Asian horror aficionados are familiar with Indonesian director Bobby Prasetyo’s work, his recent horror projects have gained acclaim for their diverse, experimentative setup and exploration of the country’s sociocultural and religious boundaries. His latest venture, Kuasa Gelap, aka Dominion of Darkness, treads into relatively unexplored territory (at least in the Asian horror scene) of traditional Catholic exorcism. This might feel like a breath of fresh air to fans who want to see old-school formulaic Hollywood horror against an Asian backdrop, as the movie draws heavy inspiration from The Exorcist and even all its sequels. While the serious lack of scare factor might discourage viewers during the initial part of the movie, the way the narrative incorporates discourse on faith, emotional burdens, and mental health with the horror surely deserves a watch. With all that being said, what I feel is a missed opportunity is that Dominion of Darkness only barely touches upon the intriguing idea of admixing folk occultism with Catholicism—and never delves deeper into it.
Spoilers Ahead
Father Thomas’ Lack of Faith
Dominion of Darkness opens with an important disclaimer, which mentions that the majority of the paranormal afflictions or possessions have their roots in mental illness and need appropriate assistance; only the rarest of cases are actually related to concepts of evil or demonic spirits. The events showcased in the movie are inspired by instances of such real-life exorcism.
A tragic incident marks the beginning of the movie, as Father Thomas, a young priest/teacher at the service of the convent school of Santa Maria Laurensia, meets with a terrible road accident while driving at the dead of night taking his family home. The driver of the minivan that collided with Thomas’ car refuses to help them and flees in fear of repercussions. Despite sustaining a few injuries, Thomas survives, but his family—his sister Diandra and their mother Diana—aren’t so lucky. In her final moments, Diandra requests her brother to pray for them, but a grief-stricken Thomas is too overwhelmed by agony and anguish to recall God at this hour. As his family perishes, Thomas is wracked by guilt for being unable to fulfill his sister’s final wish, and this, coupled with his anger, creates a sense of disillusionment in him, which contributes to his gradual loss of faith. Father Thomas approaches his superior, the chief priest of the convent, Father Roby, and requests that he let him resign. Roby believes that Thomas was chosen for a reason, and still isn’t ready to give up on him.
Kayla’s Woes
One of Diandra’s best friends, Kayla, shares her condolences with Father Thomas, reassuring him that his sister’s soul will rest in peace knowing he hasn’t lost his smile.
However, Kayla’s own life is in shambles ever since her father, with whom she shared a strong connection, passed away. Her mother, Maya, is trying to move on and is now engaged to her boyfriend, Denis—much to Kayla’s dismay. Kayla resents Denis and believes her mother is a fool for trusting him. In reality, Maya has remained absent from her daughter’s life after her husband’s passing, and having lost one of her parents already, Kayla fears the relationship between Dennis and Maya will alienate her mother as well. Kayla’s loneliness and anguish contribute to her negative thoughts, which she pens down in her diary. Kayla wishes to see Denis gone from their lives and wishes to have a chance to speak with her deceased father, as she feels Maya would have listened to his advice. Knowing all this, Kayla’s best friend, Priscilla, suggests she summon the spirit of her father through the Jelangkung ritual—and taking Kayla to the graveyard late at night, Priscilla brings a hideous-looking doll to perform the ritual. It always takes bad advice to completely wreck a situation, and teenagers have no dearth of such counsel. Whereas Kayla needed to find her mental peace with the assistance of her friends and family, she gave her negative thoughts a much more sinister outlet.
What Is the Jelangkung Ritual?
Jelangkung is a practice prevalent in Malaysia and Indonesia, which involves communicating with the souls of the departed. The ritual has a prominent place in ancient Indonesian culture, as there are theatrical performances organized centered on Jelangkung, and historically it was practiced to seek guidance, divination, or spiritual healing. However, the ritual involves offerings, the presence of a shaman who acts as a mediator, and other intricacies—which were completely ignored in these two teenagers’ whimsical act of summoning a spirit. As they use the doll at Kayla’s father’s grave, the presence of an entity is felt, and considering it to be her late father’s spirit, Kayla requests it to get Denis out of Maya’s life. Unknowingly, Kayla and Priscilla have communicated with malevolent presence(s), and soon enough, the dire consequences are felt by their close ones. A couple of days later, Priscilla inexplicably passes away as she takes her own life, while Kayla, desperately wishing for a separation between Denis and Maya, finds herself haunted by a ghostly spirit, a demonic nun—and turns into a vessel of evil. Kayla’s attempt to get rid of the doll proves to be futile, as once summoned, the unholy entity(ies) will not leave without intervention.
Kayla is brought in for questioning by Father Thomas and Father Roby, given she was a good friend of Priscilla; they hope she can answer their queries about her death. An aggrieved Kayla doesn’t share the truth, even though she had her apprehension from the get-go that participating in the Jelangkung ritual could have brought horrors of an unknown nature upon them. As Father Thomas takes a grieving Kayla back to her home, he witnesses her acting increasingly unhinged and recognizes the tell-tale of demonic possession as, speaking in Latin, Kayla taunts him by calling Thomas a hypocrite before losing consciousness. The remark is an address to Thomas’ dwindling faith, and he wastes no time reporting this incident to Father Roby.
Why Did Thomas Agree to Help Father Rendra?
After listening to Thomas’ experience, Father Roby deems Kayla’s situation to not be caused by psychological or mental afflictions, but due to demonic possession. Roby decides to approach Father Rendra, an accomplished exorcist who has years of experience helping tormented souls who fall prey to the call of evil. In a sequence that seems like an homage to Father Merrin’s battle to save the soul of little Regan in “The Exorcist,” Father Rendra and his associate Michael are seen expelling the demon Kadastor from a young boy. However, as the demon tries to exploit Michael’s past trauma from his mother’s demise to weaken his faith, Michael quits from his role as Father Rendra’s assistant. The physical and mental exertion of tackling evil has taken a toll on Father Rendra, and he is looking for not just an apprentice but a successor who will take on his responsibility in the near future.
Upon learning this, Father Roby suggests Rendra take Thomas under his wing. Thomas is well versed in psychology, which apparently is a basic requirement to be an exorcist, and as a young pastor, he is the perfect candidate to inculcate the knowledge passed down by Rendra. However, as Roby approaches Thomas with the proposal of assisting Rendra in helping Kayla, he appears unwilling to take on such a monumental responsibility. Thomas feels his present lack of faith can pose a serious threat to both Roby and Kayla and that he isn’t worthy of becoming Rendra’s apprentice. Roby tries to convince Thomas by reminding him Kayla has lost both her friends—Diandra and Priscilla—and as someone who has lost close ones as well, Thomas should help her.
Kayla’s condition worsens day by day, and on one occasion, in a manic state, she tries to cause self-harm while attending classes. Thomas comforts a confused, agonized Kayla, who blames herself for Priscilla’s fate. The school authorities suggest Maya seek professional help for her daughter through counseling, but she appears unwilling to do so. Thomas begins studying the connection between exorcism and psychological tribulations to better assess Kayla’s predicament after finding himself tormented by sinister forces that try to subdue him using memories of his late sister.
Thomas meets with Father Rendra, and expresses his uncertainties about assisting him in the proposed exorcism of Kayla (if such a situation arises). Rendra reveals how, by origin, the demons, or Fallen Angels, exploit psychological weaknesses like insecurities, negative thoughts, and unresolved emotional entanglements. He discourages Thomas from taking part in the upcoming exorcism, as if he fails in the test of faith, he will end up jeopardizing his own life and that of the victim as well. Perhaps trying to use this opportunity to shed his remorse and anguish and to help Kayla in the process, Thomas requests Rendra to teach him the rites of exorcism. Before learning the rituals, Thomas needs to confess to get rid of his woes, which can be used by the demonic entities, and dissolve any form of ego to dedicate himself to the service and strengthen his faith.
Maya’s Confession
On the other hand, Kayla shares the truth with her mother, Maya, about visiting the graveyard with Priscilla to find a way to reach out to her late father, whom Kayla dearly missed, and now believes that incident to be the sole reason behind Priscilla’s death and her own present predicament. The demonic possession torments Kayla and Maya further, and eventually Maya calls the school authorities to inform them about the situation, which prompts Father Rendra and Thomas to visit her home to perform an exorcism. One aspect that was unique was that the priests brought Sister Indah, a nun, with them as well to better handle Kayla’s situation. Although, as the exorcism starts, Sister Indah gets thrown around like a ragdoll by a possessed Kayla and goes out of commission in no time. Thomas is nearly thrown off balance as the demon inside Kayla tries to taunt him using his guilt over losing his sister.
However, after much struggle, Father Rendra manages to expel the demon Dagal from Kayla’s body, and leaving a recuperating Kayla in the care of Maya, the priest and nun leave. Things take a turn for the worse when Maya learns about the truth of Kayla’s predicament. While going through her diary, Maya reminisces about the good old times and gets shocked upon coming across the dark thoughts Kayla harbored about Denis. She learns that Kayla had participated in the Jelangkung ritual to cause a rift between her and Denis and informs her boyfriend about the situation. Denis reacts violently as he tries to assault Kayla, and this causes Maya to break things off with Denis in retaliation.
Meeting with Father Rendra, Maya blames herself for the situation her daughter has found herself in. Maya confesses that she had become pregnant with Kayla at a young age and had no one to turn to when her family had turned their backs against her. At that point, she fell in love with the person (unnamed) Kayla knows to be her father, who helped Maya by guiding her in the ways of faith. Ever since the death of her husband, Maya has struggled in her duties as a mother to Kayla and feels responsible for her giving in to negative instincts. Father Rendra assures Maya that her past doesn’t matter if she chooses to shape her present life in a better way.
Was Father Thomas Able To Save Kayla?
In Dominion of Darkness’ ending, Maya shares with Rendra about Kayla’s experimentation with Jelangkung, and before the veteran priest can help her by learning more about the situation, on his way home, Rendra gets attacked by a possessed Kayla—which results in him getting hospitalized. Thomas and Roby visit Rendra, who reveals that the demon they expelled is not the only one, but a legion of them have infested Kayla after she opened a doorway to the world of the damned by practicing the Jelangkung ritual on her father’s grave. The strongest of them has complete control over her now, which needs to be expelled to save Kayla. With Rendra being unable to assist, Thomas takes it upon himself to perform the second exorcism.
In her demonic state, Kayla has started hunting down her own mother, with Thomas arriving just in time to start the exorcism ritual. The strongest demon of the Legion, Zababel, who appears as the demon nun, attempts to kill Kayla, and to save her daughter, Maya prepares to sacrifice her own life to the demon. Thomas faces great difficulty standing against such an overwhelmingly strong spirit, but eventually Kayla’s words about his sister, Diandra, finding peace in the afterlife, reignite the cherished memories he shared with his family. This provides Thomas with mental fortitude and strengthens his faith enough for him to expel the demon Zababel from Kayla’s body—finally freeing her from every form of demonic affliction.
Will Thomas Continue To Be An Exorcist?
Regaining his faith, Father Thomas finds it in himself to forgive the man who left his family in peril during the accident – which conveys that he has rid himself of the burdens which caused him self doubt and uncertainty. Also, as Thomas reveals to Father Rendra, he has found a greater sense of purpose in helping those in need, which is why he has reconsidered his decision about resigning and continues to be a disciple of Rendra.
