Rating: NR | Runtime: 106 minutes
Release Date: April 16th, 2026 (Indonesia) / October 2nd, 2026 (USA)
Studio: Well Go USA Entertainment
Director(s): Joko Anwar
Writer(s): Joko Anwar

Everybody can dance.

Joko Anwar is having a ton of fun with Ghost in the Cell … maybe too much since this malignant ghost story has the potential to earn enough eye rolls to give the blood a run for its money. Once you ease into the tone (or once the tone eases into the film since the beginning plays pretty straight), however, it becomes difficult not to laugh at the lunacy inherent to inmates at a maximum-security prison praying and/or dancing to diminish the color of their auras.

Young journalist Dimas (Edny Arfian) should have known better than to go to the forest to document grisly ritualistic murders and not worry about whether he’s brings that evil back home with him. The question becomes whether this demonic presence latched on to cause chaos or achieve a goal. Does Dimas end up going to jail because of what it does? Or does it mutilate his boss to ensure that’s where he goes? Welcome to present-day Indonesia.

Anwar pulls no punches with the commentary on his country’s current state of affairs being rampant corruption. The prisoners are either innocents who were framed, unwitting criminals who simply fought back against the real villains, or those political monsters enjoying more comfort as kings inside than they did as targets outside. It’s why his hero Anggoro (Abimana Aryasatya) doesn’t demand respect from power. He earns it through kindness.

Add a sadistic prison guard (Bront Palarae’s Jefri), a psychopathic wild card (Aming’s Tokek), and a shaman’s fraudulent son who might not be a fraud at all (Yoga Pratama’s Six) and there’s as much room for unchecked violence as there is for situational comedy. Don’t therefore be surprised when Anwar mixes both for violent situational comedy via multiple knock-down-drag-out fights marked by slapstick and pure absurdity (if you get too angry, just dance).

Anyone whose rage or depression dips too far suffers the spirit’s wrath—think the death installations from “Hannibal” but more gruesome since Anwar isn’t dealing with TV censors. So, the best way to survive is tabling petty gang grievances and working together to solve why this ghost is here and how they can get rid of it to save themselves. And who knows? Maybe that teamwork can bring them each inner peace too. The worst of them being disemboweled helps.

Two things to look out for:

1) Stay for the credits to see cast and crew shake it in the prison’s art room.

2) A brilliant fourth wall break in the prison showers where the camera itself tries to desperately avoid capturing anything more than just the men’s butts.

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A scene from GHOST IN THE CELL © Come and See Pictures.