The Pontianak is perhaps the scariest ghoul in Singapore & Malaysia. Many black and white Malay films have been made in its honor and none of them comes close to being scary. Not that you expect them to be scary. Filmmakers back in the 60s had no special effects to scare a 90s filmgoer like myself. Which was why I truly looked forward to Djinn's Return to Pontianak. Yet, I was horribly disappointed.
The plot is very weak. An American-Asian woman has been having dreams of her birth mother. With the help of some others, she ventures into some Malaysian-Borneo jungles, where they get lost and encounter a mysterious girl. The filming is done in a very Blair Witch manner, but it doesn't work for this particular story. When you speak of the Pontianak, whose very name is taboo among the superstitious, you expect to be scared silly, but this film will probably irk its viewers. For one, it's too draggy. After a while, you'll start screaming for a view of the Pontianak. The bad acting doesn't help and when she finally appears, the Pontianak looks more like a pretty beggar. And WHAT is she doing wandering about in broad daylight?? Everyone knows Malay ghosts come out only after dusk. Also there are only two "scare scenes" and they don't impress!
What's silliest, though, is Djinn's definition of a Pontianak. In reality, this demon is actually the spirit of a woman who died at childbirth. Period. According to Djinn, however, she's an undead who died at childbirth and is now controlled by a witch doctor. Huh??? The Pontianak is a lone ranger! She listens to no witch doctor, man! She lives in banyan trees (some say banana) and not at the base of some ugly hut!
Djinn needs to do more research and he should have focused more on the Pontianak instead of the irritating cast. Only Hiep Thi Le manages to please acting-wise. She's restrained and doesn't overact like the guy playing Raymond or that annoying girl playing Uzi. At the end of the day, when we watch a Pontianak film, we just want to see the Pontianak kill people. We want to see fangs and hear shrieky laughter. We want to shake in our little seats! And one last advice to Djinn, the next time you make a horror movie, please film it at night. Pontianaks just aren't fun in broad daylight!