Journal Albion: Journal of English Literature, Language, and Culture Vol. 4 No. 1, April 2022, Pages 13-17 http://journal.unpak.ac.id/index.php/albion e-ISSN : 2657-0696 13 The Representation of the Islamic Religious Leader in Film “Makmum” by Riza Pahlevi Jordy Satria Widodo Universitas Pakuan, Bogor, Indonesia Email correspondence: jordysatriawidodo@unpak.ac,id Article history: accepted: December 26, 2021 revised : January 24,2022 approved :February 22,2022 ABSTRACT The film is known as the audio-visual means of communication. Moreover, it encompasses so many genres, especially horse horror films film has been well-known in the context of Indonesia’s film production. Horror films have a tight bond with the Indonesian audience since most people believe in mystical and supernatural occurrences. The existence of the religious leader becomes important to drive out the ghosts from hauntings. Maximum by Riza Pahlevi is one horror film that portrays the coming of the Islamic religious leader as the problem solver over the haunting problems in the movie. The purpose of this research is to analyze the representation of the Islamic religious leader in the film Makmum by Riza Pahlevi. The research made use of a qualitative approach and took the denotative and connotative semiotics concept by Roland Barthes. The data collection technique was conducted through document analysis. The research result presented that the images of the Islamic religious leader comprise having a deep Islamic religious knowledge, becoming loyal to the teachings, and becoming righteous according to religious beliefs shown through varied scenes in the movie. Keywords: Horror Films; Representation; Semiotics; The Islamic Religious Leader. I. BACKGROUND The film is categorized as moving images which are dominant forms of mass media (Ardianto, 2007). Also, it is a means of audio- visual communication which conveys messages to a group of people gathering in a certain place (Effendy, 1986). What is more, film functions as the representation of people from a particular place which usually takes the stereotypes to portray them in the scenes? Furthermore, there are many genres of films comprising comedy, drama, romance, thriller, horror, and so on. In particular, horror is one of the movie genres that shows thrilling impressions that include the scenes of demonic possessions, zombies, ghosts, rituals, cannibalism, murder, and so forth in the area of fantasy (Pinel, 2006). In most horror films, the religious leaders become central since they play a role in solving problems. They are usually positioned as the protagonist to bring a happy ending to the movies (Abdulsalam, 2017). They are the ones that can drive out ghosts by reciting spellings or verses taken from the sacred books. It depicts a power that the religious figure has when it comes to controlling something demonic and chaos caused by the demons or Satan. Also, they are usually portrayed to have in-depth knowledge of religious teaching and wearing the religious attributes which signify their loyalty to the religious teaching (Aljufri, 2018).