Humans are the real horror: Eric Khoo on the influence for new HBO show 'Folklore'
Filmmaker Eric Khoo may believe in spirits like the pontianak, but it is living, breathing humans who influence some of the darker aspects of his latest work.
“I think a good horror film is a film of the paranormal where you can feel for the spirit,” the Singaporean director said during an interview on Thursday (30 November). “In the case of my episode, the humans are the real horror. Worse than the spirits.”
Responding to a question from Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore, the 52-year-old Khoo brought up one of the events that influenced his story for HBO’s new anthology series “Folklore”.
Involving an injured worker who had been placed in a cement mixer instead of being sent to hospital, Khoo said that action was done to “literally get rid of him”. “That’s pretty horrific,” he said. Khoo’s hour-long episode is titled “Nobody”, and features a teenage pontianak in a modern setting.
Agreeing with Khoo was South Korean director and writer Lee Sang-woo, who will also be contributing to the series. To highlight his point, Lee brought up a film he had previously starred in, titled “Mother Is A Whore”, which was based on a real story.
The 2011 Korean film is about a HIV-positive man who pimps out his 60-year-old mother to make ends meet. “It is the humans, how the humans are horrible and just turn into monsters,” Lee said of his episode, which involves a “bachelor ghost”.
Besides Khoo and Lee, the anthology will also see works from Indonesia’s Joko Anwar, Malaysia’s Ho Yuhang, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang from Thailand and Takumi Saitoh of Japan.
The six-episode series is part of HBO Asia’s Originals offerings for 2018, revealed on Thursday during the network’s 25th anniversary in the region, and seeks to “modernise” Asian horror. Each show will involve a spirit or ghost familiar to the country, such as the toyol for Malaysia and the pontianak in Singapore.
“One of my main requests to HBO was that they (the episodes) have to be in the main language of the country,” said Khoo. His episode will reflect Singapore’s multicultural society, with local languages like Mandarin and Tamil being used.
“If you see a Japanese horror film and they’re speaking English, it’s going to look like a joke,” he said. “With certain horror films from Asia, like Thai horror films, it is very important the way the characters speak and emote.”
“Folklore” is set to premiere on HBO next year.
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