Love spells are creepy enough when they stay in folklore, and Pemikat Jiwa takes that idea and asks what happens when someone actually believes one can make another person love them — then goes a step further by making the ritual the source of everything that follows, so what starts with Jay, a chicken butcher obsessed with Wulan despite her being engaged to someone else, turns into a supernatural nightmare involving forbidden magic, possession and the consequences of trying to take control of somebody else’s feelings.
When Love Becomes Something You Can’t Control
Jay has already failed to win Wulan over naturally, but instead of accepting that she does not want him, he turns to Pemikat Jiwa, an occult ritual supposedly capable of influencing another person’s thoughts and emotions, where he believes it will finally give him what he wants, but the ritual comes with consequences he clearly hasn’t thought through.
The spell initially appears successful, only for Jay to discover that getting Wulan to love him is not quite the same thing as controlling what has entered her life – a malevolent supernatural presence becomes attached to her, and Jay’s attempt to force love turns into something involving possession, obsession and spiritual terror.
That gives the film a fairly dark central idea – Jay isn’t an innocent person who accidentally stumbles into a curse, he makes a deliberate choice because he cannot accept rejection, and the horror grows directly out of that decision.
Trailer
The People Behind the Spell
Pemikat Jiwa was directed by Dom Dharmo, who also directs the film around a screenplay by Reza Keling, with Nuugro Agung credited for the story – the cast includes Fajar Nugra as Jay, Givina Lukita as Wulan, Erdin Werdrayana as Damar, Lucky Moniaga, Khiva Rayanka, Adelia Rasya, Yuni Jasmine and M. N. Qomaruddin.
The film was produced by Makara Production, Nusa Bercerita, Selembe Pictures and Jupiter Manifest Pictures, and was released in Indonesia on 9 July 2026., running for approximately 81 minutes.
A Horror Story Built Around Obsession
A thing to note about Pemikat Jiwa is that its supernatural horror starts with a very recognisable human problem – wanting somebody who doesn’t want you back – and then takes that unhealthy obsession to its most extreme possible conclusion.
Rather than making Jay the usual horror protagonist desperately trying to escape an evil spirit, the film makes his own behaviour part of the problem, where he actively seeks out something forbidden because he wants to override another person’s choice, which gives the supernatural material a more uncomfortable psychological angle.
That also means the love-spell premise isn’t just there as an excuse to introduce ghosts and possession, because it gives the film something specific to play with: what happens when affection is no longer freely given?
The 81-minute runtime should also help keep the premise moving, so there isn’t much room for the film to disappear into endless exposition, and the basic setup is simple enough that it doesn’t really need it.
What Pemikat Jiwa Says About Pelet
The film draws on the Indonesian concept of pelet, traditionally associated with mystical practices intended to attract or influence another person’s affection, which makes the premise more culturally specific than simply calling this another movie about a generic love potion.
What makes the idea particularly useful for horror is the moral problem sitting underneath it – love is supposed to involve choice, but a ritual designed to manipulate someone’s emotions removes that choice entirely. Pemikat Jiwa takes that tension and turns it into supernatural horror.
It also fits into a familiar strand of Indonesian horror in which occult practices are not treated as harmless shortcuts, where characters seeking supernatural solutions often discover that getting what they want is only the beginning of the problem, and the consequences can be considerably worse than whatever originally motivated them.
Here, the desire isn’t money, revenge or power, it’s love – which arguably makes the decision even more uncomfortable, because Jay convinces himself that wanting Wulan badly enough somehow justifies taking away her ability to choose.
Check out some more Indonesian horror movies.
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