Mourning and Memory: Decoding the Corpse Washer as a Spiritual Allegory of Death and Religion in Indonesian Horror Cinema

This study analyzes Pemandi Jenazah as an Indonesian horror film that intertwines themes of death, Islamic rituals, and feminist critique. Using qualitative methods of semiotic analysis, discourse analysis, and feminist film criticism, the research decodes how water, blood, corpse-washing rituals, and supernatural imagery construct layered meanings of purification, violence, and spiritual transition. The film not only portrays religious obligations surrounding mourning and burial rites but also critiques women’s marginalization within religious and cultural institutions. Lela, the central character, becomes an allegorical figure whose struggles reflect both feminist resistance and socio-political tensions in contemporary Indonesia. The analysis highlights how visual, auditory, and narrative elements mediate between tradition and modernity, piety and corruption, gender oppression and agency. The findings reveal that horror cinema in Indonesia functions as a cultural space where religious ideology, indigenous practices, and feminist voices intersect, offering audiences an allegorical reflection on death, spirituality, and social justice. Keywords: Indonesian horror cinema, death rituals, semiotics, feminist film criticism, mourning, Islamic practices, cultural symbolism, discourse analysis