Horror movies directed by Joko Anwar

How Impetigore scares: There's a heavy, sinking dread that builds slowly as the story digs into a village's dark history, then the movie turns sharply brutal once the truth starts to surface. Long stretches of unease and quiet wrongness are punctuated by sudden bursts of ritual violence rather than cheap jump scares. The threat here comes from black magic and old curses, not ghosts jumping out of closets, and the movie leans into folk horror dread more than shock. It's a heavier watch that stays with you, good for people who like slow-building foreign horror with a real emotional gut-punch by the end.

How Satan's Slaves scares: There's a heavy, sad weight hanging over this one even before anything scary happens, since it starts with real grief and a family falling apart, and that sadness bleeds into every scary scene that follows. The pace is slow and patient, letting small wrong details pile up in an old house until the dread becomes constant, then it lets loose with some sharp, well-placed jump scares once things start moving. The threat here is ghostly and ritualistic rather than a human killer, and it leans on unsettling sounds and images more than blood. It's a good pick if you want a haunted house movie that actually makes you feel something afterward, not just jump in your seat.

How Ritual scares: Disorientation is the main feeling here, not jolts or gore. You're dropped into the same confusion as the main character, stumbling through the woods with half-formed memories, so the fear builds from not knowing what's real or who to trust. The pace stays tense and grounded, more like a survival ordeal than a ghost story, with the danger coming from other people rather than anything supernatural. It's unsettling and stressful to watch rather than purely fun, good for viewers who like their horror confusing and psychologically off-balance.