Possession: Kerasukan is an Indonesian psychological horror film set to release in 2024 and is directed by Razka Robby Ertanto. It adapts the emotional depth and disturbing motifs from Andrzej Żuławski’s 1981 cult film, ‘Possession,’ situating its haunting story within Indonesian culture. Merging domestic horror with supernatural elements, the film examines psychological collapse, marital strife, and the metaphysical in the context of Southeast Asian spirituality and folklore.
Plot Overview
In the narrative, we have Faris, who is a soldier that has recently been deployed. Upon returning home, he anticipates soft cuddles and welcoming gestures from his wife Ratna. However, he is met with an emotionally detached, cold woman who wants nothing short of an immediate divorce. To add salt to injury, Ratna’s increasingly erratic behaviors include self-imposed house arrest and fragmented speech. Faris is blindsided and utterly devastated, but alarm soon follows as she shows frightening signs of psychological and supernatural disturbance.
As Faris attempts to understand the reasons behind Ratna’s transformation, he begins to believe that she is having an affair. The mystery deepens as he discovers her increasing intimacy with her aide Mita, alongside unsettling indications of ritualistic behavior. His investigation leads him to his elderly neighbor, Toni, who is a spiritual healer and exorcist. Together, they come to the conclusion that Ratna may be possessed by a pocong, a ghost from Indonesian folklore bound in burial shrouds and associated with restless spirits.
The possession escalates to violence and hallucinations which causes Faris to lose the fragile grip he has on reality. Faris is forced to confront whether he should fight for the woman he once knew or embrace the fact that she has been replaced by something unearthly as he succumbs to a nightmare of spiritual deterioration and personal betrayal.
Faris’s emotional journey is depicted through the performance of Darius Sinathrya, who plays him. Darius manages to portray a man who is not only lost in his marriage but also in his mind, moving through desperation and confusion with a level of control in intensity. Faris acts as the anchor for the communal experience of dread coupled with disorientation.
Carissa Perusset, as Ratna, embodies the film’s haunting core. Her depiction of Ratna’s decline is both fascinating and disturbing. The changes in her moods, her physical shifts, the ways she becomes still, the silence, all form a spine-chilling narrative. She personifies the sorrow of emotional exile in the midst of a deeper loneliness and the horrific battle of losing one to an indefinable force.
As Mita, Ratna’s assistant, Sara Fajira offers unspecified ambiguity Mata’s loyalty to Ratna and empathy toward Faris creates tension, leaving her character elusive until the penultimate sequence.
As the exorcist and spiritual elder, Arswendy Bening Swara as Toni gives weight and cultural relevance. His authoritative and serene voice lends credence to the film’s supernatural elements.
Completing the supporting roles are Nugie as Wahyu, Ratna’s theater director; Sultan Hamonangan as Budi, the couple’s son. Together these characters round out the highly personal and spiritual crises deep within the family’s socio-religious existential turmoil.
Direction and Visual Style
Razka Robby Ertanto, the director, creates a chilling atmosphere that intensifies steadily, scene by scene, through intimate camerawork, claustrophobic set designs, and moody lighting. The domestic space of Faris and Ratna’s home transforms into a suffocating labyrinth, a manifestation of their psychological distress, embodying the film’s slow-burn approach, which foregoes jump scares for mounting dread.
The use of shadow, mirror effects, and low lighting in the cinematography illustrates deep-rooted isolation and decay. Voyage-like glimpses onto Faris and Ratna’s disintegrating world are often granted through half-open doors and fogged glass.
Although practical effects are sparingly used, their application within scenes with the pocong spirit is notable. The film’s grounded realism is not tarnished by its suggestion and performative approach, which stands in contrast to overblown special effects.
Themes and Cultural Significance
“Kerasukan: Possession” film possessed by multiple overarching themes:
Marital Disintegration
At its most basic, this film showcases an unraveling relationship. Faris and Ratna’s marriage is burdened by not only literal spirits, but a myriad of miscommunication, trauma, and isolation. The supernatural elements serve as figurative representations of the couple’s emotional decline.
Gender, Patriarchy, Emotional Repression
As for the interpretation of Ratna being possessed, it could be seen as an embodiment of rage and grief underweight of societal norms. Bound to expectations of society and personal dissatisfaction, she becomes a container for a violent spiritual force, thereby illustrating feminist discourse in respect to emotional autonomy.
Spiritual Beliefs and Folklore
Indonesian spiritual traditions are woven throughout the film. The pocong is based on an actual Southeast Asian burial practice, and the exorcism rituals shown are authentic. These cultures add more than just the setting; they are essential to the film’s horror.
Psychological Collapse and Identity
His descent parallels his wife’s. While trying to figure out what is happening to Ratna, he has to confront his own issues. The film raises the boundary between psychological collapse and supernatural influence and poses the question, which is the real horror, spirits or the psyche?
Reception and Impact
Possession: Kerasukan received a mixed reception of praise and critique from audiences and critics alike. It was showcased in international film festivals, especially within Asia as one of the strongest examples of Indonesian psychological horror.
Critics praised the film’s atmosphere and pacing, Carissa Perusset’s chilling transformation stood out as one of the film’s stronger performances. Reviewers noted the film’s layered symbolism as well as its cultural authenticity.
Reviewers commented on the film’s pacing, arguing that the first half drags for viewers wanting more conventional horror thrills. Some others pointed out that the transition from psychological drama to supernatural horror in the later part was abrupt and poorly executed. Additionally, some observed that while the film drew inspiration from Possession released in 1981, it did not possess the same level of intensity or ambition in its experimentation.
Regardless, the film was celebrated for providing a more emotionally resonant and thoughtful entry into Southeast Asian horror, moving away from shameless scares and toward a mature and introspective style.
Conclusion
Kerasukan: Possession is not merely a tale of a haunting. Rather, it is an examination of emotional neglect, cultural wounds, and tenuous bonds within a world marked by loss. By rooting supernatural horror in the emotional rot of a disintegrating marriage, the film attains both visceral dread and tragic beauty.
This Indonesian reimagining testifies to the extent of how cultural particularity can reinvigorate genre clichés. It does not merely adopt the themes of its predecessor; it also reframes them through an Indonesian perspective, yielding new reflections on grief, love, and possession.
For enthusiasts of psychologically intricate horror that explores emotional themes and cultural subtleties, Possession: Kerasukan offers a deeply disturbing and richly evocative movie-watching experience.
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