Ghost of Mae Nak director Mark Duffield

I originally went to Thailand in 2001 as a director of photography to work on a British feature film out there called Butterfly Man. I became fascinated with Thai ghosts and legends. I always loved ghost stories and horror stories and I have been writing them for some time as well. I discovered there’s a ghost called Mae Nak, which means Mother Nak. There’s an actual shrine to her in the Bangkok area. I thought, “Wow, a shrine to a ghost. I must go and see this.” I went there and sure enough there was a shrine and people go there and pay respects and ask for blessing and guidance from her and give offerings. I discovered there was this legendary tragic love and ghost story about Mae Nak. There have been several films made about her, not brilliant films from what I’d seen, but there was one definitive Mae Nak film, which is set 100 years ago. That film concluded with a piece of bone that had been cut out of Mae Nak’s skull when she died and in that bone is her spirit because it is held captive by an exorcist monk. That film gave the conclusion that the piece of bone was lost in time. So from that, I thought, “Wow. Wouldn’t it be great if a modern version had that piece of bone being equivalent to finding a piece of bone that belongs to Dracula or Jack the Ripper?”

Since it is a Thai legend I wanted to be truthful to that so for me there was no question. It seemed to be a natural path to follow. Plus I wanted to show that whole Thai side of the ghost story, which I thought would be new to the Western audience.

What is different is that it’s based on legend, which people do believe in and it’s been part of the Thai psyche for many years. In terms of storytelling, I wanted to show the structure of the family, the situation with the monks and their ritual of exorcism and how that all fitted into the Thai story, which for me would be more distinctive using the Thai culture.

As a cinematographer I’ve worked on eight independent feature films and I’ve been writing scripts for ten years so all this came together with The Ghost of Mae Nak. In the Thai media industry there are people that do speak English. But the language of filmmaking is universal though at first it was a bit tricky. Obviously I had to have an interpreter but I would always double check that the translation was correct. So once you develop a way of communicating, I think people get into a rhythm of it and it becomes easier.

Sure. I often asked the Thai cast and crew for any cultural reference or any ritual or behavior that was specific to Thai. I could understand emotion because when people speak in a sad way, they do it the same in the West as they do in Asia. There’s no real difference. I guess the biggest test was when we had the premiere in Bangkok and hundreds of Thai people came and they all enjoyed the film. I thought they’d either laugh me out of the country or they’ll be on my side and luckily they really went for the film.

Yes. I was keen to show character and relationships between the family because I felt if you didn’t believe in the characters, you wouldn’t really believe in the ghost story. If you don’t connect with the characters in some way, then it doesn’t quite work.

The older actors were easy because they were very experienced and most of them are quite famous in Thailand. For the young actors, I did many auditions to find the right ones and the actress who played Nak [Pataratida Pacharawirapong] had done modeling, singing and a lot of acting on television dramas. Since she was up and coming I actually had to audition her on the set of one of her soaps because she had quite a busy schedule. But luckily she signed up. Siwat [Chotchaicharin], the actor who plays Mak also came from television and was also a find because he’s up and coming. While we were filming, they both won best actor awards for drama in television. When we were filming on the streets in Bangkok, we’d be surrounded by hundreds of people wanting autographs and things. It’s only then I realized I had two famous actors which I was very pleased with.

Yes for the most part. The hole in her head is my invention. I thought that was quite a frightening image as well. Plus I had her as a pale skin ghost and I know sometimes it gets confused with “Is it Japanese type ghost?” My theory was that this was a ghost who had lost her soul and therefore in a sense she was a lost life and very pale in look.

This theme of the freak deaths was in the Mae Nak legend. In fact it was the original Omen that was a spark for me and then Final Destination was also another big influence. Therefore, I thought, “Wow. It’d be great to incorporate that into the story and have freak death scenes.” But I felt the death scenes were true to Thailand in a way such as the death on the Skytrain, which they do have there. Also the death with the sheet of glass was inspired by The Omen.

I’d love to. I’ve been writing Western scripts. I was brought up in London so I guess my culture is Western and I’d be very keen to make a film in the UK or the US. I do have several projects lined up so we’ll see which one comes first hopefully.

I can’t give details because I think they’re very powerful subject matters. But they all have to do with horror films and the theme of the occult. I have a really cool vampire story that no one’s ever seen before. I have a cool demon story. I feel they’re all original and very exciting.

I was brought up on watching a lot of the Hammer horror films, like their version of Dracula and Frankenstein and all the other horror characters with Pete Cushing and Christopher Lee. Obviously there are a lot of the American horror films from the ‘70s: The Omen, The Exorcist, things like that. I’ve always been into horror films and fantasy films and been keen to make films. I started making Super 8 films and 16 mm and video shorts, things like that. I did still photography because I was interested in lighting.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

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