Sundelbolong

Sundelbolong has everything, including a vengeful ghost who uses her tombstone as a driver’s licence to prove her identity before ramming it through her assailant’s bowels.

A sundel bolong, is a vengeful female spirit from the Indonesian archipelago often depicted in media as a woman with long black hair and a gaping hole in her back.

Directed by Sisworo Gautama Putra (whose film Satan’s Slave also features in the program), Sundelbolong explores female revenge and sexual violence, and stars the infamous queen of Indonesian horror, Suzzanna (also starring in The Queen of Black Magic).

In an extremely disturbing chain of events, a newly married woman and former sex worker is assaulted and left pregnant while her husband is away at sea. She tragically dies while attempting an abortion, only to come back as a vengeful ghost. 

Consistent with the exploitation genre, the film delves into taboo subjects with little tact, exposing the moral and social attitudes towards sex work and women’s bodily autonomy.