Ghost in the Cell

When a vengeful ghost starts mutilating the inmates of one of Indonesia’s toughest prisons, the men must work together to stay alive in this socially conscious action-horror-comedy.

The newest inmate to join cell block C of Labuan Angsana prison is Dimas, a weedy journalist doing time for the brutal murder of his editor. Suspiciously soon after Dimas’s arrival, prisoners start getting picked off one by one, their bodies found gruesomely maimed and arranged into macabre sculptures that would make Hannibal Lecter proud. The prisoners panic, pointing the finger at Dimas, but one clairvoyant inmate is adamant that there’s a sinister supernatural entity behind the killings. He warns the others that they’d better keep their auras clean through art, prayer and dance, lest they become the ghost’s next victim.

The 12th feature by Indonesian genre master Joko Anwar (Satan’s Slaves), this action-packed horror-comedy has a lot on its mind. Smuggled in between the film’s visually imaginative gore and twisted sense of humour is an astute commentary on systemic inequality and corruption, using the prison setting and its ensemble of colourful characters as a microcosm of society at large – with a few dance battles thrown in for good measure.

Content: Melbourne International Film Festival