Chermin features a stellar ensemble of Malaysia’s most talented veteran and up and coming performers: Deanna Yusoff, Natasha Hudson, Khatijah Tan, Farid Kamil with special appearances by Dato Mustafa Maarof, M Rajoli and Fauziah Nawi. The first feature of new independent production company Starry Eye Productions Sdn Bhd and its founders executive producer Ummi Khaltoum Abdullah and writer/director Zarina Abdullah, the film is financed by Malaysia’s Ministry of Culture, Arts & Heritage feature film fund.
For Zarina Abdullah, Chermin is not your typical Asian horror flick with its fragmented storylines but a ‘beautiful haunting horror,’ where a mirror is a central character. ‘It is a story where you feel as much for the ‘ghost’ as you do for its victims.’ Also it is a film that portrays as much about local Malay village life with scenes that feature a wedding, ‘doa selamat,’ ceremony and an exorcism. Since Zarina is a fan of film noir and classic horror films like the original The Haunting, Psycho, Jacques Torneur films, Dracula, The Exorcist, The Shining, she wanted to make something in a similar style but set in a ‘Malay village’ with a twinge of ‘Asian Horror.’
The script for Chermin began in 2003
after Zarina finished film school and after several drafts it was translated
into Malay in 2004. Now with a shoot-able script in hand, Zarina and her
sister and producer Ummi embarked on making the film. Co-producer Zuraidi
was put on board in June 2005, and preproduction began with casting, shooting
script, location scouting.
Casting took 2 weeks, but in terms of the main role of Mastura, Zarina
always had in her mind that Deanna Yusoff, famous for her role of Lady
Thiang the Siamese King’s first wife in the sensational 20th Century
Fox USA produced feature film Anna and the King, should play the part.
“Even from the script stage, I always pictured Deanna to play this
role because I believe she could successfully play an ‘evil spirit’
but yet have the audience empathize with her, which I don’t think
many people can carry off.” The role of Nasrin was also a very difficult
character to carry off well and newcomer Natasha Hudson was casted for
this role. “Natasha has almost a chameleon-like ability to change
between different personas which I felt was integral to the role of Nasrin,
who is possessed by the mirror spirit.”
The mirror is in itself a central
character in the film, and work began in July of 2005. After researching
several designs, finally the mirror was designed and carved by a local
traditional woodcarver.
The house where majority of the story is set was discovered almost by chance. “I was looking through my mum’s old magazines that dated 10years back and found a picture of this beautiful wooden kampung house in Janda Baik. We went to Janda Baik on a location scout, showed the picture to the local guide and was led to Villa Khasro. The amazing thing was that there were actually 2 almost identical houses on the huge compound, one lived in and the other vacant. Perfect for filming in.” The rest of the locations were found in and around the Janda Baik area.
Principal photography began at the end of August 2005, with a one day shoot in Hospital Kuala Lumpur(HKL) and the rest of the 37day shoot located within the area of Janda Baik. The filmmakers on Chermin collaborated in creating a ‘gothic’ look to the film in terms of photography, wardrobe and art direction. Colour is something that director Zarina emphasized was of an utmost importance since the symbolic use of it is reflective of the psychological state of the characters in the film. ‘Red is symbolic of revenge which is why I wanted the ‘ghost’ to wear a red kebaya rather than the traditional white.’
In terms of photography, references
were made to expressionist paintings and films like Bram Stoker’s
Dracula, The Others, and old gothic horror movies. The filmmakers, director
Zarina and director of photography Roszali Samad collaborated in creating
a look that was visually rich in colour, with more warms tones rather
than the typical cold look of Asian horror films.
Also, the film comprised of a number of computer generated images and
blue/green screen was used for a number of the shots.
Art director, Andy Sulaiman, transformed
the empty locations in Janda Baik into sets. The Villa Khasro, where majority
of the scenes were located had to be dressed for both the modern day scenes
as well as the scenes from 1930. ‘Andy had the difficult task of
changing the whole set mid-way through the shoot into a typical 1930’s
Malay house, because I wanted the story to ‘stay’ in the house.’
Other sets he had to ‘transform’ was the witch doctor’s
house and Yusuf’s bedroom, which was located in an empty under construction
building that had to look like a modern, urban bachelor pad.
Wardrobe also plays an integral part in telling the story of Chermin. Nan, our costume designer, and his team created elaborate costumes for the period scenes, Mastura had 5 costume changes and we had discussed early on that she would wear rich colours, and the long kebaya style whereas compared to Zahrah who is dressed in lighter tones of yellow and pinks and shorter kebaya style. Red is featured a lot in the film since it is so visually rich on film, and traditionally associated with danger. Mastura kills and haunts in a chilli red kebaya and all victims of the curse die in red outfits.
Nasrin goes through a lot of emotional changes and this is reflected in her costume – she starts off in quite ‘lighter, muted’ tones and after being possessed starts wearing richer colours. Also she herself starts wearing a kebaya, as she starts taking on the persona of Mastura.
Nasrin goes through several
stages of makeup, as her scars start to heal miraculously when Mastura
possesses her. Our makeup department, headed by Nan and his team Ateh
(special effects makeup) and Ati (makeup) created the makeup for the different
stages of ‘scar development’ as well as the infamous ‘beast’
hand that kills all the victims in the film. ‘In terms of Mastura
I didn’t want to portray a typical Asian white-faced ghost with
long straight black hair. Why can’t a ghost be beautiful?’
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |