What a view | HBO Asia’s Folklore: haunting horror anthology is not for the faint hearted
The six-part miniseries filmed in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia taps into regional fears for a truly frightening show
Off-the-peg horror series are all very well, be they power-tool-slices-all gorefests or all-you-can-drink vampire outings. But what about tailor-made tales of terror specific to national psyches?
Prepare to hide behind the sofa for Folklore, HBO Asia’s first original horror anthology series that visits half a dozen Asian countries for its six, one-hour instalments.
Filmed in Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand – each by a native director – episodes take their cues from the ingrained myths, occult beliefs and supernatural tales baked into societies.
The season kicks off on October 7, at 10pm, on streaming channel HBO Go (and Now TV channel 115) with Indonesia’s representative, “A Mother’s Love”. In a bone-chilling version of the haunted-house, things-that-go-bump-in-the-night horror story, an overprotective Jakarta mother takes her disruptive young son to a dim, deserted house, where she scratches a living as a cleaner. Her discovery in the creaking attic leaves them both prey to psychological menaces – and they’re not the only ones.
Because it’s increasingly difficult for the characters to distinguish what is happening from what they think is happening, the viewer’s feelings of icy shock also mount as the intricate story gathers pace, building to a frightful confrontation.
New episodes will air at the same time every Sunday and you can look forward to ghastly family secrets, a murderous phantom, psychopathic children and a shaman you really shouldn’t mess with, among other cheery treats. If you can reach the control from the other side of your furniture, that is.