Thailand is never run out with idea to make another horror
movie, here is a preview of new horror movie that will come out
from this one of Asian country that most productive in their movie
producing.
“The Screen” is a supernatural horror that based on a bizarre
and frightening actual news report which article was appears in
Thai Rath newspaper dated Oct 4, 1991.
The news was about a team of outdoor film projectionist who was
hired by some mysterious caller to screen their movies in a remote
village of Wang Tong in Northeastern Thailand. They were instructed
to begin the screening at 9 pm and finish it at 4 am.
When the projectionists arrived at Wang Tong, they saw not a
single man in there, but when they were set up to screening their
first movie at 9 pm, a large crowd turned up. This viewers all sat
very quietly, without any stirring, not making any sound, without
anyone getting up and moving about, and without any sign of
excitement of the show from the beginning till the end. When the
screening ended at 4 am, all this viewers mysteriously disappeared
as if they’d vanished into the dark.
After the show, the projectionists packed their equipment and
left, in their way they met with some of the villagers who insisted
that they never heard of any announcement of an outdoor screening.
They even told the crew that they must have gone into Kamchanod, an
enclosed forest in the middle of the rice fields believe to be the
entrance to the underground lair of the mythical Naga. Its strange
account of what happened there convinced that they’d been hired to
screen movies not to human viewers but to the ghosts of the
village.
Based on this bizarre article, one of the countries largest
studios, Five Star Productions take the advantage to retelling it
on the big screen. With this movie the studio giving an opportunity
to new and talented filmmakers Songsak Mongkothong with the belief
that he can represent a new creative works which can successfully
crafts popular movies for both domestic and international
markets.
To give more details on the movie, Songsak went to Kamchanod and
did some extensive research with talk to the locals to following
the real story. “The location at Kamchanod is essential to the
film,” the producer Pran Tadaveerawat (Bangkok Dangerous) says. “We
talked to the villagers and ensured them that we respected their
sacred forest and would never do anything to enrage the forest
spirits. The shooting went smoothly, and after the filming was done
we tidied up the whole forest and cleaned the local shrine – for
our own good luck!”
Director Songsak who has been working as assistant director for
many productions, including some Thai horror hits like "The
Eye" and “Bangkok Haunted” said “I remember that when I was
15, I watched a TV documentary about Kamchanod forest and the
strange incident involving the outdoor film projectionists. What
struck me was that it was not a mumbo-jumbo story. But it involves
a scientific concept such as a film projector and the mechanism of
light, and to use this modern equipment we may be able to cross the
line that separates the human world to something that lies beyond.
The Kamchanod forest is surrounded by water, so it’s like an island
in the middle of the field. The villagers told me that they tried
to build a bridge to connect Kamchanod with the field, but every
year during the rainy season the bridge would crack, or collapse.
This serves as a metaphor that maybe it’s impossible to connect the
two worlds, or for us to try to cross over.”
