Movie Analysis Penanggal Is A Malaysian Horror Film...

Penanggal is a Malaysian horror film about a girl, Murni, who is transferred the power of the penanggal by her grandmother moments before the grandmother is killed by the village for eating newborn babies. Murni becomes a penanggal against her will regularly and kills women and newborn babies. She also uses magic to make a man fall in love with her and spits acidic blood on his beautiful fiancà ©e when she comes to save him. In the end, the villagers kill Murni by setting her house on fire with her inside, as they did to her grandmother in the beginning. Cultural context: The film I selected was made in Malaysia and released there in 2013. According to the CIA’s World Factbook, 23.2% of Malaysia’s land is agricultural and another 62% is forest5. Only an estimated 5% of Malaysia’s cropland is actually irrigated6, meaning that the other 95% is tended by hand. 16% of Malaysians today are still employed in agriculture16. Malaysia’s culture focuses heavily on agriculture, much like the traditional Slavic culture. There are several kinds of vampire myths that can be found in Southeast Asia1 with a few being Malaysian – the penanggal, Maneden, Bajang, a polong/pelesit, and the langsuir2. In appearance, a penanggal is a floating woman s head with entrails dangling beneath. Unlike the Slavic vampires who can be men or women, penanggalan are exclusively young or old beautiful women3. The intestines dangling below her head drip a liquid that causes sores when it makes contact with