PETALING JAYA, April 29 — A rogue scientist’s experiment gone wrong results in people being turned into zombies.
Enter the Dayak warriors to save the day.
This is the premise of Belaban Hidup: Infeksi Zombie, a movie currently being shot on location in Perak and Sarawak.
Helmed by director and producer Ray Lee, the movie is a culmination of his childhood dream to make a horror movie about zombies.
This is his second outing as a filmmaker.
His first movie was Dendam Gadang, about an Iban warrior seeking revenge for his sister’s death.
While admitting that there was no way he could “fight” with big budget movies from Hollywood or Korea, Lee also wanted to highlight the strength of the ethnic warriors.
He added that while there were many Malaysian movies that had zombies in them, they were, in general, humorous ones.
“I want to utilise the culture and tradition of the Iban people. Besides making use of our beautiful scenery,” he said.
Lee also said that he did not want to make a movie that featured scenes such as head hunting as there would be censorship or might lead certain quarters to think he was trying to provoke fights within the community.
“When you create zombies, they don’t exist. So there will not be any zombie association or representative that will complain,” he said, in jest.
The script was written by Lee and Misha Minut while Malay and Iban languages will be used.
Among the cast are rap singer Altimet, Pekin Ibrahim, Pablo Amirul and Katrina Grey.
The project, which has been ongoing since 2016, is expected to be completed by November this year.
