Seeing Indonesian Ghost Films through Document Theory

Hantu, or ghosts, are portrayed as the incarnation of monstrous or evil souls wishing to harm humans. Most modern Indonesians still believe in ghosts, as suggested by a growing number of ghost films in recent years. From the 1970s until the present, more than 320 ghost films have been made and can be differentiated according to each culture, custom, and religion in Indonesia. Indonesian people believe that ghost films in Indonesia are scarier than ghost films from abroad because of a symbolic bond between ghosts and traditional myths represented in the films. This paper aims to understand ghost films in Indonesia through document theory concepts such as materiality, productivity, and fixity. This paper also considers ghost films as documents through Foucault’s concept of panopticism. This paper is an exploratory and kaleidoscopic look at a topic that the authors hope to explore further in future work