The latest local horror flick to hit the silver screen this month is Afterimages, produced and directed by Tony Kern, the creative force behind Haunted Changi and A Month of Hungry Ghosts.

Not foreign to the supernatural theme, Kern often researches on Asian horror stories and how his films will cater to the local audience.

“The materials come from newspaper articles, the trends and the cycles that happen here in Singapore,” said Kern at a press conference held at The Cathay Cineleisure yesterday.

Citing an example, Kern continue, “In America, they have guns but not in Singapore, so people use knifes, they chop the body into parts and suicide - those are stories that are for the Singapore audience. I wouldn’t do this for the American audience, but want to share it with everybody.”



One of the five short stories featured in Afterimages, ‘Xiao Bao Bao’ was based on Kern’s personal experience where he witnessed the death of a lady who committed suicide.

Xiao Bao Bao tells a story about a young woman's haunting experience after taking a postmortem photograph of a suicide jumper. Kern admits he is still ‘haunted’ by the experience.

“When I go to the supermarket, I will imagine bodies falling and every time I walk to the condo building, I will always look up. It never goes away!

I was sitting down on my computer to write the 2nd story (of Afterimages) when I heard a loud bang. I went to the balcony and there was a body of a woman… who jumped from the 29th floor. It really affected me as I watched the whole thing unfolded. I became obsessed with finding out more of her and what happened,” he recalled.



Filming in the actual apartment of the deceased wasn’t part of their initial plan, but Kern decided to ‘keep everything the same’, adding “the same position of the body in the parking lot, what happened and how it happened… Just about everything I could to keep it the same, we did.”

Local actress-model Melissa Faith Yeo plays the young woman who took a postmortem photograph of another woman who fell to her death from the 29th floor in ‘Xiao Bao Bao’ did not know of the actual story behind it when she filmed the movie.

“Nothing scary happened (on set), fortunately, or maybe I was just to oblivious to my surroundings,” she joked.

[Synopsis]
After a group of international art school students burn the paper effigy of a still photo camera as an offering to the spirits, they receive a series of five mysterious photographs in the ashes.Wondering what would happen if they burn the effigy of a motion picture camera, they make another burnt offering. The next morning, an old reel of 16mm film appears in the ashes. They procure a 16mm projector and play the first film.



Afterimages also stars Mike Kasem, Jeremy Meyer, Caren Utino, Michael Kwah, Olivia Stiefel, Kevin LeGrange, Daniel Jenkins, Vincent Tee and Adeline Pang, opening InCinemas 11 September 2014!