Inspired by Andrzej Zulawski’s cult horror, Possession, the Indonesian horror drama Possession: Kerasukan, directed by Razka Robby Ertanto, is visually enticing; however, it doesn’t have that standout quality. The supernatural is not convincing, and while the idea is impactful, it feels forced visually. At times, things unfold too conveniently, and there are scenes that are not executed well, but the message at the core of the film is well conveyed. Faris and Ratna were in a loveless marriage. They were so entangled in their emotional mess that their son, Budi, was often ignored. Faris was a Navy man, and he had to stay away from home for months at a time. Ratna was a writer, and she’d recently been working on a play. She had decided to divorce Faris as soon as he returned home. Ratna’s decision to divorce him left Faris shocked. He refused to accept her decision and instead tried to force himself on Ratna. While Faris suspected that Ratna was having an affair, he soon figured out that there was a supernatural element involved.
Spoiler Alert
What happened to the private detective?
Faris hired a private detective to tail Wahyu, the director of the play Ratna was working on. He had assumed Ratna was having an affair with Wahyu, but that was not the case. Possession: Kerasukan’s ending, revealed that a demon, or a pocong (an Indonesian ghost), followed Ratna. But instead of being afraid of the ghost, Ratna had accepted it. She cherished the ghost because, in more ways than one, the ghost was a better lover to her than her husband had been. Perhaps she appreciated that the ghost or the demon did not claim to be a good man like most men around her did. There was no pretense, and Ratna preferred making love to a ghost than to Faris. Her husband did not respect her boundaries; he never tried to understand why she wanted to leave him, and instead of dealing with the entire situation gently, all he wanted was to possess her. Even though Ratna repeatedly stated that she did not wish to have sex with him, Faris refused to take no for an answer. He believed, as his wife, she had to serve him even on days when she did not feel like it.
Ratna was exhausted, and she found solace in the hotel room she frequented. She spent most of her time writing her script and having sex with the ghost there. Ratna felt empowered because, in the presence of the ghost, she could punish and murder men without experiencing any guilt. When a taxi driver touched her inappropriately, the ghost took care of him, and Ratna experienced joy in watching the man suffer. Maybe she had always wanted to feel protected, and strangely enough, it was the pocong who made her feel safe. The private detective Faris had hired had no idea what he was dealing with. He was ready to expose Ratna when he entered her hotel room, but he was surprised to find that Ratna did not have company in her room. Instead of sticking to his job, the detective tried to take advantage of the situation. He attempted to rape Ratna, but he had no idea that there was a demon waiting for him in the washroom. With the help of the demon, Ratna grabbed hold of the detective and stabbed him in the eyes with a pair of scissors. She repeatedly stabbed him all over his body, and she once again experienced euphoria.
Why were Mita and Toni punished?
Ratna’s assistant Mita was sexually attracted to Faris. Out of desperation, she had asked Ratna to allow her to sleep with her husband for a night, but Ratna had refused. Mita proposed the three of them have a one-night stand, but Ratna was not interested. When Ratna stated that she did not want anyone else but her husband, Mita suggested that she sleep with a ghost. Faris learned about the interaction through a videotape. But why would someone record such a conversation? We do not know. The video recording was conveniently used to let Faris know that Mita was possibly the one who had cursed Ratna. According to Faris’ neighbor, Toni, someone was jealous of Faris and Ratna, and they had unleashed a curse to destroy the couple. The video recording suggested it was Mita, but even Toni was far from innocent. Sleeping with Ratna had always been Toni’s fantasy, and when Faris was in a frenzy, Toni used the situation to his advantage. He instructed Faris to tie Ratna to the bed and prepare for an exorcism. Faris got distracted when Mita arrived at his apartment. She had brought Bodi from school. Faris immediately accused Mita of trying to ruin his family, but instead of cutting ties with her, he was ready to surrender himself to her. Faris clarified that she could fulfill her sexual fantasy with him, but she must stay away from Ratna, because she belonged to him and he had no intention of sharing her. Clearly, Faris too was possessed by lust, and he was not thinking straight. Instead of saving his wife, who was tied to a bed, he got busy satisfying his sexual desires. This goes to show the rotten condition of Faris and Ratna’s marriage. He had never been in love with her; he simply enjoyed possessing her, and he could not make peace with the fact that she had decided to leave him.
The ghost possessed Ratna’s body immediately after she and Faris got intimate. The ghost punished Mita for being a terrible friend to Ratna and for allowing lust to take control of her body. After banging her head repeatedly on the pavement, Mita died. Meanwhile, Toni attempted to rape Ratna. When Faris entered the room, he punched Toni. He immediately grabbed hold of Ratna, who was disgusted by both the men in the room. She screamed that they were both demons because both of them had dehumanized her and only cared about satisfying their ego and sexual desires. The ghost came to Ratna’s help once again and possessed Toni. It repeatedly bashed Toni’s head against the wall, and he eventually died.
How Did Ratna Punish Faris?
Faris was flabbergasted when he saw Ratna having sex with a pocong. All this while, he had assumed that the pocong had possessed his wife, but he did not expect to watch Ratna willfully get passionately involved with a ghost. Faris wanted to believe that Ratna had been helpless and she needed saving, but as it turned out, she knew what she had gotten herself into, and she had no intention of walking away from it. The ghost satisfied her in ways Faris could not. It was constantly there with her, and it supported every decision she made. Of course, Ratna was not in her right state of mind. She was exhausted from being in a toxic marriage, and she was all the more frustrated knowing how difficult it would be to leave Faris. But instead of thinking of Budi and trying to deal with the situation more sensibly, Ratna submitted herself to the ghost. In his presence, she could write better, she was more courageous, and she was sexually satisfied. At the end of the day, she too had surrendered herself to lust. Ratna walked the path of destruction because she no longer had the strength to keep on living. With every murder she committed, she knew she was losing herself, but at the same time, before being locked up or killed, she wanted to experience the joy of being liberated. Every other man she crossed paths with looked at her as an object of desire. They touched her without her consent, and they all wanted the same thing—to possess her.
In Possession: Kerasukan’s ending, Ratna carried all the bodies to the theater. She had tied Faris to a seat and took the stage to perform her solo act. She mentioned how men always dominated women and how her husband was no different. His thoughts and actions made him more of a demon than the ghost she made love to. Ratna pointed a gun at Faris and shot him.
What is the message that the film conveys?
Possession: Kerasukan is about toxic marriage and the desperate cry for help of every woman stuck in such relationships. The film addresses marital rape, domestic violence, and the constant distrust that is commonplace in such relationships. Ratna was disappointed and frustrated with all the men she had crossed paths with. She had realized that all of them, at the end of the day, wanted her to be submissive and obey their every wish and whim. They would rather forcefully silence her and sexually satisfy themselves than try to get to know and understand her. Her disappointment perhaps resulted in her projecting her idea of an ideal partner onto a ghost—a ghost who did everything that she expected from her partner. She would rather sleep with a ghost than her husband, and that in itself is a strong message. Perhaps the ghost was her imagination or her projection, and the image of her sleeping with a ghost was a visual representation of the vile condition of their marriage. Ratna was driven to the point of insanity, and she killed people who dared to treat her any less. Faris too was not mentally stable, and he was driven by his desperate need to be in control of his wife, even if she wanted him to stay away. In such marriages, you feel bad for the kid who, from a young age, witnesses such horror. Budi was not old enough to comprehend everything, and most of the time he stayed locked in his room, afraid to step out.
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