There are few things Indonesian horror does quite as reliably as making an innocent-looking doll seem like an absolutely terrible thing to have sitting in your house, and The Doll Ghawiah is going back to that idea, returning to the supernatural mythology behind the The Doll franchise while bringing back some familiar faces and a new story that is still being kept fairly tightly under wraps.
The film is currently in post-production, with Guntur Soeharjanto directing from a screenplay by Riheam Junianti, and Titi Kamal, Darius Sinathrya, Sara Wijayanto, Aisyah Aqilah and Laura Moane leading the cast. It is being produced by Hitmaker Studios, alongside Legacy Pictures and Masih Belajar Project, with Rocky Soraya among the producers.
The title, Ghawiah is also not just a random creepy name attached to the latest film either — it is the name of the possessed doll from the original The Doll (2016), and the film has a release date of October 29, 2026.
A New Family, But Familiar Faces
The available production information does not yet give away a complete plot, but what we do know is that Titi Kamal plays Evi, Darius Sinathrya plays Arya, Sara Wijayanto plays Laras, Aisyah Aqilah plays Gita, and Laura Christina Moane plays Nala, and the film will be set in 1988 – Sara Wijayanto also appeared in the earlier The Doll franchise, where she played Laras in the 2016 original, meaning her return gives Ghawiah a direct connection to the earlier film rather than just relying on the title.
Guntur Soeharjanto Takes Over the Franchise
Guntur Soeharjanto is directing the new film, with Riheam Junianti credited as screenwriter, and Soeharjanto is hardly new to Indonesian genre filmmaking. His previous directing credits include The Haunted Apartment: Miss K (2024), Dosen Ghaib: It’s Nighttime or You Already Know (2024), Norma: Antara Mertua dan Menantu (2025) and Assalamualaikum Beijing 2: Lost in Ningxia (2025).
Behind him is Hitmaker Studios, the production company founded by Rocky Soraya in 2012, where the company’s filmography includes the original The Doll, The Doll 2, The Doll 3, Mata Batin, Sabrina, Indigo, Panggonan Wingit, Sumala, Santet Segoro Pitu and Getih Ireng.
From The Doll to Ghawiah
The The Doll franchise has become part of Hitmaker Studios’ much larger strategy of building recurring Indonesian horror properties, where the original The Doll was released in Indonesia on 27 October 2016, followed by The Doll 2 in 2017 and The Doll 3 in 2022.
That makes The Doll Ghawiah a bit more interesting I think as more of a piece of franchise maintenance – bringing the name that started the whole thing back into the foreground after several years of sequels and other Hitmaker horror projects, and with Sara Wijayanto returning, there is at least one very obvious bridge to the 2016 film, but exactly what that bridge means for the new story, though, is one of the things the film is keeping hidden for now.
Teaser Trailer
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