NEWS & VIEWS
October 2018
7
Great storytelling holds no fear
Themed Infinite Fear, Universal Studios
Singapore’s (USS) Halloween Horror Nights
has returned for its eighth edition (HHN8)
at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) from September 27-October 31. Besides
having Asian horror take centre stage, USS has also tied up with Netflix for
the first time ever to bring its science fiction-horror Web series, Stranger
Things, to life.
Marking another first for USS this year is the production of a series
of teaser horror films that tell the stories and supernatural characters of
this year’s haunted houses in cinematographic style. APB prompts
Mads K Baekkevold, director from Media Monks, an Amsterdam-
headquartered digital production team, who are also the creatives behind
the production of the films for HHN8, to elaborate on the conceptualisation
process in creating these bite-sized films.
her lingering around banana trees
— all these strange little quirks that
we tried to put subtle references
into the film.
Of course, I do understand the
slightly iffy nature of a white guy
writing and directing a South-east
Asian story. This is by no means
the only take on a Pontianak — I
heard the local stories, and this is
my own personal take on them. It
is a folktale, and those will always
change, depending on who tells
them. Who knows, maybe this
Pontianak has a little bit of Hulder
DNA in her.
In terms of the Pagoda of Peril
film, I do have a fascination for the
extremely multi-faceted Chinese/
Buddhist beliefs in the afterlife —
and specifically hell. Haw Par Villa
is one of my favourite places in
Singapore. A few years ago, I did
a collaborative project with other
local filmmakers, where each of us
made a short film based on one
level of Buddhist hell. I did a lot of
research for that project, and used
quite a bit of that as inspiration for
my take on the Pagoda. Pagoda
of Peril takes on an animated film
approach, given the creativity with
colours, visuals and characters were
practically limitless.
When it comes to Killumi-
nati — the Chinese secret society
of vampires that has existed for
centuries — I was not aware that
there is a secret society of vampires
running the world, so this is fresh
material to me!
These films transport fans
to different paranormal realms,
telling stories of betrayed, angry
and vengeful spirits, giving fans a
chance to immerse in the horror
early before stepping into USS for
HHN8.
The films feature myths and
tales from different regions —
ranging from the very Asian-
based Pontianak to Stranger
Things, which is created from the
Can you take us through the con-
ceptualisation process behind
the making of the horror series,
and what can viewers expect
from the short films?
Mads K Baekkevold: I did have
knowledge of the tales that the
haunted houses were based on. I
have lived in Asia for nine years
now, and I have always been ex-
tremely interested in local folklore
and mythology wherever I am at.
Whenever I travel, I try to talk to
locals about the legends of the
area, which has resulted in hearing
some great stories.
For the Pontianak film, the
myth has always been extremely
fascinating to me. We have a
fairly similar creature in Norwegian
mythology, a murderous forest
woman named the Hulder. Some
of the little trivia facts specific to
the Pontianak were new to me
though — that she is attracted to
fresh laundry, how she can throw
her voice, the scent of jasmine and
Universal Studios Singapore has collaborated with Netflix to bring to life its science fiction-horror Web series, Stranger
Things.
Mads K Baekkevold, director from Media Monks, at the set for the filming of
the Pontianak.
US. Hence, were there any chal-
lenges when marrying all these
different elements together
while localising the content to
make it appealing to viewers
across the globe?
Baekkevold: I do not think viewers
need context to understand the
stories. Our goal from the start
was always to create content that
functions on multiple levels — a
refreshing way to introduce USS’
HHN, and they can also func-
tion as completely independent
standalone series of short films
that anyone, anywhere, could im-
merse themselves in, regardless of
context.
Having said that, there are
obviously stories that might be
unfamiliar to our international
audience. I doubt many people
outside of South-east Asia would
know much about the Pontianak,
which makes it a joy to potentially
introduce her to a wider Asian au-
dience, and make them scared to
hang around banana trees or do
their laundry.
For Killuminati, we intentionally
wanted it to raise questions in the
viewer. It is constructed to function
as the beginning to something
larger, even though the story is very
much around four protagonists.
We hope that it is a film people will
watch again to pick up on the little
clues, the red herrings, the symbol-
ism, and the subliminal messages
that they might have missed the
first time round — and then go to
the HHN themselves to find out the
rest of the story.
During the shoot, what specific
visuals should be captured? Is
there any particular tool or
technology that is required to
capture that specific shot?
Baekkevold: I am not a fan of
computer-generated special effects
in horror films. Even the shoddiest
stop-motion model is creepier
than some glossy, over-the-top
CGI ghoul. Not the most unique
opinion I know, but we felt it was
important in this series of films to
keep the scares tactile. And for
the actors, they need to feel that
the creatures are actually there, as
opposed to having a person in a
green leotard waving a tennis ball
in their face.
Most of the effects are 100%
practical: When the Pontian-
ak slams the female character,
Raudha, to the ground, that is the
actress herself falling after just an
hour of stunt training. Similarly,
in Killuminati, the same actress
playing both the demonic Vam-
pire Hostess and the human form
really threw the gangster to the
floor herself.
We do have a great team on set
with us to make sure we got every-
thing we needed for the post-work,
mainly consisting of shooting some
plates for composition and close-
ups for the makeup-touch-up.