Satan's Slaves: Communion Review (2022) Worth Watching?

It's about a family who are being hunted by cultists and supernatural entities who flee to the city for safety, but are soon fighting for their lives when a huge storm hits.

Satan's Slaves: Communion was directed by Joko Anwar (Impetigore, Satan's Slaves, and The Forbidden Door) and stars Tara Basro (Impetigore, Satan's Slaves), Bront Palarae (Dukun, Satan's Slaves), Endy Arfian (Satan's Slaves), Ratu Felisha (The Virgin Ghost of Jeruk Purut, The Chanting), Nasar Anuz (Satan's Slaves), Egy Fedly (Incarnation of the Devil 2, Asih), Jourdy Pranata, Muzakki Ramdhan (The Queen of Black Magic), M. Adhiyat (Satan's Slaves), and Fatih Unru.

Indonesian horror director Joko Anwar's Satan's Slaves was a massive hit in 2017, becoming the highest-grossing Indonesian film of the year. The movie terrified audiences worldwide, and its ending opened the possibility of a sequel. Sure enough, Anwar followed up with a sequel a few years later. The new film Satan's Slaves: Communion moves the setting to a high-rise apartment complex and expands the scope of the horror and storytelling.

Three years have passed since the unsettling events of the first film, and the surviving members of the Suwono family are now living in a rundown apartment building in Jakarta. Rini is working at a factory and debating whether to go off to college to improve their financial situation or stay and remain a surrogate mother to her brothers, Toni and Bondi. Meanwhile, their father, Bahri, often sneaks off, leaving Rini to juggle all the responsibilities. When they thought they were safe, a new wave of terror descended upon them. Finally, a catastrophic storm traps them in place, and Hell is unleashed.

Moving his children to a more populated area is brilliant for Bahri; their isolated family home in the countryside left them vulnerable and almost entirely alone in their fight against supernatural forces. Plus, it gives writer/director Anwar a higher body count and a more extensive playground for the slayings. The background mythology for Communion is set in 1955. Still, most of the story takes place in and around a building full of tenants with a sense of foreboding unease ahead of an impending storm.

Anwar discovers that the new setting is just as rife with creativity as the last, establishing an ominous atmosphere through ingenious means. A location below sea level, trash disposal chutes, and crumbling walls are only some of the problems this building faces - but they all become opportunities for a new group of cultists to spread their terror. An intense and ghastly inciting event doesn't just get the blood pumping early; it permeates the entire film and affects the survivors trapped inside with the dead. This darker, more macabre edge to Communion creates an overall atmosphere of suspense and fear.

The benefit of having a large cast is that you can follow along with each group as they encounter various ghoulish frights. However, this also means that the focus is taken away from Rini and her brothers, which can be a downside. As the film progresses, keeping track of the various plot threads becomes increasingly tricky as heavy exposition is introduced rapidly. The sequel to the successful horror movie Communion does not rely on the same chilling atmosphere and scares that made the first movie so successful. Instead, it opts for more jump scares and visceral scares. The many characters that Communion follows provide more opportunities for relief from fear.

Worth Watching?

Anwar revisits and builds upon the same horror tactics from the previous film, incorporating new set pieces and influences from movies like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Even though the film's back half features a lot of exposition, it doesn't take away from the overall impact. The new movie "Communion" looks to continue the success of its predecessor with another atmospheric and scary entry. Tara Basro and Endy Arfian remain strong leads, and director Anwar continues his commitment to horror and inventive scares.

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