When Horror Meets a Sermon You Can’t Escape
There are many kinds of horror. There’s the creeping psychological dread of Hereditary, the cosmic unease of The Witch, and then there’s Munafik 2—a film so overloaded with moral preaching and melodrama that the scariest thing in it might be the runtime.
Directed, written, and—because hubris knows no limits—starring Syamsul Yusof, Munafik 2 is the cinematic equivalent of being trapped in a haunted house where every ghost insists on giving you a religious lecture before attacking. It’s not a movie so much as an exorcism performed with a megaphone.
Yes, it made a fortune in Malaysia. Yes, it’s considered a cultural landmark. But success doesn’t make it good—it just means a lot of people were curious to see how much screaming one film can fit between bouts of Quranic exposition.
The Plot: Piety vs. PowerPoint
Two years after the first film (Munafik, for those keeping score or awake), Ustaz Adam—played by Syamsul himself—has recovered from losing his wife and son. Now he’s a traveling preacher specializing in driving out demons and guilt-tripping anyone who hasn’t prayed in a while.
Adam is a tormented man haunted by nightmares of a woman named Maria, who died in the last film and, apparently, won’t stop showing up in his dreams until this trilogy ends or Syamsul runs out of budget.
Meanwhile, in a neighboring village, we meet Sakinah (Maya Karin), a single mother struggling with both her sick father and some very inconvenient demonic harassment. The culprit? Abu Jar (Nasir Bilal Khan), a local heretic and walking cautionary tale who’s turned black magic into a side hustle. He’s got followers, he’s got face paint, and he’s got the acting subtlety of a Saturday morning cartoon villain.
Sakinah, desperate for help, summons Ustaz Adam, and soon it’s a holy showdown: the pious preacher versus the satanic scam artist. What follows is two hours of exorcisms, dream sequences, and enough moralizing to qualify as a public service announcement.
Syamsul Yusof: Writer, Director, Preacher, Messiah
There’s a certain audacity in writing, directing, and starring in your own film, but Munafik 2 takes it to theological levels. Syamsul Yusof doesn’t just cast himself as the lead—he casts himself as the spiritual savior of the entire plot. Every time something bad happens, Adam is there, glowing with moral certainty and perfect hair, ready to scold demons like a divine guidance counselor.
The man doesn’t act so much as lecture. His dialogues sound less like lines from a screenplay and more like motivational speeches recorded for a particularly stern YouTube channel. By the end, you half expect him to sell you an exorcism kit and a self-help book titled How to Win Friends and Banish Djinn.
And yet, Syamsul’s sincerity is undeniable. He believes in what he’s preaching—every trembling Quran verse and tearful confession is delivered with the kind of conviction usually reserved for doomsday cult leaders and late-night televangelists.
The Scares: Quantity Over Quality
You know that feeling when you watch a horror movie and think, “Maybe it’d be scarier if they didn’t show everything”? Syamsul disagrees. Munafik 2 throws the entire horror kitchen sink at you: screeching sound cues, jump scares, shadowy figures, snakes, skeletons, screaming women, fire, blood, and the occasional flash of a demon that looks like rejected concept art from Silent Hill 2.
The first few scares might make you twitch. The next twenty will make you check your watch. By the time the fifth demon pops out of nowhere screaming “ALLAHU AKBAR!” you start to wonder if the real ghost is pacing in the editing room.
Tjahjanto’s May the Devil Take You had possessed house horror. The Exorcist had pea soup and atmosphere. Munafik 2has Syamsul standing in a forest yelling Quranic verses while CGI smoke swirls like a vape convention gone wrong.
Maya Karin: The Only Human in the Room
Bless Maya Karin. As Sakinah, she’s the emotional backbone of the film, delivering genuine terror and vulnerability while everyone else competes for “Most Dramatic Overreaction.” She spends half the movie screaming, crying, and running through swamps, yet somehow still manages to act circles around the special effects budget.
If there’s a reason to watch Munafik 2 at all, it’s Karin’s haunted face as she realizes her entire village has joined a satanic pyramid scheme. She gives dignity to dialogue that reads like a sermon written by ChatGPT’s extremely pious cousin.
Abu Jar: Satan’s Loudest Employee
Nasir Bilal Khan’s Abu Jar deserves his own horror-comedy spin-off. He’s a black magic zealot who hates everyone and expresses it by shouting 95% of his lines. He’s so over-the-top he makes Scar from The Lion King look like a stoic minimalist.
When he’s not summoning demons, he’s threatening villagers and reciting evil incantations like a karaoke enthusiast with too much Red Bull. The man’s entire performance could be subtitled “Loud Noises in Place of Character Development.”
And yet, he’s entertaining. Every time Abu Jar appears, you know you’re getting either a fireball, a snake, or a flying monk. It’s hard to hate a villain who’s clearly having this much fun terrorizing a village of extras who all look like they wandered in from a completely different movie.
Religious Horror or Horror About Religion?
Munafik 2 aims to be more than horror—it wants to be a sermon wrapped in Satan. The film is less about the fear of the unknown and more about the fear of not following the right doctrine. Every character who strays from faith meets a creative death, while the faithful are rewarded with divine plot armor.
This would be fine if it weren’t so heavy-handed. The movie doesn’t just deliver its message—it beats you with it like a possessed tambourine. Subtlety is sacrificed on the altar of moral clarity. The result feels less like The Exorcist and more like The PowerPoint of God: The Movie.
The Technicals: Beautiful Chaos
Credit where it’s due—Munafik 2 is well shot. The cinematography is moody, the forests look appropriately cursed, and the lighting is good enough to hide most of the CGI. If only the pacing matched the visuals. Every sequence lasts three minutes longer than it should, as if the director couldn’t bear to cut his own exorcism scenes.
The soundtrack, on the other hand, deserves its own warning label. It’s so aggressively loud that even the demons would ask for noise-canceling headphones.
The Ending: Everyone Learns a Lesson (Except the Audience)
By the time the final act arrives, Ustaz Adam has faced his trauma, the demons have been vaporized by divine light, and the audience has spiritually aged a decade. The message is clear: faith conquers all, black magic is bad, and sequels are inevitable.
The film closes with more moral clarity than a religious pamphlet, setting up Munafik 3—because apparently, Hell has a sequel clause.
Final Verdict: The Devil’s Greatest Trick Was Making This Movie So Long
Munafik 2 is proof that box office success doesn’t equal artistic merit. It’s preachy, bloated, and as subtle as a sermon broadcast through a megaphone at 3 a.m. Yet, it’s also weirdly fascinating—a fever dream of exorcisms, melodrama, and sincere religious conviction wrapped in horror trappings.
It’s not scary. It’s not subtle. But it’s certainly… something.
Final Score: 2 out of 5 Screaming Djinn.
The devil may take you—but not before this movie does, one jump scare and one sermon at a time.
