Indonesian horror master Joko Anwar’s Satan’s Slaves, a loose remake of the 1980 horror movie, became the highest-grossing domestic Indonesian film of 2017 and continued to terrify audiences across the globe. Between its success, reputation for scares, and an ending that set up a larger mythos, it’s no surprise that Anwar would follow up with a sequel a few years later. Satan’s Slaves: Communion relocates its setting to a high-rise apartment complex and plunges its residents into more expansive horror and storytelling.
Three years after the unsettling events of the first film, the surviving Suwono family members now live in a rundown Jakarta apartment building. Rini (Tara Basro) works at a factory and grapples with whether to go off to college to improve their financial situation or stay and remain a surrogate mom to brothers Toni (Endy Arfian), and Bondi (Nasar Anuz) as dad Bahri (Bront Palarae) sneaks off all the time. Just as they finally move on from their ordeal and feel safe from the Satanic terror induced by mom’s passing, a catastrophic storm moves in, trapping them in place as a new wave of Hell unleashes.
Satan’s Slaves: Communion – Photo Credit: Shudder
Bahri’s choice to move his children to a higher populated location is sound in theory; their isolated family home in the countryside left them vulnerable and almost entirely alone in their fight against supernatural forces. It also provides writer/director Anwar with a much higher body count and a sprawling slaying ground. Save for a 1955-set intro to set up the background mythology, Communion settles into establishing the building, its many tenants, and a sense of foreboding unease ahead of the storm’s arrival.
Anwar finds no lack of creativity with the new setting, finding inventive ways to establish ominous dread from every corner. A below-sea-level locale, narrow garbage chutes, and shoddy walls are among the least of this building’s problems, though they all become fodder for a new reign of cultist terror. An intense and ghastly inciting event doesn’t just get the blood pumping early; it permeates the entire film as the surviving residents find themselves trapped inside with the dead. There’s a darker, more macabre edge to Communion.
Satan’s Slaves: Communion – Photo Credit: Shudder
The drawback is that the more extensive cast, which splinters once the power goes out, takes the focus away from Rini and her brothers. We follow along as each group encounters various ghoulish frights but hardly get to know most of them. Of course, many are designated fodder from the outset. It becomes increasingly difficult to keep track of the various threads as heavy exposition comes fast and furious in the back half. The more populated setting also means that this sequel forgoes the quieter chills and showstopping scares that made its predecessor so successful. That’s not to say that Communion lacks scares – Anwar packs them in, but they’re more of the visceral variety with quick burst jump scares. The numerous characters that Communion tracks mean we’re given more reprieves from the fear this time.
It’s worth noting that Anwar doesn’t just revisit the same tactics from the previous film but takes full advantage of new set pieces and incorporates surprising influences into the mix, like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The approach to the horror carries Communion far, even as heavy exposition dumps in the back half attempt to diminish the impact. Communion does repeat its predecessor’s confusing final hook indicating much more to come. Tara Basro and Endy Arfian remain standouts and solid leads, and Anwar’s commitment to horror and inventive scare crafting ensures that we’ll sign up for a third round to see where it goes from here.
Satan’s Slaves: Communion releases on Shudder on November 4, 2022.
The post ‘Satan’s Slaves: Communion’ Review – Joko Anwar Goes Bigger and More Macabre With Shudder Sequel appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.