The absolute biggest surprise at MIFF so far (for me at least) has to be Joko Anwar's ridiculously silly and extremely bloody horror / comedy “Ghost in the Cell”, which against all odds, I thought was outstanding in all regards. I have been a fan of Indonesian director Joko Anwar for a long time now, seeing ten of his twelve features, so when his latest was announced as part of MIFF's “Night Shift” strand, I immediately booked a ticket to see it. However, the only way I could fit it in to my schedule was by seeing an 11:30pm session....strike one....which was my third film from 6:30pm that night.....strike two....and then I realised that “Ghost in the Cell” was actually a horror / comedy and not a straight horror like I originally thought.....strike three and you are OUT!!! Honestly, I feared that going into a late-night session, already exhausted, to watch a genre film that are traditionally hard to pull off successfully, that it was going to be a disaster screening, but I couldn't have been more wrong. “Ghost in the Cell” was absolutely fantastic and is Joko Anwar's best film yet.
Let me be clear about this: there is no way in hell “Ghost in the Cell” should work anywhere near as well as it does; in fact it shouldn't work at all! Somehow Joko Anwar has combined some of the most graphic and bloody set pieces of his career, with some of the most broad, goofy and outright silly comedy going around, adding a dash of martial arts mayhem to it, to create one of the most entertaining films I have seen in a long while. I was actually laughing out loud through a lot of this while also wincing at some of the very graphic damage done to the human body here. So how does “Ghost in the Cell” actually work? Beats me! Actually, I think all the credit has to go to writer / director / editor Joko Anwar here. I was so impressed by his direction and his stunning energetic camera work. The film had a “big” feel to it that I do not normally associate with Anwar and his films. Whilst they can have outrageous things happen within them, normally Anwar's films (particularly his horror ones) move at a slow pace, relying more on atmosphere than anything else. “Ghost in the Cell”, on the other hand, moves at a clip and never slows down until it's ending.
It starts right from the beginning as Anwar sets the atmosphere of his film via an excellent pre-credits sequence that ends in a graphic murder scene that sees the victim presented as an art piece hanging over his office ceiling fan. From this you immediately understand that “Ghost in the Cell” is going to be a very bloody film, and all the kills within the film have been put together in a very impressive and original fashion. This opening scene is played totally straight though, giving no indication to just how funny “Ghost in the Cell” will end up being. It isn't until we reach the titular jail that the humour shows itself, as we are introduced to a large group of bumbling thieves and scammers. Anwar has done a brilliant job of defining each member of this group and making them real characters rather than horror fodder for the violent vengeful ghost. Although there are a large number of characters in the jail, they are all easy to remember who they are and which gang their allegiance stands.
One of the plot contrivances in “Ghost in the Cell” has to do with Six, who suffers from severe migraines but which also give him the ability to see the colour of a person's aura. This comes to be incredibly handy when the gang work out that the ghost haunting their cells is attracted to (and then kills) people who have a negative aura about them, which shows up to Six as either a red or brown colour. The inmates quickly learn that praying or participating in the arts can cool their aura and keep them safe from the ghost. This leads to some very funny situations when our happy-go-lucky group attempt to pray, only to find the prayer room full, and are then forced to join a dance class led by a campy dance teacher. Further hilarity ensues when massive brawls break out in the jail and mid-fight our heroes have to revert to dance moves, instead of throwing punches, in an attempt to cool their aura and protect themselves from the ghost. Again, it should not work but it is so, so very funny.
Joko Anwar finds laughs everywhere during “Ghost in the Cell” even via the slapstick and pratfall variety, with gang members jumping from the first floor railings to join in on the brawl, only to land flat on their face knocking themselves out, or a very funny moment when a group of inmates are running from the jail spotlight and freezing in weird positions as the light passes them, like in the children's game “what's the time Mr. Wolf?”. There is also a brilliant visual gag during a shower scene where the camera slowly pans across the naked, athletic men lined up in a row washing themselves, music swooning to their attractiveness, before a not so athletic man enters the frame, the music stops, the camera re-positions itself with only the hot guys in the frame, the music begins to swoon once more, until once more ugly men walk into the frame, and the camera gives up. I could not stop laughing, it was so silly, but brilliantly done.
Each time the ghost kills someone, they pull apart the victims body and display it like an art instillation piece (there is a reason for this, by the way) and while these are incredibly brutal and more than a little macabre, they are also strangely beautiful too, and you can tell that a lot of thought and design has gone into each murder sculpture (even if doesn't make sense that the ghost could achieve all of that in just a few seconds). While I may be proven wrong here, I believe “Ghost in the Cell” is Joko Anwar's most bloody film to date, and like the comedy, he goes all out with it, using practical effects for the majority of the violence, although there is some CGI enhancement used too (although these moments are less effective).
As if “Ghost in the Cell” isn't fully packed to the brim with horror, comedy and action, Anwar has also added a healthy dose of social commentary to his film too, in particular about how corrupt a country Indonesia is and how hard it is for the little man to get anywhere in life there. He is particularly scathing towards corrupt politicians and government officials who still seem to live a life of luxury and wield considerable power even when incarcerated for their crimes. The social commentary is never forced into the film, but is actually crucial to the plot, as is Anwar's call to arms over the importance of free and critical journalism within his country. Wow! This film has everything!
Overall, I found “Ghost in the Cell” to be a massive but pleasant surprise, and well worth the lack of sleep an 11:30pm session brings. It is a brilliant mix of outrageous gore, very silly comedy, and biting social commentary about the political corruption of Indonesia. Joko Anwar's direction and camera work are sublime (seriously, it reminded me of Spielberg at times) in what is his best film to date. Again, there is no way this film should work, with all of its contrasting elements, but I was blown away by how entertaining and enjoyable “Ghost in the Cell” turned out to be.
4 Stars.
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