Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, they will once again be setting up a fundraiser to benefit Best Friends, which works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and happy homes.
Today’s theme: 1980s
This is not Satan’s Bed with a naked Yoko Ono.
This Satan’s Bed comes from a realm where copyright law goes to die and horror runs entirely on fog machines. Directed by H. Tjut Djalil (the legendary madman behind Mystics in Bali and Lady Terminator), it takes ghost legends and wonders how many movies it can rip off during its running time.
It kicks off on Christmas Day, 1941, with a family singing “Silent Night” in their living room before an intruder bursts in and violently shoots everyone (including a guy taking a bullet straight to the face) right where their house’s foundation will eventually stand. Is there also a 108 Ocean Avenue in Indonesia?
Decades later, Mrs. Siska buys this sprawling luxury estate in the countryside to raise her daughter Maria (Chintami Atmanagara) and niece Nina, blissfully unaware that the ground is built over ancient graves. Did they just move the headstones? Are there Cuesta Verde Estates in Indonesia?
Things seem fine until Maria and her friends pile into a Jeep (almost flattening an old man on a bike), encounter visions of little girls jump-roping — is Elm Street, eh, you get the joke — and deal with dreams of laser beams. Naturally, the moment Mrs. Siska steps out for the evening, the teens invite their friends over to hang out by the pool, wear prominently displayed T-shirts reading “This is my SEXY t-shirt” and let the house collect rent in blood.
Once the killer shows up, you can forget the iconic red-and-green striped sweater. This Freddy—let’s call him Frediyanto—ditches the traditional look for a much more divorced-dad aesthetic: a white dress shirt and stonewash jeans. Instead of a boiler room, our dream demon stalks a fog-drenched, endless hallway. The movie skips tedious character arcs and delivers pure exploitation instead.
Is there a bathtub scene, you may ask? Yes. And unlike America, here we get green water and full frontal. There’s also a synth fart soundtrack, which I always appreciate. But then this goes further, as Frediyanto has a succubus for a sidekick. Both of them can throw their heads at people, which they do when a martial arts master tries to stop them. How does our Indonesian Sharp Hand Joe stop this hero? His flying head bites the dude in the cock. He can also shoot fire out of his mouth, which is pretty cool.
What can stop him? A crucifix.
Keep in mind the main religion of Indonesia is Islam, with about 87% of the population identifying as Muslim according to recent demographic data.
There’s also a goofy gardener. However, there isn’t a Michael Jackson impersonator, like the Bollywood Mahakaal or the moment in Khooni Murda when the foreign Fred takes a Jakarta steamer.
