Travis’s Take (3.5 / 5)

I’ve had this review waiting for a bit, delayed due to your typical holiday happenings. I needed to move past the positivity of Santa and revisit the darkness of Satan. That was awful I know, but it has been a while writing a review. First off this is the Indonesian film from 1982, and NOT the British film from 1976. This is certainly something a bit different.

Satan’s Slave starts off right away with a mother being buried in front of her husband and two children. There is a weird lady skulking around in the background, which lets you know this is going to be a supernatural film. Once back home everyone retreats back to their rooms and tries to process their grief. That night an undead version of their mom visits the son Tomi’s window in a scene ripped straight out of Salem’s Lot. While not original, I’ll admit it was still pretty creepy which should be a testament to Tobe Hooper as well as the director Sisworo Gautama Putra who could have just half assed the homage. The daughter Rita has issues sleeping as well and ends up seeing her brother walking outside, so she interrupts the encounter. Oddly enough there are very “western” style posters on the kids’ walls which I found out of place, but perhaps I was missing some message.

Anyway, Rita takes the advice of a friend to go visit a fortune teller to help try to explain what might be going on. Of course the family is in danger, and the teller suggests she protects herself with black magic. I’d find that a bit strange, but since this is a horror movie this is obviously going to accelerate things. Tomi is now acting very strange, behaving almost as if he were possessed. At least he’s reading some vintage horror magazines, so he can’t be all that bad. Strange things start happening in the house as well so it might also be haunted. There is a lot of genre stuff getting mashed together here. The housekeeper offers to help, but he is obviously up to no good.

What better way to take your mind off things than to go down to the club and flail about to some sick disco tunes. This made me re-check the date of the film, since it seemed really out of place for 1982. IMDB stubbornly claims it is that year, but everywhere else I’m finding shows 1980 which makes much more sense. Unfortunately the fun night didn’t change the spooky shenanigans since the gimpy groundskeeper loses his shirt and hangs himself. Rita’s boyfriend also gets into a bad motorcycle accident and gets a terminal case of road rash. Now that the body count has risen, then can all come back as vampire zombies (I’m guessing here, they have fangs but also look like ghouls) to terrorize the family. Once again Putra does a pretty effective job of shooting these scenes, to the point where it had a very Evil Dead feel to it. And if this was truly 1980, credit should be given where it is due since he obviously couldn’t have been borrowing these motifs.

An attempted exorcism of the house doesn’t go well, so it seems like all is lost. That creepy lady from the funeral reappears as the source of all the misery, and is sporting an amazing 80s blowout. And I mean head hair since this isn’t a 42nd Street review. Things really pick up at the end with a large group of Muslim clerics warding off this evil lady with chants of “Allah Akbar”. Which is very strange to be watching in context versus an internet gore website where someone’s head is getting sawn off or a suicide vest is popping off on a school bus. The show of faith defeats the evil, which provides an ending more familiar to Western audiences.

Apparently this was one of the first genre attempts in the locale and was a huge hit. A remake has come out that also did huge business, which seems to have helped renew interest in the original. I was coming in completely cold to this, so the bonus features really helped to provide great context. The producer and screenwriter are interviewed, and they are both pretty amiable and proud of helping to build a film industry in their country. There is also an audio interview with the director of the remake and includes 2 of his short films. Based on those I’m guessing I would not care for the modern version, so East or West the originals are usually always better than the remakes.

I was happy with the picture and sound of this release. While there is a little T&A and some blood with hokey gore, it’s not super exploitative. I wasn’t sure what to think of this after watching, but the more I thought about it the film grew on me. It’s not great, but there are certainly interesting aspects of it and some great creepy scenes which help it rise to some prominence. That’s not even counting its historical context. If you’ve run out of older horror movies to watch (ok, not possible) or would like to broaden your horror history a bit, Satan’s Slave is a recommended viewing.

Hidden Treasure/Dumpster Fire?

Travis says: Hidden Treasure!

Travis's Take:	(3.5 / 5)
Blu-ray Extras:	(3.5 / 5)
Average:	(3.5 / 5)

• Satan’s Box Office: Interview with Producer Gope T. Samtani
• Indonesian Atmosphere: Interview with Screenwriter Imam Tantowi
• Satan’s Slave Obsession: Audio Interview with Remake Director Joko Anwar
• Short Films Inspired By SATAN’S SLAVE By Remake Director Joko Anwar: Jenny (2016)/Don’t Blink (2016)
• Reversible Cover