Indonesian horror films returned with a bang in 2017, and that provided a bit of comfort for the industry. Although the genre has long been one of the cornerstones of film production in the South-East Asian archipelago – the cherry on the cake of local exports from the golden era of exploitation flicks – horror films had lost their shine during the past few years. So much so that a progressive drop in takings saw the number of horrors in production noticeably dip. It seemed that low production values had finally led to audiences abandoning in the genre.
But an upturn in production values and creative ambitions, not to mention a decision to take inspiration from the genre’s local traditions, provided a solid foundation for its return. The comeback was driven by the unprecedented success of Satan’s Slaves (Pengabdi Setan), the new film by a much-adored habitué of FEFF, Joko Anwar. A remake of the film of the same name from the early 1980s, directed by Sisworo Gautama Putra, who in turn took inspiration from Phantasm (1979) by Don Coscarelli, Satan’s Slaves is a project that Joko Anwar had been working on for years. It finally got the go-ahead after his previous film, A Copy of My Mind (2015), met with success at Venice and Toronto. Produced by Rapi Films like the original, Anwar’s film was released last September and was an instant hit. It drew over 4 million spectators, making it not only the biggest local hit of the year, but also the most successful Indonesian horror film of all time.
Ambition and an attention to detail were certainly factors that helped Joko Anwar create the biggest success story of his career so far, and also set a new high for production values in his country. Satan’s Slaves has become a groundbreaking success even beyond national borders, beating previous records for Indonesian cinema in nearby Malaysia, and being welcomed in the entire region.
Satan’s Slaves’ triumph was the crowning achievement in a year in which the local public had already shown a great interest in spine-chillers. At the end of March, Danur: I Can See Ghosts by Awi Suryadi, which was based on a successful novel, drew 2.7 million spectators. In June, Rizal Mantovani, who relaunched the sub-genre of “horror at the dawn of the millennium”, and gave us Jelangkung (2001), and the trilogy Kuntilanak (2006-08), sold 2.5 million tickets with a reboot of Jailangkung, co-directed by Jose Poernomo. In July, The Doll 2 by Rocky Soraya attracted more than 1.2 million people into cinemas, as did the next film by the same director, Mata Batin, which was distributed at the end of November. All the above-mentioned titles were in the year-end top ten, meaning a whopping five films out of ten for horror!
This sample of horror films that made the grade in Indonesia in 2017 is also representative of market trends that we had already pointed out last year, and which are in line with production strategies and consumer practices in both Indonesia and the rest of world. In Indonesia as elsewhere, the film events that fill most seats in multiplexes are based on credentials that have already been tried and tested. Serial films do well, as is the case of The Doll 2, as do remakes and reboots, like Satan’s Slaves and Jailangkung, whose historical reference points are already cinematographic. There are also adaptations of best-sellers, as in the case of Danur: I Can See Ghosts. These dynamics are further proved by other titles that make up the list of the most successful films of the year, like Warkop DKI Reborn: Jangkrik Boss Part 2 by Anggy Umbara, which drew in over four million spectators. It was a follow-up to the blockbuster from 2016, which in turn was a revisitation (or ‘rebirth’, according to the title) of the work of the most successful comedy trio in Indonesian cinema from the 1980s and 1990s. Meanwhile. the romantic drama with a religious backdrop Ayat-Ayat Cinta 2 by Guntur Soeharjanto, and Surga Yang Tak Dirindukan 2 by Hanung Bramantyo and Meisa Felaroze, both rode on the coat-tails of successful novels.
We are witnessing an evolution of sorts, but one that has to play the inevitable game of catch-up with what has now become the norm for the local film industry – the one of a shopping mall culture, which continues its merciless advance. With the growth of competition in the Indonesian market, brought about by the entry into film theatre ownership by Korean operators, the number of theatres in the country grew by 263 in 2017, to bring the total to 1,412 screens. That’s a low figure for a nation with over 200 million inhabitants. And as already mentioned in the past years, the distribution of these film theatres and screens remains uneven when taking into account the territory as a whole, as a good 70 per cent of the screens are found solely on the island of Java.
In Jakarta, in the wealthier zones, there is a new phenomenon of ‘mini-cinemas,’ which are screening rooms with only a few dozen or so seats based in residential complexes, which screen new films.
Besides the lack of screens and their unequal distribution in the country, in-depth research by the website filmindonesia.or.id managed to pinpoint another reason for the underdevelopment of the Indonesian film industry: the exorbitant price of tickets. The research compared average salaries to the average cost of cinema tickets in various Asian countries. The results showed that in South Korea a spectator must work 38 minutes on average to be able to afford a cinema ticket, in Malaysia it is 44 minutes, in Thailand the figure goes up to 113 minutes, while in Indonesia, it is a whopping 197 minutes, or over three hours! These results have an undeniable correlation to the current state of affairs at the box office in the countries examined. It is proof that, unfortunately, in Indonesia, more so than in most nations, going to the cinema is a luxury affordable by the few.
Paolo Bertolin