Why oh why can’t Malaysians make a decent horror movie? I mean is it really that hard?
I went to watch Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam 2 (“PHSM2”) starring the lovely Maya Karin as Meriam/Maria, Ida Nerina, Kavita Sidhu and Rosham Nor last night. Btw, I am not going to write a review about the movie because it’s just not worth my time. Actually, I couldn’t even if I wanted to because there’s just too many characters and even I get confused with some of them like which one is the Pontianak and which one is the daughter of the Pontianak. It’s the sequel to the 1st Pontianak movie whereby it was supposed to explain what happened to Meriam’s child i.e. Maria and who she really was. Remember the story people used to tell you that if you want to see a Pontianak take her human form then u gotta stick a nail behind her neck? Well, you can see how it is done in the movie.
I went with my parents and my 6 cousins, eldest being 16 years old and youngest is 7. My parents don’t ask for much, they prefer I occasionally take them out to watch any new Malay movie that is showing in the cinema, the last one being Anak Mami Kembali during recent Hari Raya holidays. Basically my dad will watch anything that has to do with Penang people or Penang dialect. So anyway, there we were in the cinema and the opening scene itself had my cousins jumping out of their seat. It showed the Pontianak @ banshee shrieking while flying and landed on the roof of a car terrorising the passengers. I think Maya Karin’s portrayal as the Pontianak was commendable. That’s about the only good thing I can say about the movie i.e. Maya Karin’s acting. The storyline was disjointed and the script was really bad. Most of the time I couldn’t make sense of the story and it was not even scary!! The thing is, if you’re a fan of Maya Karin and wanna see her in her scary make-up, donning the white robe and flying all over the place then go see the movie. But if you are expecting to see like a real horror movie then forget it. You might as well watch Skeleton Key or The Exorcism of Emily Rose. At least THAT one is a true story.
I have always been a fan of horror movies. When I was small about 7 years old, my parents brought me to the cinema to see my first Indonesian horror movie called Dukun Lintah. OHMYGOD!!! Now THAT was scary. I had nightmares for a very long time. I couldn’t sleep alone because I was imagining them leeches coming at me. Every night I would knock on my parents’ door and begged them to let me sleep with them on the bed. It got so bad that I would even daydream about them leeches. My mom had to tell me everyday that the leeches were not real and made of rubber and wouldn’t hurt anyone. She also had to repeatedly tell me that there was no such person that would go around summoning leeches and targeting them at people they hate and that I would be safe as there are no leeches in the city. She said leeches could only be found in the paddy field. To this day I still shudder by the mere mention of that movie or leeches for that matter. Ooohh…remember Sunderbolong (like Pontianak but scarier)? It’s about this pregnant woman who was raped and murdered by 5 men who broke into her house while her husband was out of town on business. So this woman became a Sunderbolong and hunted the men who had wronged her and killed every single one of them. I watched that movie when I was in my teens and I can still remember that scene where she gobbled like 100 sticks of satay together with the gravy and everything would just come out again from her back. Euwwww…that was gross but scary nonetheless! Indonesians make the best horror movies I think. Maybe it’s because their movies are mostly about black magic. Even the Korean ones like The Eye or The Cello or The Phone or the Japanese’s Ring-O and Ju-On fail in comparison. The Thais are also making more horror movies like Nang Nak (Nakkk…Nakkk…Nakkk. Argh!! So damn annoying!) and of course Shutter (Holy Shit!! This story was really scary. I slept with the lights on for 3 days after watching the dvd and had begged my brother to leave his 6 month old son to sleep with me and keep me company. I kid you not!).
So anyway, back to PHSM2, Malaysians have a long way to go before we could be at par with the Indonesians or the Koreans in terms of making good horror movies. Maybe because I have been watching them since I was small that I am now immune to them. Nothing scares me anymore. Hmm…well, lemme correct that. Scary movies don’t scare me anymore. Must be careful when you say something like this. I don’t want the real “thing” to suddenly appear and scare the living daylights out of me!!!