Thank you for joining our annual Halaloween: A Muslim Film Festival presented by the Global Islamic Studies Center (GISC) at the University of Michigan.

From Oct 20th to the 27th, stream the Indonesian horror film Satan’s Slaves on demand at watch.eventive.org/halaloween. Pre-order the film anytime, and check out the rest of the month's Halaloween Horror selection!

2017 | 107 minutes | Indonesian | Indonesia

Directed by: Joko Anwar

Halaloween Horror Rating 4/5 

Rating explanation: Gothic and folk horror film directed by master of horror Joko Anwar. Contains jump scares, creepy kids, blood and gore, hauntings, illness, death, and cults. 

Religious content: Most characters are Muslim Indonesians, and the film includes prayer and the ethics of Muslim religious leaders.

Satan's Slaves (Indonesian: Pengabdi Setan) is a 2017 Indonesian gothic horror film written and directed by Joko Anwar. The film follows a poor family who is haunted by their mother who recently died after suffering from a debilitating illness.

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What's Halaloween? In 2019 during the month of October, we launched the first ever Muslim Horror Film Festival: Halaloween. Halaloween screens horror films from across the globe that were made by, for, or about Muslims with the hopes of understanding ‘What scares Muslim audiences? Are horror movies halal?’.  The previous Halaloween Festivals featured A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, Dachra, Siccin 4 and more.

This year’s festival will be both in person and online, screening one film a week during the month of October, and ending with an in-person screening at the State Theater, Friday, October 28, 2022 at 7:00 PM.

Join us on Thursday, October 27th, from 6-8 PM ET as we wrap up our Halaloween Muslim Horror Film Fest with a panel discussion on Muslim horror, the use (and misuse) of Islam and the Quran in the horror genre, feminist politics in horror, and how each region differs in its creation of horror films. RSVP: bit.ly/halaloween22. This panel will feature experts and scholars: Dr. Ali A. Olomi, Dr. Ekky Imanjaya, Dr. Rubina Ramji, and Dr. Karla Mallette.

The festival is free and will come to you wherever you are (though some films may not be available in certain countries). Films will be unlocked online each week of October, and viewers will have the week to watch each film We're also inclusive of everyone's film needs: from new horror fans who close their eyes through most of the films to those who love the gore - we've got films for everyone!

Check the Halaloween Horror Rating in the description of each film for a better sense on how scary each film will be.

Halaloween is brought to you by the Global Islamic Studies Center and cosponsored by the Middle Eastern Studies Department, the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, the Digital Islamic Studies Curriculum, the African Studies Center, Department of Communication and Media, The Department of Film, Television, and Media, American Culture, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, the Center for South Asian Studies, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, Arab and Muslim American Studies, Asian Languages and Cultures, the Center for Arab American Studies at UM-Dearborn, and Shudder.

Want to hear about similar events from U-M Islamic Studies? Sign up for the GISC Newsletter here! We send out a monthly newsletter in collaboration with the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, and the Digital Islamic Studies Curriculum.

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