NOV 9 — This has been a poor year for Malaysian films, not just in terms of quality but in terms of box-office collection as well.
We have yet to see a single film reach the RM7 million or RM8 million mark this year, whereas the last few years saw at least two or three films reach those figures. And the amount of flops this year was quite startling, with 33 of the 54 films so far released under the Skim Wajib Tayang failing to reach the RM1 million mark. A whopping 19 out of that 33 returned less than RM500,000 in box-office collections.
The year’s biggest hit so far is Husin, Mon & Jin Pakai Toncit which took RM5.89 million and even KL Gangster 2, the most anticipated local film of the year (before the whole thing soured when it was leaked online a month before its release date) only took RM4.93 million so far, compared to the staggering RM12 million that KL Gangster managed to sweep before this. Even the moneymaking machine that is MIG Pictures, usually so spot on when it comes to local filmgoing tastes, is having a bit of a rough year compared to the last few years.
But trust in the horror genre to finally give the Malaysian film-going scene something to talk about this year as MIG’s latest film, the “found footage” horror flick Highland Tower, is fast becoming the talk of the town. Without much of a marketing push in terms of the usual media coverage and promos, the word-of-mouth on Pierre Andre’s latest directorial effort has brought in quite a few bums onto cinema seats as it has so far managed to rake in RM2.1 million in its first seven days, which is quite a phenomenal amount considering the very slow year we’re having this, and would’ve still been considered quite an achievement even in previous years.
It’s become quite the word-of-mouth success that even friends of mine who aren’t into watching Malaysian films have expressed interest in seeing it. I think part of the appeal stems from the fact that some people think that some of the footage that they’ve managed to capture and use in the film is real, just like how some people thought that The Blair Witch Project was real when it first came out. And then there’s that video of some people getting possessed when watching the film in a cinema in Brunei that’s currently making the rounds in social media channels.
Since us Malaysians have always been into all this mystical stuff, especially when it comes to possessions, haunting and ghosts, it’s only natural that we’d be intrigued by all this. Still, however much interest the film may have managed to stir up, it would be for nothing if it’s a terrible as that kind of word-of-mouth can easily backfire as disappointed patrons go on another word-of-mouth rampage telling people to not see the film because it’s terrible, which I think was what happened to the truly abysmal Penunggu Istana, a Paranormal Activity-wannabe which was touted as the first “found footage” film in Malaysia a few years back.
The reason why Highland Tower has been this successful is that it’s not bad at all in the world of “found footage” films. I’ve always had a big jones for “found footage” films, so much so that I’d watch any “found footage” film that comes my way. Because it’s cheap to make them (technically you’d only need a camcorder and a few friends), the majority of these “found footage” are unwatchable garbage, the result of amateur film-makers thinking that shaky cameras and people screaming in front of the camera would be enough to keep people interested.
Having seen my fair share of “found footage” films, I’d say that Highland Tower is nowhere near the bottom of the scrap heap although it’s nowhere near the top either. Combining the “ghost hunter” premise of Grave Encounters and the kind of scares patented by the Paranormal Activity films, Highland Tower is not particularly scary but the reason why it’s so effective is that its illusion of reality is pretty convincing.
This is one of the very few local films in which the way the characters talk actually mirrors how we talk in real life. I’m pretty sure much of the dialogue is improvised, but who cares when the people sound this authentic? To me, this fact alone contributes hugely to us viewers believing in the characters (in spite of the shaky acting here and there), because they look and sound like people we know. Special props must go to the guy playing the scaredy cat character (I can’t seem to recall if he’s named Eddy or something else), whose outstanding performance totally stole the show.
Less convincing is the fact that these ghost hunters are nowhere near as well equipped as the ones we see even in the local TV series Seekers, let alone the ones in films like Grave Encounters or Insidious. That hideous oversight (or lack of research?) aside though, watching Highland Tower with the right audience (preferably with mat rempits and their girlfriends) is quite the fun experience just like how riding a rollercoaster is fun. It’s no masterpiece but just like the Twilight films, it’s a communal experience, meant to be experienced in the cinema with all the hooting and laughing adding to the atmosphere. I don’t know if you’re into that kind of thing, but I definitely am!
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
