Two films from the Far East, a heart-stopping supernatural thriller from Thailand, and a triptych from three of Asia's top directors, will screen in the Midnight Madness section of the ninth Bermuda International Film Festival, March 17-25.
Ghost of Mae Nak, a horror film from Thailand directed by UK filmmaker Mark Duffield -- and The Three Extremes will screen in the festival's two Friday night Midnight Madness slots.
Ghost of Mae Nak tells the Thai folk tale of Mae Nak Phrakanong. The legend continues when newlyweds Mak and Nak purchase a house that is too good to be true and find themselves at the heart of an ancient ghost story. Soon, their enemies are being murdered by a ghostly woman with a black hole in her forehead. The ghost then turns its affections toward Mak, and wants to take him for herself.
"This Thai indie film is part of the wave of Asian horror that has re-shaped the genre over the last decade and is based on a well-known myth of Thai folklore," says BIFF programmer Christian Zabriskie. "It is a story of eternal love, young hope, vicious murder, and exorcism by trepanning."
Director Mark Duffield is heavily involved in Thai independent cinema. He is an award-winning cinematographer who has been shooting indie films for more than a decade. He first encountered the legend of Mae Nak while shooting Butterfly Man, a film that earned him a Best Cinematography Award at the 2003 Slamdunk Film Festival.
Three Extremes is the high-profile sequel to 2002's pan-Asian film Three, and brings together directors Takashi Miike (Japan), Fruit Chan (China) and Chan-wook Park (South Korea), each of whom helmed a 40-minute portion of the film.
Fruit Chan's Dumplings focuses on the act of eating, and makes for a darkly seductive look at a woman's efforts to hang on to her beauty, her appetites going from merely pathetic to the stuff of horror.
Cut, the middle chapter, is written and directed by Chan-wook Park, the Korean filmmaker behind the cult hits Old Boy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. The story concerns a well-known film director and his pianist wife, as they endure agonising physical and psychological abuse at the hands of a disgruntled extra.
The third piece is Takashi Miike's Box, which mixes familiar Japanese horror techniques (long takes, eerie noises, silence) with surreal imagery that recalls the work of David Lynch.
Tickets for the festival go on sale Wednesday March 8, online only, at www.biff.bm. The festival box office will open on Saturday March 11 at 10 a.m. at the BIFF Front Room festival headquarters at #6 Passenger Terminal, Front Street, Hamilton.