Critical Commentaries on Social Behavior.

Malaysia horror movie, could it even be considered a horror movie ?

Malaysia's horror movie industry have always, and I do mean always, been a disappointing. I am not saying this just out of the blue but this is a widely known fact. I'm not the only one that feels disappointed when watching local horror movie, many others including my friends have expressed their disappointment. 'Histeria', and 'Puaka Tebing Biru' are some examples that proves my point. Bad acting, bad effects, and bad directing are some of the reasons that have made the movies not even a fraction scary. However, there is still hope yet for the local horror movie industry. 'Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam' and 'Jangan Pandang Belakang' are the lucky few that managed to at least achive the passing mark for horror movies.

The thing is, it is not the storyline that is the problem, it is the creativity to execute the scenes, the acting of the actors, the effects that is used and also ultimately the censorship board of Malaysia that have made our local horror movie a laughing stock of the horror movie community.

Let us start with the first factor, it is a fact that there is no creativity in our local horror movies in executing the horror scenes, or even the scenes that should have build up the suspense or the mood for the coming 'BOO!' scene. It will always lack that certain panache to actually make that certain scene scary.

The second factor is also a big problem, the actors that are acting in this movies have never been really dedicated in playing their role, they refuse to BE the character, the ghost, they sometimes think it is beneath them or that their current acting skill are sufficient enough for that scene. The blame should not be on the actors alone, the casting director should also be blamed for the mistakes. If the casting director did his or her job right, the movie might have been better. Commitment to ones job is always important, don't you agree ?

Movie effects, as far as I can see, Malaysia's effects have at least come to par with the effects of world class movies. The effects that have been shown in certain local action movies are somewhat impressive, however, when it come to horror movies, those same effects have never been used effectively and sometimes may have been the cause of the downfall of that particular horror movie. The effects team must really do their job, as well as the editing team to.

Lastly and to me this is the ultimate cause for the local horror movie to be a laughing stock is because of the censorship board. Most horror movies that make it big are the ones that have that bloody and gory scene added to the mix, but because of censorship, that factor is to be either taken out or be reduced from a severed leg to a knock in the head. That is not all, because of the censorship have to take account on taboos of all religion, a lot of the factors that makes a good horror film is taken out of the equation. When this defining factors are taken out, it is very clear why our local horror movies are never good enough.

After looking on all the factors that have been listed above, I could not make it any clearer that our local horror movies SUX to the MAX ! Well at least it is true to most of us, dont'cha think so too ?