“We would have never expected it, but Spanish and Portuguese cinephiles have already tweeted quite a lot about it,” he told Al Jazeera. Irul is possibly the “first found-footage horror film” in the Tamil language in Southeast Asia and around the world.Īmir is now excited to see how viewers around the world will react to Roh. Roh is the production house’s second and most accomplished of four films among which are the Mandarin-language psychological horror Two Sisters (2019) by James Lee, and Irul: Ghost Hotel (2021) by Prem Nath. “The Netflix deal (worldwide except North America) came about thanks to our sales agent, TBA Studios based in the Philippines, which has represented Roh since the European Film Market this year,” said Amir Muhammad, an independent publisher of pulp fiction in Malay and English, film director and the managing director of Kuala Lumpur-based Kuman Films, to Al Jazeera. Edgar Wright, the British director of acclaimed movies including 2004’s Shaun of the Dead praised Roh as “amazing stuff” on Twitter in March.

The film stands out from the pack thanks to its mix of Islamic folklore and Malay black magic, the atmospheric rainforest setting and old-world Malay costumes. Emir Ezwan and crew on the set during the filming of Roh When she finally speaks after days of creepy silence, her frightening curse will mark the beginning of a descent into a literal hell. A broken family welcomes a strange girl, caked in mud and blood, into their home. Roh is a haunting story of demonic possession set in wartime on the fringes of a tropical rainforest. But it has joined the list of films inspired by Southeast Asian nightmares that are turning the heads of industry players and horror fans around the world and bringing the region’s grassroots film industry recognition. Roh first got on the cinematic world’s radar after it was picked by the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS) as the unlikely choice to represent the strait-laced country in the International Feature Film category at the 93rd Academy Awards in April.ĭespite earning festival nominations in the United States, Italy, Singapore and Indonesia, Roh did not make it onto the Oscars’ long-list.

It made a flash debut on Malaysian and Singaporean cinema screens in August 2020, just before a new wave of COVID-19 infections shut theatres down. Making its worldwide debut on June 1, Roh was shot in two weeks in the Dengkil forest to the south of Kuala Lumpur on a budget of RM360,000 ($88,500). Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – The Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar premiere of Roh (Malay for “soul”), a supernatural demonic horror movie and the first feature-length film by Malaysian director Emir Ezwan, marks another international achievement for a new wave of low-budget horror works produced in Southeast Asia.

Indonesian horror movies