Satan's Slaves

Set in 1981, twenty-two year old Rini lives in the outskirts of Jakarta in a large house with her mother Mawarni Suwono, her wheelchair-bound grandmother Rahma Saidah, her father Bahri, and her three younger brothers, sixteen year old Tony, ten year old Bondi, and mute six year old Ian. The family live amid financial hardship as her mother Mawarni is ill and bedridden, and the royalties from her former singing career have long dried up. Her mother uses a bell to signal for assistance as she is unable to yell, speak, or walk.

Late one night, Rini sees her mother standing by the window. Shocked, she approaches her, and her mother collapses. Bahri solemnly declares her mother dead. The family is acquainted with the Ustad, who does Mawarni's funeral, and his son Hendra. The next day, Bahri leaves for the city to settle a financial dispute. The brothers experience paranormal activities and witness apparitions resembling their mother.

One day, Hendra reveals to Rini that he saw a figure resembling Mawarni at her window. He informs her that it's something else that has assumed her form and is not actually her mother. Meanwhile, the grandmother is penning a letter in her room, but is later shown in another room, looking distressed as she stands from her wheelchair. Rini and Bondi are shocked to discover their grandmother's corpse inside the well. After her funeral, Rini discovers her grandmother's letter, addressed to Budiman Syailendra. She visits the address with Hendra. Budiman informs her that he is her grandmother's childhood friend and reveals that her grandmother did not originally approve of his father's marriage to Mawarni. Artists were not seen as respectable prospects, and she was thought to be infertile before giving birth to Rini and her siblings. Budiman hands Rini a booklet with information he wrote that would help explain her situation.

Tony, reading Budiman's article on Satan's slaves, pieces together information from his childhood memory of accompanying his mother at events and coming across individuals who rarely spoke with other guests, inferring they were watching over their mother. He tells Rini that their mother may have been connected to this Satanic sect, who allow barren women to bear children through the worship of Satan but with the condition that the last child be handed over to the cult at the age of seven. The Ustad advises they pray to Allah regularly. That night, while Rini practices Salah, she is haunted by the ghostly figure and they all run to the Ustad's house for refuge.

The next day, Tony reveals to Rini that based on the article, their mother wasn't impregnated by her husband but by members of the cult, depicted by the children are distinctly different with each other. Meanwhile, Hendra, feeling odd, goes to Budiman's house and informed by him to bring his letter to Rini. However, Hendra dies in an accident with a truck. His body is taken to the Ustad's home and Rini finds the letter from Budiman which he was coming back with. Her father returns and the family becomes victim to the worst poltergeist experience so far, the house surrounded by figures from the Satanic cult. The poltergeist attempts to drag Ian out but he is saved by Bondi.

The next day they wait for a truck to move out of the house, a day before Ian's 7th birthday. However, the truck fails to arrive. As darkness falls, they experience a blackout. As they go to sleep, with the Ustad staying over for protection, Rini wakes Tony up after reading the letter, which states the last child isn't actually a sacrifice but an offspring of Satan. Their father wakes up to see Mawarni's corpse next to him in bed, while Bondi sees Ian speaking unintelligibly in a trance to the window. They witness the Ustad being killed by the undead and see Ian go to his mother's undead corpse in the backyard, with dozens more undeads behind them. As Bahri tries to get his Ian back, Tony drags him inside and the undead chases down the family. The spirit of their grandmother slows down the undead by holding back the door; Budiman arrives to rescue the family who run into his van.

A year later, the family have settled in an flats and are visited by a neighbor who gives them food. The neighbor returns to her apartment and talks to Batara, and it's revealed that she is Darminah, the antagonist of the original film.

• Tara Basro as Rini, Bahri's and Mawarni's 22-year-old daughter as well as sister to Tony, Bondi, and Ian
• Bront Palarae as Bahri Suwono, father to Rini, Tony, and Bondi as well as husband to Mawarni
• Ayu Laksmi as Mawarni Suwono, mother to Rini, Tony, Bondi, and Ian as well as wife to Bahri
• Endy Arfian as Tony, Bahri's and Mawarni's 16-year-old son as well as brother to Rini, Bondi, and Ian
• Nasar Anuz as Bondi, Bahri's and Mawarni's 10-year-old son as well as brother to Rini, Tony, and Ian
• Muhammad Adhiyat as Ian, Bahri's and Mawarni's mute 6-year-old son as well as brother to Rini, Tony, and Bondi
• Elly D. Luthan as Rahma Saidah, Rini's grandmother
• Arswendi Nasution as the Ustad
• Dimas Aditya as Hendra, the Ustad's son
• Egi Fedly as Budiman
• Fachri Albar as Batara
• Asmara Abigail as Darminah

Director Joko Anwar had wanted to direct a remake of Pengabdi Setan ever since starting his filmmaking career, as the film had moved him to become a filmmaker. Rapi Films already had a remake of the film in the works with a different director attached, but Anwar managed to successfully pitch his own vision for the film to producer Sunil Samtani and was attached to the project soon after.[5][9][16] The production team took four months to search for a filming location to accurately represent the 1980s era in which the film takes place. The original filming location was located in Puncak Bogor, West Java, but the owner did not give them the proper permissions to film there. The team continued searching until they found an old house in the Pangalengan area which they redesigned to fit the aesthetic of the era.[5][9][16] Producer Samtani ensured the film's budget exceeded Rp2 billion, far more than many films produced by Rapi, in order to fully realize director Anwar's vision for production design.[1]

The Pengabdi Setan film soundtrack is directed by Aghi Narottama, Tony Merle, and Bemby Gusti. Director Joko Anwar said that there are at least five songs that will be on the album plus 16 others so there will be a total of 21 tracks. Three of them were released on October 19, 2017 on Spotify and iTunes.[17][18]

Pengabdi Setan premiered in Indonesia at the Epicentrum XXI, Kuningan, South Jakarta on September 20, 2017.[21] The film was released in all Indonesian cinemas on September 28, 2017, and in Malaysia and Singapore on November 23, 2017.[22] The film also to be released in 42 countries.[3][14][23]

In a 9 October 2017 interview with The Jakarta Post, director Anwar revealed that the film was a prequel to the original and that a sequel was planned, with the original film now being the third part in a trilogy.[5] On 18 December 2017, executive producer Sunil Samtani said Rapi Films has been discussing the project plan of the sequel of Pengabdi Setan. The film is planned for release in 2019 and Joko Anwar will still be involved.[35] On 23 March 2018, Samtani revealed that they had not come up with a script yet but filming would commence in 2019. He added that the stars of the existing film had expressed their interest but it's up to Anwar to decide on the actors.[36]

• Satan's Slaves at IMDb
• Satan's Slaves at Rotten Tomatoes