A great cinematic philosopher named Booger once proclaimed, “Sometimes you gotta say ‘what the fuck’” and just go with your wildest instinct. I’m playing fast and loose with my teen sex comedies there – Booger is from Revenge of the Nerds, but that same actor said the line above in Risky Business – but the sentiment is as true today as it was four decades ago. Indonesian filmmaker Joko Anwar gets that, and for his twelfth feature film, Ghost in the Cell, his mantra of choice has clearly become an enthusiastic and carefree “what the fuck!”
Ghost in the Cell is a fantastically gory horror film with the kinds of grotesque tableaux that would make Hannibal blush… but it’s also a comedy both dark and goofy, a biting social critique on government corruption and individual responsibility, and a giddy appreciation of freeform dance. It’s a lot, and it’s a testament to Anwar’s talent that his kitchen sink approach results in a wildly entertaining good time.
Dimas (Endy Arfian) is a dogged journalist who’s just filed a scathing takedown of corporate interests run amok, but when his editor chews him out and winds up dead mere minutes later, he’s sent to prison for murder. Cell Block C is home to a variety of criminals, all divided up like high school cliques of cool kids, bad asses, religious folks, and other weirdos, and it’s that last group that begrudgingly takes him in. When other inmates start turning up dead in increasingly bloody and morbidly beautiful ways, all eyes turn to Dimas as the possible cause.
Anwar has built a reliable name for himself in the horror genre with films like Satan’s Slaves and Impetigore, but the journalist-turned-filmmaker is not one to be pigeon-holed. His very first feature, 2005’s Joni’s Promise, is a romantic comedy, and he’s also made crime thrillers, a romantic drama, and a comic book action film over the years. It’s horror, though, where he seems most at home, but it’s horror on his own terms.
Ghost in the Cell throws all of these interests, plus a few more, into a big, industrial blender, sets it on high, and leaves the cap off, ensuring the mess gets absolutely everywhere along the way. Viewers who define tonal consistency as a single tone, maintained throughout, are in for a bumpy ride as Anwar moves from gory kills and slapstick comedy to a heartfelt dance and some silat-infused fights, often within the same scene. Gags come via pratfalls and humorous dialogue, sometimes bookending a deadly serious critique of those in power.
The central narrative, the supernatural horror of it all, delivers enough violent, painful-looking kills and exquisitely crafted corpses to hold the attention before the mystery is fully revealed. It’s a satisfying explanation built equally on local beliefs and universal truths, but it’s the meat of it that matters – and that meat comes mutilated, massacred, and mauled. For all the grotesqueries, the most disturbing and unsettling image is the form the ghost takes. It appears as a doppelganger of its imminent victim but with flesh that resembles the back of a female Surinam toad. If you know, you know, but if you don’t, Google it, watch a video, and then be haunted by the images for the rest of your life.
The theme of the film allows for some wiggle room, but the core message lands as both a critique of the powerful, the wealthy, and the classist and a celebration of the need for underdogs. That pluralization is important, as Ghost in the Cell isn’t about a lone hero facing down the threat and the system; it’s about multiple heroes finding each other and becoming stronger through that unity. To be sure, Anwar’s more than a little pessimistic about the state of his country, but he knows good people exist. As one character says after realizing only five of the prison’s fifty guards are good, honest men, “Ten percent of Indonesia is still some kind of hope.”
It’s a serious, thoughtfully optimistic plea for all of us to stand together and stand strong, but it never rests on those ideals. We also get a shower scene that uses camera, score, and butt cheeks to craft a homoerotic break in the action only to see it constantly interrupted by, shall we say, less chiseled extras that cause the camera to visibly recover and the music to scratch to a halt. The ghost arrives when people get too enraged, so we also get fight scenes where participants have to switch to dance to help calm themselves down. It’s utter madness, but it works to entertain, delight, thrill, and affect in equal measure.
Any knocks against it are fairly minor and forgivable. It could maybe stand some tightening in its first half. There’s one rough CG element amid the sea of awesome physical effects, and the backstory might have benefited from a little more clarity. All fair to point out, but none of it truly gets in the way of the film’s crimson-colored celebration of male friendship in times of hardship.
Ghost in the Cell is easily Anwar’s best, most fully realized film yet. It’s a genre bender that goes high in its commentary, goes low in its broadly comic silliness, and fills its middle with wet, sticky, beautifully crafted practical effects. As if all of that isn’t enough of a reason to watch, the film also joins the too-short list of movies that feature the cast dancing their asses off during the end credits.
Yes, this gory, violent, prison-set film from Indonesia is on the same short list as The 40-Year-Old Virgin. What the fuck, indeed.
Ghost in the Cell releases in theaters on October 2, 2026.
