Ghost in the Cell: what if being good is your last chance?
Imagine a prison where inmates distrust one another and guards abuse their power. Then a ghost appears. It is said to target people with the darkest energy. Suddenly, the prisoners of Labuhan Angsana have one survival tactic left: do good deeds. Quickly.
That is the wicked joke at the heart of Ghost in the Cell. The inmates try to keep their auras clean while the institution holding them is steeped in violence and corruption. Who gets to define good behaviour here? And what does a kind act mean when you do it because you are terrified of dying?
Bad examples behind bars
Prisoners begin to die after a new inmate arrives. A clairvoyant believes a ghost is responsible. That is about all you need to know going in. More intriguing than guessing who might be next is the contradiction built into the premise: the inmates are pushed to behave better in a place where the people in charge do nothing of the sort.
Joko Anwar brings supernatural horror and dark humour together around that tension. Audiences who know his earlier films Satan’s Slaves and Impetigore will recognise a filmmaker drawn to unsettling genre stories. Here, the comic premise gives the threat another edge: an attempt to do good can be sincere, desperate and ridiculous all at once. The idea is compelling without needing to reveal how the prisoners’ struggle unfolds.
Ghost in the Cell premiered in the Berlinale’s Forum programme. In its introduction to that programme, the festival singled out Anwar’s film when discussing political fiction. The prison offers plenty to think about in terms of power: rival groups are locked behind bars, while the guards hold both authority and freedom. All of them face an enemy they cannot see.
It makes for a fitting Razor Reel closing film: one last chance to be frightened together, laugh at a gloriously macabre idea and perhaps debate the question it leaves behind.
Can you play at being a good person until you become one?
Ghost in the Cell receives its Belgian premiere as Razor Reel’s closing film on Saturday 7 November 2026 at 20:00 in Screen 1, Bruges. Running time: 106 minutes. In Indonesian with subtitles. Tickets: €9.