KUALA LUMPUR: Who says the local pontianak can’t get her creep on in a far off land? It seems that even Hollywood stars can appreciate the ghoulish guise of the eerie entity, with its devilishly dark flowing tresses creepily draped over a ghostly pale dress.
In separate video clips posted on Hot FM’s official Instagram account (@hotfm976), as well as the radio station’s YouTube channel (Hot TV) yesterday, actors Leigh Whannel and Lin Shaye of the popular horror franchise Insidious were pretty impressed by the chilling pontianak.
During an interview done in Hong Kong, Hot FM radio announcer Sara Zulkifli, better known as Sarancak, got Whannell to play a game of guess the Malaysian demon.
In the video, the 40-year-old Australian, who is also a screenwriter, producer and director and had worked on the hit Saw and Insidious horror franchises with filmmaker James Wan, was shown an image of a pontianak.
As he looked at the picture of actress Maya Karin, disturbingly dolled up as the titular ghoul from the hit film, Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam, Sara asked him: “What does this demon do?”
“It’s a woman wearing some kind of white gown. I’m going to guess that it’s something to do with motherhood. She’s been wronged in some way and comes back to haunt mothers,” said Whannell accurately describing the haunting figure.
Meanwhile, Shaye, a 74-year-old American theatre, film and TV actress, was shown an image of Maya again, but this time as her usual beautiful self.
“Wow, she must be a siren or a seductress of some kind and if she isn’t then she should be,” said Shaye, who has acted in a slew of horror movies such as A Nightmare On Elm Street, Critters, Amityville: A New Generation and Ouija.
When presented with Maya’s pontianak picture, the seemingly impressed actress said: “That’s a fantastic makeup. What a great transformation.”
The interviews were part of a Press junket to promote the fourth movie from the Insidious franchise, titled The Last Key, which premiered here yesterday.