20 Jan – Pierre Andre really knows his way around the horror genre. After the success of his previous local horror film, "Highland Tower", the director once again helms another horror film titled "Cerita Hantu Malaysia". Though Pierre admitted that the budget of the film was tight, he still hopes that it will manage to perform well at the local box office. During the recent gala premiere of "Cerita Hantu Malaysia" at Cathay Cineplex, Cinema Online managed to interview the filmmaker regarding his latest endeavour. Why did you suddenly decide to make your film an omnibus? This time, I wanted to do something a bit different from my previous films. It is something new to me and it makes me excited. Thank God everything worked out well with the shooting and we managed to complete the film. Where did you get the idea and inspiration for this film? It has always been a dream of mine to direct a film with this concept, but I want the stories to be strong and solid. So I got the inspiration and ideas from the people around me who share their own personal spooky experiences with me. Is it difficult for you to direct this film, since the film uses a different concept? This new film helped me sharpen my creativity as a director, because a film with a small budget is a challenge for every director. So because of the budget restrictions, it opened up our mind and allowed us to be more creative and realistic, which surpassed all the impossibilities.
What is the real challenge in directing this film and what is the exact budget of this film? Like I said before, I had no problem whatsoever, everything turned out well and I am confident that I have already tried my best. But, there was some difficulties during the casting. The budget that I used was only RM200,000 which did not include the film promotions and I was kind of embarrassed at first when I offered the role to the actors because the budget was really tight. But no matter what, I am grateful that that all of them accepted my offer and I am glad because they are the perfect cast that I wanted. How about the commitment of the cast throughout this film? I am very impressed with the performance of all the talents involved. As a director, even I was tricked by Leez's acting performance. I was wondering if he was really possessed or was it just an act? What is your hopes and target towards this film? Do you think it can surpass "Highland Tower"? Although both films have different concepts, I am putting my hopes in "Cerita Hantu Malaysia" that it will become a blockbuster hit in Malaysia. It is a form of encouragement to the other film producers who are willing to invest even though our film industry has not been doing so well these past few years.