★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Intensity 🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Razka Robby Ertanto
Andrzej Zulawski’s 1981 cult classic Possession gets a supernatural Indonesian spin in Possession: Kerasukan. Although the insanity doesn’t match up to the original — How could it?!? — the feature does offer a lot to like.
Director Razka Robby Ertanto’s Possession: Kerasukan (2024) is a remake of Andrzej Zulawski’s 1981 French/West German coproduction Possession. I actually consider it more of a reimagining, as it takes the original’s themes of obsession and control and puts a rather different spin on them.
There’s no topping the madness and weirdness that Zulawski and stars Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill brought to the original, but Ertanto and his terrific cast — toplined by Carissa Perusset as the mysterious Ratna; Darius Sinathyra as Ratna’s husband Faris, who is shocked and consumed by her sudden request for a divorce; Sultan Hamonangan as their young son Budi, who is a sort of audience surrogate and Greek chorus as he observes the proceedings without fully understanding them but is aware that something terrifying lies under the surface; Sara Fajira as Ratna’s assistant Mita, who lets Faris know that she is eager to have an affair with him; and Arswendy Bening Swara as the couple’s exorcist neighbor Toni — make quite the go of it.
Ertanto, working from a screenplay by Lele Laila with the late Zulawski also receiving a writing credit, mines themes of lust, powers of the sexes, and more, combining a supernatural horror approach — the Indonesian ghost known as a pocong ties in with the film’s title — with a stylish, Lynchian neo-noir feel, as well. The film looks gorgeous, with Director of Photography Yunus Pasolang capturing the exciting results of Frans Paat’s art direction and the film’s elegant color palette and bizarreness beautifully.
You don’t need to have seen Possession to watch Possession: Kerasukan and fathom (or at least attempt to) what’s going on, but those who have watched the original will find plenty to ponder over regarding comparisons, and what works and doesn’t in Ertanto’s cinematic vision. Recommended for fans of foreign horror, supernatural cinema, and curious aficionados of Possession.
Possession: Kerasukan screened as part of South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN), which runs July 4–14, 2024. For more info, check out their website at https://www.bifan.kr/eng/.
Review by Joseph Perry
