Indonesia's horror movie industry rises from the grave

Japan Times

15-04-2025

Crunching popcorn and screaming, Indonesians are flocking to watch homegrown horror films in cinemas that draw on the country's penchant for ghost and monster stories. The genre now dominates Indonesia's theaters after the country's folklore helped the industry rise from the grave at the start of the century, when almost no horror films were produced locally, compared to scores last year.
"Our parents and grandparents used these stories to scare us," says Ekky Imanjaya, 52, a film studies lecturer at Jakarta's Bina Nusantara University. "These tales are very close to us."
According to the Indonesian Film Board, 60% of the 258 productions made domestically in 2024 were horror films. They accounted for 54.6 million tickets sold, or 70% of the total audience.
Ekky Imanjaya, a film studies lecturer at Jakarta's Bina Nusantara University says the plots in most horror films draw on ghost stories passed down by grandparents. |
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Moviegoer Elang, a 25-year-old consultant, says while leaving a theater that the genre's success was down to "emphasis on local traditions and monsters" like Pocong, a ghost wrapped in a burial cloth.
Another movie enthusiast, Ajeng Putri, 29, says films that drew inspiration from the country's urban legends were "easier to understand ... more exciting." Those include Tuyul, a living-dead child, and Kuntilanak, a woman unable to give birth while her stillborn baby remains inside her.
'Renaissance'
Indonesia's film production "declined drastically" in the 1990s due to lack of funding, according to Jakarta-based production company Studio Antelope. Sinematek Indonesia, a film archive and data center, counts just 456 movies made between 1990 and 2000. "Among them, 37 are horror films," says archive worker Wahyudi, 55.
Yet the country's industry earned the Guinness World Record two years ago for the film industry most focused on the genre. Last year, Indonesia's largest cinema operator, XXI, recorded five of its top 10 movies as horror films, drawing 27.8 million ticket sales.
Film conservator Firdaus screens a horror movie at Sinematek Indonesia, a film archive and data center in Jakarta. |
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Indonesia's first horror film was made in 1971 during the rule of dictator Suharto, who led the country with an iron fist for nearly three decades. It was not until the 2010s "that a new wave began" for the domestic industry, says Ekky.
New directors, the most famous being Joko Anwar, "changed everything by making very good independent horror films of high quality," says Ismail Basbeth, a 39-year-old director from Yogyakarta.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry roared back to life with the 2022 film "KKN di Desa Penari," which sold 10 million tickets. The film is based on a supposedly true story of students experiencing supernatural events in a rural community service program. "It launched a new wave of more realistic films, based on real events," says director Nanang Istiabudi, 53.
Indonesian cinemas generated $136 million in gross revenue in 2022, according to website Film Indonesia.
A man walks past a couple of horror movie posters at the Usmar Ismail Film Center in Jakarta. |
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PwC Indonesia estimates the cinema industry contributed billions to the country's economy in that year, and says it is expected to grow more than 6% annually until 2027.
The boom also earned the industry a program at the 2023 Busan International Film Festival, often considered Asia's most important, titled "the renaissance of Indonesian cinema."
Western interest
Alongside urban myths, Indonesian horror films call on religious themes, which dominate society in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation. In some feature films, passages from the Quran are used or the entire plot line can be inspired by Islam.
The rise of streaming services has allowed certain movies to reach a wider international audience, says director Ismail Basbeth, who attended Busan in 2023. Even small production houses like Jakarta-based Avantgarde Productions are finding success in exporting films to neighboring countries.
"The latest films have been released in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and we are negotiating with Vietnam," says Marianne Christianti Purnaawan, a 27-year-old producer at the company.
An employee shows off movies like "White Crocodile Queen" and "Mystery of the Blooming Widow" at the Usmar Ismail Film Center in Jakarta. |
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It is the curiosity of Indonesians in horror movies and the appetite of international viewers that leaves experts predicting this spooky export will be far from dead for years to come.
"Indonesian films are successful abroad because they are unique, exotic and unimaginable," says Ekky. "The horror film audience seeks the unknown."