Exploring B-Movie Themes in Virtual Reality: The Woman Who Fell to Earth and Met the Pontianak

Benjamin Seide Benjamin Slater ADM NTU Singapore ADM NTU Singapore [email protected] [email protected]

Abstract Cathay-Keris Studio in Singapore and other The room-scale VR experience The Woman Southeast Asian territories. Who Fell to Earth and Met the Pontianak (2021) is an artistic experiment and “B-movie” homage that confronts an alien with the unfamiliar environment of a historic early 20th-century Malayan kampong village surrounded by tropical jungle. The kampong is home of the Pontianak, a female vampiric ghost based on Malay folk mythology. The project is loosely based on the Virtual Cinematic Heritage application Pontianak VR (Seide, Slater, 2020), which re-created scenes of the lost film Fig. 1. The Woman Who Fell to Earth and Met the Pontianak, Pontianak (1957), but in contrast, this project is 2021, Benjamin Seide, still image from VR experience, © 2021, generating its own non-linear narrative journey. the authors.

The B-Movie VR Experience This was the first in what would become a massively popular series of horror films that The audience is invited to explore the virtual centred around the figure of the Pontianak, a village freely, meander around, examine the old female vampiric creature who oscillates kampong houses and the tropical vegetation. between the physical and spectral, originating in The village appears deserted, clothes hanging Malay folk mythology. The main character out to dry, a pot still steaming, it seems the Chomel, who becomes the Pontianak, is both the villagers have vanished. In this historic heroine and villain of the narrative, and her environment the audience will discover an visual transformation into the monstrous unexpected visitor in the form of a melancholic Pontianak was a key element in terrifying the female Stranger (an Alien/Cyborg), who seems audience (Mustafar, 2012). Due to its success, a irritated by the village and its artefacts. Who is sequel was produced quickly the same year, she? Accompanying the Stranger on her Dendam Pontianak (1957) and a third film excursion of the village is challenging, she Sumpah Pontianak the following year (1958). appears here and there and walks right through The first two films are believed to be lost the walls. While following the Stranger around, (Barnard, 2011), and there are very few a presence is lurking behind the trees and available images of either. corners, observing the two visitors, it is: The Pontianak. (fig. 1) The B-Movie Homage Background: The Lost Film Pontianak This project combines three major elements in the VR space: 1/ The kampong (fig. 2), which This project was formed initially from research has been researched and recreated with some into the film Pontianak (1957), released by

Proceedings of Art Machines 2: International Symposium on Machine Learning and Art 2021 School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong 10-14 June 2021 203

Part III. Artistic Project Abstracts degree of accuracy; 2/ The figure of the cultures, as elements are recombined and re- Pontianak, widely known in Southeast Asian used. In this way, for this current project, we are pop culture via the Pontianak films of the late following the spirit of this “B-movie/Genre 50s and 60s—as well as other media (comics, cinema” approach, re-cycling already created books, videogames); and 3/ The humanoid assets (in terms of the filmic set of the kampong Alien/Cyborg who emerges from Western pop and the character of the Pontianak), in order to culture such as The Man Who Fell To Earth create a genre “mash-up” of different elements, (Walter Tevis and then Paul Mayersberg/Nic blending different mythologies and cultures in Roeg) to Under The Skin (Michel Faber and then an irreverent manner to open up some new Jonathan Glazer/Walter Campbell), as well as possibilities for an immersive and narrative VR more schlocky B-movie variants of female experience. Aliens in Lifeforce (1985) and the Species series (1995 onwards). Acknowledgements This research has been made possible through the kind support of a MOE grant in Singapore and ADM, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU Singapore. We would also like to thank our Research Assistants Justin Cho and Chan Guanhua.

References Barnard, T. P. 2011. “Films of change in early Singaporean film history.” In Y. Michalik

Fig. 2. Virtual Kampong Village, 2020, Benjamin Seide, still (Ed.), Singapore Independent Film, edited by image from VR experience, © 2020, the authors. Y. Michalik, 47–48. Marburg [Germany]: Schüren. To varying degrees, these films grapple with Mustafar, A.R., Y. Zaini. 2012. Pontianak Film the idea of an Alien trying to relate to humanity Review.http://filemklasikmalaysia. blogspot. and struggling to do so, partly because of the com/2012/10/pontianak-1957.html. inherent corruptions of humanity itself. The idea Accessed 14 Dec 2019. of an Alien—with a higher technology— Seide B., B. Slater. 2020. “Virtual Cinematic clashing with humanity is also explored in other Heritage for the Lost Singaporean Film action films, like the Predator series (1987 Pontianak (1957).” In Culture and onwards) and its off-shoots. The conceit of the Computing, edited by M Rauterberg. HCII project is that the Alien is ‘facing off’ against a 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, creature from another era, culture and vol 12215. Springer, Cham.: 396 - 414 mythology, a reference to another “B-movie” sub-genre, the Alien Vs Predator films, which Biographies pitted creatures from different cinematic worlds against each other, an idea dating back at least to Benjamin Seide and Benjamin Slater currently Universal Studio’s use of their iconic horror teach and research in Media Art at ADM, School characters, i.e. Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man of Art, Design and Media at NTU Singapore. (1942). In fact the Pontianak sequels, Dendam With their experience and specific expertise in Pontianak and Sumpah Pontianak attempted a the areas of computer animation and visual similar strategy placing the Pontianak against effects (Seide) as well as film history (Slater), other “monsters” from Malay folk-tales, they explore the possibilities of immersive including the Polong in Dendam and multiple media, especially in regard to representations of ghosts and creatures in Sumpah. So, this notion culture and heritage. of contrasting creatures meeting and in conflict is a vital tendency of genre cinema in many

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