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Indonesian genre kingpin Joko Anwar continues his run of hits with “Satan’s Slaves 2: Communion,” a juicy if slightly overstuffed sequel to his 2017 supernatural horror hit “Satan’s Slaves.” Set in a brutalist concrete apartment block that looks like hell on Earth even before ghouls and zombies start terrorizing the first film’s surviving family members, “Communion” serves up suspense, scares and gallows humor with considerable style. This handsomely mounted widescreen chiller is sure to lure plenty of eyeballs to streaming platform Shudder when unleashed in territories including North America and the U.K. on November 4.

Having enjoyed commercial and critical success for most of the nine features he’s directed since debuting with the delightful romantic comedy “Joni’s Promise” in 2005, Anwar’s stock has never been higher. “Communion” attracted 6.3 million local theatrical admissions in August, making it the third-highest-grossing Indonesian film of all time. “Satan’s Slaves...

A sequel to Joko Anwar‘s horror movie Satan’s Slaves is on the way, with Deadline announcing that Shudder has acquired Satan’s Slaves: Communion, also directed by Joko Anwar.

Deadline reports, “The film, which is the first Indonesian movie shot with IMAX technology, will stream exclusively on Shudder in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand from November 4. Released theatrically in Indonesia in August, the film became one of the first local productions to score big at the post-pandemic box office.”

The sequel “revolves around a family living in a rundown apartment after escaping terror from their mother, who returned from death, not knowing that their new home is a bigger threat to their lives.”

Tara Basro, Bront Palarae, Endy Arfian, Nasar Anuz, Egi Fedly and Ayu Laksmi are back for the sequel, starring alongside new faces including Muzakki Ramdhan, Fatih Unru, Ratu Felisha,...

Exclusive: AMC Networks’ streaming service Shudder has acquired multiple territory rights to Satan’s Slaves: Communion, the sequel to Shudder Original Satan’s Slaves, from Indonesian writer-director Joko Anwar.

The film, which is the first Indonesian movie shot with IMAX technology, will stream exclusively on Shudder in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand from November 4. Released theatrically in Indonesia in August, the film became one of the first local productions to score big at the post-pandemic box office.

Produced by Tia Hasibuan, Gope T. Samtani and Sunil Samtani, the film revolves around a family living in a rundown apartment after escaping terror from their mother, who returned from death, not knowing that their new home is a bigger threat to their lives.

Returning cast members to the franchise include Tara Basro, Bront Palarae, Endy Arfian, Nasar Anuz, Egi Fedly and Ayu Laksmi. New cast in the sequel includes Muzakki Ramdhan,...

The festival aims to be a showcase for emerging Southeast Asian filmmaking talent.

The BaliMakarya Film Festival, which will run from October 16-21 in popular Indonesian tourist destination Bali, is set to expand into a regional event with a strong focus on Southeast Asian cinema.

It is one of four film festivals due to take place in Indonesia over the next two months, reflecting the vibrant film culture in the vast country.

Last year, the inaugural BaliMakarya festival was held online only with just a national competition for short films. This year, the second edition has added three competitions for Southeast Asian features,...

“Satan’s Slaves: Communion,” from genre-film meister Jojo Anwar is poised to be the first film from Indonesia to release in the large screen Imax format.

Anwar himself took to Instagram to make the announcement and tout the film’s release on Saturday.

“Confirmed. Bigger. More thunderous! More fun! Satan’s Slaves: Communion is the first Indonesian film (and the first local film in Southeast Asia) with IMAX technology and will be available in all IMAX cinemas throughout Indonesia!,” he said on the messaging platform. He also teased the nine Imax screens in the country that will showcase the movie.

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The film is a follow-on from his 2017 “Satan’s Slaves” in which a woman and her family are terrorized in their house and learn that the woman’s dead mother was involved in the occult. The new film...

It wasn’t until 2006 that cult Indonesian horror film Satan’s Slave finally received a DVD pressing after accruing its mystique without subtitles courtesy of a Japanese VHS. The 1980 release from director Sisworo Gautama Putra has been called an unofficial remake of Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm, its supernatural haunting steeped in Muslim beliefs and Indonesian folklore rather than the usual Christian trappings associated with the Devil. The pedigree it holds therefore made it unsurprising that Joko Anwar (who grew up on genre fare spanning horror to kung fu) would seek to helm a remake. It may have taken more than ten years to turn that dream into a reality, but Satan’s Slaves becoming his nation’s best-selling domestic release ever proves it was worth the wait.

The 1981-set movie begins with an older woman chanting under her breath in bed, an obvious sickness having taken control of her body three years previously.

While I’m not familiar with the original film that Satan’s Slaves is actively remaking, Indonesian director Joko Anwar delivers a confidently crafted tale of terror (here’s a friendly reminder that Ritual is a pretty good film) where he mixes together a satanic cult with a classic chiller brimming with otherworldly apparitions and appearances of the living dead. It might take some time to really get going, but once the second half of Satan’s Slaves kicks into high gear, that’s when it feels like Anwar is having the most fun as a filmmaker, leaning into some darkly comedic notes that balance out the movie’s fright-filled moments that keep Satan’s Slaves from feeling like other recent movies cut from a similar cinematic cloth.

In Satan’s Slaves, we’re introduced to Mawrani Suwono (Ayu Laksmi), a formerly famous singer who has been struck ill over the last several years,...