The Indonesian Master of Horror Gets His Due: Severin's Joko Anwar Blu-ray Box Set Is a Must-Own
If you've been sleeping on Indonesian horror, this box set is your wake-up call.
Severin Films is dropping The Sacred & The Cursed: The Joko Anwar Collection on November 24, 2026 — a four-disc Blu-ray set assembling the defining films of Joko Anwar, the director Bloody Disgusting dubbed "the Indonesian Master of Horror." With over ten combined hours of exclusive special features and all four films presented from director-approved masters, this is the definitive statement on one of contemporary horror's most vital voices.
Who Is Joko Anwar?
If the name doesn't ring a bell yet, brace yourself — it will after you watch any of these films.
Anwar is the Jakarta-based writer-director who single-handedly launched what critics have called the New Golden Age of Indonesian Horror. Screen Anarchy called him "one of the world's leading genre auteurs." Shudder's Craig Engler put it even more bluntly: "Joko Anwar is a master of modern horror." His films blend ancestral folklore, family trauma, and supernatural dread into something that feels unlike anything coming out of Hollywood right now — grounded in Indonesian culture yet viscerally universal.
The collection spans fifteen years of his career, from his 2007 neo-noir debut to his 2022 haunted-house masterpiece, and it's a hell of a journey.
The Four Films
Satan's Slaves (2017) — The film that changed everything. When a family matriarch dies of a mysterious illness, what follows is a slow-burning nightmare of ancestral superstition and occult carnage that shattered Indonesian box-office records and became a modern horror milestone. Slash Film called it "a take-no-prisoners production delivering deliciously creepy spectacle oozing with Satanic inspiration." The extended Blu-ray special features include an audio commentary with Anwar, interviews with actress Ayu Laksmi and cinematographer Ical Tanjung, producer discussions, and deleted scenes.
Satan's Slaves 2: Communion (2022) — The Suwono family barely escaped their rural nightmare. Now they're living in a decrepit Jakarta apartment building where the evil finds them again — and this time it's darker, grislier, and more relentless. Gizmodo called it "truly disturbing." Bloody Disgusting said it's "one of the few sequels that totally surpasses the original." This disc packs in over three hours of exclusive extras.
Impetigore (2019) — A cynical city woman travels to her ancestral village to claim an inheritance and stumbles into a family curse soaked in violence and dread. Impetigore premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and is widely considered Anwar's most formally accomplished film. In his own words: "IMPETIGORE is my love letter to horror movies I grew up with — slashers, ghost stories, wrapped in a tragic family drama not unlike my family." Bonus features include a director interview, cast behind-the-scenes footage, and camera tests.
Dead Time (2007) — The early work, and it already shows the master's hand. A jaded cop and a desperate reporter investigate brutal killings while tangled in corruption and supernatural forces. Anwar merges Indonesian folklore with neo-noir to stunning effect, and Severin is presenting it here with an audio commentary and more than two hours of additional content.
Why This Matters
Horror fans in the US have largely had to catch these films in scattered streaming releases — Satan's Slaves and Impetigore via Shudder, glimpses of the others through festival circuit buzz. This box set changes that. For the first time, you can own all four films in definitive, director-approved transfers, with a depth of supplemental material that befits one of the most important genre directors working anywhere in the world today.
Anwar's work deserves a permanent place on your shelf alongside the classics. Severin is making that possible.
The Sacred & The Cursed: The Joko Anwar Collection drops November 24, 2026. Pre-orders are live now at severinfilms.com.
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