How The Cursed Land, a new horror film on Thai Muslim culture, challenges typical media portrayals and lays bare Thailand’s social and political tensions
- Thai-Malay language film The Cursed Land plays with the vernacular beliefs of a Thai Muslim community, delving deep into Islamic Thai culture
- Director Panu Aree explains how the film is a means to explore Thai Muslims’ unique identity, and why they chose to shoot scenes in Narathiwat province
Thai horror films are much loved around the world thanks to their localised ghosts, mythology and folklore.
But a new film debuting later this month at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Netherlands could change perspectives.
The Cursed Land, the debut feature-length film of director Panu Aree and screenwriter and co-director Kong Rithdee, is a Thai-Malay language film that expands the horizons of Thailand’s cinema and genre films from traditional Buddhist cosmology to elements of Thai Muslim identity – and demonic entities.
The Cursed Land is the second Thai horror film to delve into Islamic Thai culture, coming hot on the heels of The Djinn’s Curse, directed by Kriangkrai Monwichit, which was released in November 2023.
Both films have the rare distinction of including footage shot in Narathiwat province bordering Malaysia, one of Thailand’s three southernmost provinces, which are Muslim-majority and Malay-speaking.
The provinces have long maintained a dangerous reputation because of the separatist unrest that has affected the area since 1948. The unrest escalated into acts of terrorism in the 2000s, including car bombs, in both the south and the Thai capital, Bangkok.
