Friday August 5, 2005
History of Malaysian cinematic horror
By ALLAN KOAY
Those who grew up in the 1970s may remember the old black-and-white horror movies that used to be shown on TV. Some time from the 1980s onwards, these classic horror films all but disappeared from the small screen, and from our collective memory.
But back in the 1950s, the pontianak and the orang minyak put fear into the hearts of moviegoers, spawning series and sequels. The pontianak proved to be a popular hantu as there were no less than eight productions of pontianak films from 1957 to 1975.
Cathay Keris was the first studio to produce pontianak films. The popular Pontianak, Dendam Pontianak and Sumpah Pontianak all starred Datuk Maria Menado and were directed by the late B.N. Rao. The success of Pontianak prompted Shaw Brothers’ Malay Film Production to come up with its own vampire series, the first of which was Anak Pontianak in 1958.
After Maria quit acting in 1962, Cathay Keris continued to produce two more vampire films, 1963’s Pontianak Kembali and 1964’s Pontianak Gua Musang, both of which starred lesser-known actresses, with the latter once again directed by B.N. Rao.
The vampire legend continued to be mined by the filmmakers as Shaw Brothers produced Pusaka Pontianak in 1965 while film entrepreneur Hamid Bond and Kobe Trading Company collaborated in 1975 to produce a parody also titled Pontianak.
The orang minyak also proved to be popular during the same period in the 1950s. Cathay Keris had its own orang minyak films which starred S. Roomai Noor and were directed by Datuk L. Krishnan. Shaw Brothers’ Sumpah Orang Minyak, directed by P. Ramlee who also played the lead, garnered a Best Black-and-White Photography Award for its cinematographer A. Bakar Ali at the 5th Asia Film Festival in Manila in 1958.
Last year, Maya Karin, who played the vampire in Suhaimi Baba’s Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam, walked away with the Best Actress award at the 49th Asia-Pacific Film Festival in Japan.
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