Satan’s Slaves (2017)
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Satan’s Slaves Movie Review
Satan’s Slaves is a 2017 Indonesian horror film directed by Joko Anwar. It’s a solid and at times very strong film which could have been even better.
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“What danger was she talking about?“
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The plot follows a now-poor and hapless family haunted by the death of their mother who dies after being bedridden for three years from a strange and debilitating illness. The film also involves satanic cults as mentioned in the title. It’s a solid story which could have been more sophisticated in the end, but overall I was satisfied.
It reminded me sometimes of ‘Hereditary’, but for the most part it was reminiscent to ‘The Conjuring’. At times it was derivative of that film, especially in a couple of obviously rehashed sequences, but nonetheless because I love that movie, I really liked this one being similar to it. Though Americanized, I personally found much enjoyment out of it.
The film is never particularly scary, but it is effective in its creepy sequences and many well established horror scenes throughout. It’s a good mix of atmospheric thrills and jump scares. The movie’s also very dark tonally which I appreciated and also quite brutal.
The characters themselves are pretty strong for a horror movie and the emphasis on the family led to a more emotional film than expected. The cast did a good job across the board and I particularly found the family’s story stupendous and the many mysteries so well crafted and intriguing. The film flows really well in large part thanks to its mysterious approach.
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Satan’s Slaves is very well shot, though obviously quite dark. I found the score and the sound effects both pretty good and the direction from Joko Anwar is very strong. The dialogue is above your average horror flick dialogue as well and the same goes for the script. But still, this movie is just solid and rarely more than that because it never quite made use of its admittedly strong script and the end result is never as sophisticated or as scary as it easily could have been with a few corrections here and there.
Satan’s Slaves could have been more sophisticated and scarier as it’s just solid and never as strong as it could have been, but the characterization is good, the atmosphere is strikingly menacing and the mystery part to it was excellent. It’s literally the Indonesian ‘Conjuring’ for better and for worse as it can be derivative, but also undeniably fun.
