Malaysian Horror Movies

In the spirit of being Malaysian, I watch Malaysian movies from time to time. I rarely expect much, but some movies do exceed my expectations. Being the horror movie aficionado that I am, here's my list of my favourite Malaysian horror movies.

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• Karak - Based on urban legends and eerie sightings along the Karak Highway in Pahang, this movie is KRU Studio's first foray into the supernatural genre. It tells of four college students on their ways back to Kuantan. Getting stuck in a traffic jam, they decide to take the shorter and creepier alternative back route that requires them to cut through the Karak town to fatal consequences.

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• Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam (PHSM) - Both the first and the second one share a certain mystique old Malay feel. Directed by Suhaimi Baba, PHSM tells of a dancer, Meriam and two friends who fall in love with her. Due to a cruel twist of fate Meriam ends up dead but later returns in a form of a vengeful female spirit (a pontianak) to seek revenge on those who had wronged her in the past.

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• Senjakala - Directed by Ahmad Idham, the movie tells of a woman, Karlisa who returns to her mother's kampung, Kampung Senja Lama after the death of her fiance. There, she meets and falls for a mysterious man, Arman, the black sheep of the kampung folks and the keeper of the 'saka' (a demon passed down from generation to generation in the family). However, things appear to be more complicated than they seem as Karlisa learns of her family's connection to the 'saka'. 

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• Sini Ada Hantu - Coming from James Lee, this is a breathe of fresh air after his first foray into the local horror scene in 2008 with his movie Histeria. Anyway, Sini Ada Hantu is part comedy, part horror. Using the story within a story formula common to other Asian horror movies, the movie tells of two van drivers on a last-minute assignment of delivering a coffin (with a dead body inside) to their boss's hometown for the funeral ceremony. Along the way, they took turns exchanging ghost stories - 1) Hantu Pokok Pisang; 2) Hantu Nombor Ekor and 3) Hantu Jepun, and soon, odd things begin to happen to the two drivers.

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• Khurafat: Perjanjian Syaitan - Of forbidden pacts made with the devil and consequences of such pacts, Khurafat is the story of Johan, a medical assistant, and his new wife, Aisyah. Their marital bliss comes to an abrupt end when mysterious apparitions begin to haunt them. Added to the mess is the mysterious woman whom Johan keeps encountering on hospital grounds as well as the return of his ex-girlfriend Anna to complicate his marriage.