Ghost in the Cell

A prison. Inside there are gangs, wings divided between them, and guards who take their share of the arrangement. Then the inmates start dying. The deaths are brutal and nobody can see who is responsible; there is no visible attacker. Hostile groups and bribed guards have to work together in order to survive. Joko Anwar directs. Abimana Aryasatya, Bront Palarae, Lukman Sardi and Endy Arfian are in the cast. Joko Anwar is the best known director of Indonesian horror, and films such as Satan's Slaves and Impetigore made the genre known outside the country. What the film builds is the fear of a closed place: cells, corridors, locked doors, and no possibility of leaving. The supernatural element rides on top of that physical constriction. Its second strand is the order of the prison itself; most of the violence comes from people, before anything supernatural. A preference common in Anwar's films is here too: the horror is tied to local belief and to an injustice done in the past. It appeared in 2026. Who it is for: viewers who like Indonesian horror and prison thrillers. Who it is not for: the violence is direct and heavy, there are many characters, and parts of it do not step outside the genre's mould.