange situation where people who would normally be trying to kill each other have to cooperate because there’s suddenly something in the prison that doesn’t care about gang affiliations or who controls which part of the building.
Trailer
Six Can See Death Coming
Yoga Pratama plays Six, a prisoner who can see the red aura that appears around someone shortly before they die, which is one of those horror ideas that immediately makes me wonder how useful the ability actually is.
Seeing that someone is going to die sounds helpful until you’re trapped inside a prison and surrounded by people who are constantly getting into fights and doing dangerous things, so knowing somebody is going to die doesn’t necessarily mean you can stop it, particularly when whatever is causing the deaths isn’t human.
I do like the fact though that this gives the supernatural side of the film a character who can actually recognise that something is wrong. Instead of everyone spending half the movie insisting that there’s a perfectly rational explanation for what is happening, Six already knows that death is coming.
The problem is presumably convincing everyone else.
Then There Is Dimas
Endy Arfian plays Dimas, the new prisoner whose arrival coincides with the supernatural events beginning to escalate, and the story doesn’t seem to immediately explain exactly what Dimas’s connection to everything is, which is probably for the best – a mysterious new prisoner turning up just before people start getting killed is obviously going to make everyone suspicious, but whether he’s actually responsible is another question.
And that’s one of the things I’m looking forward to finding out.
The Ghost Doesn’t Exactly Pick Innocent Victims
The idea behind the ghost is where the film will hopefully get more interesting than a straightforward prison haunting, because the supernatural presence appears to be targeting people because of the violence and cruelty they’ve inflicted on others, which brings guilt and punishment into the story without turning the whole thing into a simple revenge movie.
That’s particularly relevant in a prison because you’ve got a huge group of people who have already done things that landed them there, along with guards and people working inside a system that is apparently just as corrupt and violent.
So who actually deserves punishment?
And I suspect that’s where some of the film’s darker comedy and social commentary comes from, as you’ve got people who are used to controlling others suddenly finding themselves completely powerless against something they can’t threaten, bribe or beat up.
I also think the decision to make this a horror comedy makes sense given the setting – a prison full of violent criminals trying to organise themselves against a ghost is inherently ridiculous in a way that can work really well if the filmmakers lean into it – you’ve got rival gangs who would normally be enemies having to cooperate, prisoners trying to understand something completely outside their experience and guards who suddenly can’t maintain control of the situation.
But underneath that is a much darker idea about power.
The Cast Is Packed
The film stars Abimana Aryasatya as Anggoro, Bront Palarae as Jefry, Endy Arfian as Dimas and Yoga Pratama as Six, alongside Arswendy Bening Swara, Morgan Oey, Tora Sudiro, Aming Sugandhi, Lukman Sardi, Kiki Narendra, Rio Dewanto and Dimas Danang Suryonegoro – it is produced by Tia Hasibuan, with Come and See Pictures, Rapi Films, Legacy Pictures and Barunson E&A behind the production.
With that many recognisable Indonesian actors involved, I’m hoping the prisoners actually feel like different characters rather than simply a collection of people waiting for their turn to get killed by the ghost, as the whole idea depends on the rivalries and personalities inside the prison, because if everyone is interchangeable then a lot of the potential humour disappears with them.
The combination of prison thriller, supernatural horror and black comedy is unusual enough to make me curious, and the fact that Joko Anwar is behind it is obviously another reason I’m paying attention, but I just hope the film remembers that the prison itself is already a pretty grim place. It doesn’t need to make every scene a joke.
If the humour, horror and darker ideas about punishment and corruption all work together, Ghost in the Cell could be a very entertaining bit of Indonesian genre madness.
Check out some more Indonesian horror movies.
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