If The Exorcist made you fear Ouija boards and Poltergeist made you side-eye your TV set, Satan’s Slave will make you question whether it’s worth hiring household help ever again. Directed by Sisworo Gautama Putra, this Indonesian supernatural horror is best remembered for being nearly impossible to find for decades—probably because it’s the kind of film that makes you want to hide it in the attic with the family secrets and tax evasion receipts.
This is one of those movies that sounds intriguing in concept: a wealthy, faithless family is spiritually attacked by the undead after the death of their matriarch, and the whole thing is steeped in Muslim folklore. Unfortunately, the execution feels less like “culturally rich horror” and more like “made-for-TV soap opera accidentally left overnight in a haunted editing bay.”
The Plot: Ghost Mom Wants Custody Back
Our story kicks off when Mawarti, the family matriarch, dies from a mysterious illness, leaving behind workaholic husband Munarto, low-energy son Tomi, party-girl daughter Rita, and their sickly servant Mr. Karto. This crew has long since abandoned their religious faith, which the movie treats like putting up a neon sign saying, “DEAR DEMONS, PLEASE COME IN.”
On night one, Tomi sees ghost-mom hanging around the house like she’s waiting for her turn in a séance. Instead of calling a shaman, he visits a fortune teller who warns him that everyone’s doomed. His takeaway? Try some black magic. Yes, because if horror films have taught us anything, it’s that when things start going bump in the night, you should absolutely do something that will make them bump harder.
Enter Darminah, The Worst Hire in HR History
Darminah shows up claiming she was sent to help the family, which is rich, considering her “help” consists of ominous stares, being wherever you don’t want her to be, and radiating the energy of a substitute teacher who’s also a cult recruiter. She is, to put it mildly, suspicious. The only one picking up on it immediately is Rita’s boyfriend Herman, who warns them she’s trouble. Herman dies almost immediately afterward, hit by a truck after nearly colliding with—you guessed it—Darminah.
This pattern continues: people who suspect Darminah tend to end up six feet under or shambling around as part of her personal zombie club.
Zombies, Chandeliers, and the Qur’an as Pest Control
From here, the movie becomes a chain reaction of supernatural nonsense:
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Mr. Karto hangs himself after a ghostly run-in.
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Herman returns from the dead for some casual stalking.
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A shaman is summoned to cleanse the house, but the evil spirits pelt him with broken glass, flower petals, and eventually kill him via a possessed chandelier. (Nothing says “classy haunting” like death by lighting fixture.)
Darminah, meanwhile, is busy holding late-night meetings at the cemetery with her undead recruits, digging up Mawarti, and ordering her to kill her own family. When Tomi spies on this, he’s chased through the graveyard like the third act of a Scooby-Doo episode, minus the charm.
Religious Morality, Delivered With a Sledgehammer
By the finale, Darminah’s true identity is revealed: she’s a demon who targets lapsed Muslims so that when they die, they can be enslaved in hell. The family is finally rescued by a kyai (Islamic religious leader) and his crew, who arrive armed with Qur’anic verses that make the demon and her zombie entourage combust on the spot. The family converts back to Islam immediately, because nothing says “faith renewal” like your mother’s flaming corpse trying to strangle you.
But wait—there’s a twist ending! As they leave the mosque, they notice a familiar face in the car next to them. It’s Darminah, smiling like she’s about to ask if they have a moment to talk about their afterlife insurance.
Acting: A Lesson in Under-Reaction
The cast seems unsure whether they’re in a serious horror film or a community theater melodrama.
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Fachrul Rozy as Tomi looks like he’s sleepwalking through most scenes, which might be method acting if his character’s soul was already halfway gone.
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Siska Widowati as Rita at least injects some energy, though her “terrified” face often reads as “mildly inconvenienced.”
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Ruth Pelupessy as Darminah is the best part of the movie—her performance is 50% menace, 50% someone who’s definitely stolen your lunch from the fridge.
Atmosphere: Spooky or Just Dusty?
The film wants to be moody and oppressive, but much of it looks like it was filmed in a suburban living room with the lights dimmed. The “scary” sequences—ghost sightings, zombie chases—are undercut by sluggish pacing and awkward staging. The cemetery scenes should be eerie; instead, they feel like you’ve wandered into someone’s poorly lit backyard during Halloween decorations setup.
And then there’s the score: the kind of droning, off-key organ work that suggests someone’s cat walked across a keyboard.
The Moral Hammer
Pengabdi Setan is not subtle about its message. The theme—abandon your faith and you’ll be demon chow—is driven home so relentlessly that it makes those old Christian scare films from the ‘70s look nuanced. By the time the family is clutching their prayer beads in the final scene, you half expect a PSA to roll reminding you to pray five times a day or risk chandelier-based homicide.
Final Verdict: Satan’s HR Department Needs Better Recruiters
The bones of a good horror story are here: cultural specificity, supernatural menace, an unusual theological lens. But the execution is so plodding, so ham-fisted, and so over-reliant on obvious moralizing that it ends up feeling like a religious pamphlet disguised as a zombie movie. And while it’s achieved cult status among Asian horror completists, that’s probably more because of its rarity than its quality.
If you watch it, do so for historical curiosity or to appreciate how the 2017 remake managed to take the same premise and make it genuinely terrifying. Otherwise, hiring Darminah to clean your house would be less of a waste of time than sitting through this in one go.
