GHOST IN THE CELL Trailer Turns a Haunted Prison Into a Bloody Nightmare
A haunted high-security prison already sounds like a terrible place to spend the night. Throw in gang warfare, a vicious warden, gruesome murders, and a corpse repurposed as a showerhead, and you’ve got the nasty playground Joko Anwar has created for his new horror comedy Ghost in the Cell.
The Indonesian filmmaker behind Satan’s Slaves and Impetigore is back with something that looks bloody, twisted, and much more playful than some of his previous horror work. The first trailer offers a taste of the carnage Anwar has cooked up, with some wonderfully disgusting practical-looking gore getting in on the action.
Ghost in the Cell takes place inside a high-security prison controlled by rival gangs and a tyrannical warden. Things get considerably worse when a new inmate arrives and a string of mysterious murders begins.
The victims aren’t simply killed, either. Their bodies are left behind in horrific displays as the prisoners realize that whatever is hunting them isn’t another inmate. An invisible supernatural force is roaming the prison, forcing the trapped men to put their feuds aside and figure out how to survive an enemy they can’t see.
The trailer has plenty of gruesome visuals to sell the movie’s horror-comedy approach, including one particularly messed-up gag involving a mangled corpse being used as a showerhead. So yeah, Anwar appears to be having some fun with this one.
Anwar wrote and directed the film, which stars Abimana Aryasatya, Almanzo Konoralma, Aming Sugandhi, Arswendy Bening Swara, Bront Palarae, and Dimas Danang Suryonegoro.
Well Go USA is bringing the Indonesian horror comedy to North American audiences, and CEO Doris Pfardrescher shared her enthusiasm for getting another Anwar film in front of moviegoers:
“We’re thrilled to bring Ghost in the Cell to North America,” said distributor Well Go USA CEO Doris Pfardrescher. “As longtime fans of Joko Anwar, having previously released his film Gundala, we’ve seen firsthand how strongly his work resonates with audiences here. Ghost in the Cell is an absolute blast – it’s wildly entertaining and deliciously gory in all the right ways.”
Ghost in the Cell is scheduled to screen at Fantastic Fest next month, giving genre fans an early chance to see Anwar’s supernatural prison nightmare in all its bloody glory.
Ghost in the Cell hits theaters October 2, 2026.