8 - Reimagining the Pontianak Myth in Malaysian Folk Horror: Flexible Tradition, Cinema, and Cultural Memory

Summary

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the myth of the pontianak, a female monster from Malaysia's animistic past. The essay focuses on depictions of the pontianak in a series of Malaysian folk horror films from 1957 onwards, the year Malaysia achieved independence from British colonisation. The chapter explores the reimagination of the creature as folk horror after centuries of marginalisation. I argue that the pontianak's surprising reconfigurations refract cultural anxieties of the collective national unconscious and illustrate how a legacy from prehistory functions as flexible tradition in the modern era. The endless adaptability of the pontianak myth ensures the creature's continuing relevance while illuminating how folk horror is a vehicle for the flexible re-articulation of the pontianak.

Keywords: pontianak, Malaysian cinema, folk horror, collective unconscious, myth

The pontianak is a female monster from Malaysia's animistic past. By focusing on the myth of the pontianak, this essay explores how its reimagination as folk horror in twentieth century cinema after centuries of marginalisation incurs surprising reconfigurations of the creature that, in turn, refract cultural anxieties afflicting the collective unconscious. I illustrate how a legacy from prehistory functions as flexible tradition, the endless adaptability of which ensures its continuing relevance in the present. The chapter expands upon folklore scholarship by scholars such as Simon Bronner (2016) and Dorothy Noyes (2012) to articulate how cinematic performances of the pontianak myth engage with a collective unconscious and participate in the repertoire of flexible tradition.

The essay is divided into four sections. The first involves the marginalisation of the pontianak myth prior to the twentieth century and examines how the myth would be rescued from further attrition precisely at the turn of the century when orientalist Walter W. Skeat's influential anthropological study Malay Magic was published in 1900. Skeat's study is also considered in order to underscore its importance to the pontianak myth, a significance that goes beyond its role as the first physical documentation of the tradition. More importantly, this section clarifies what a pontianak is to provide a model to facilitate comparative exploration of the figure's depiction in Malaysian folk horror. Investigating the revision of the pontianak myth in the last two centuries foregrounds the adaptability of traditions to evolving contexts.