{"id":626071,"date":"2026-10-10T04:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T04:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/626071\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T04:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T04:24:08","slug":"exorcism-of-god-director-alejandro-hidalgo-sets-malaysia-horror-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/626071\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Exorcism of God’ Director Alejandro Hidalgo Sets Malaysia Horror Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAlejandro Hidalgo<\/a>, director of \u201cThe Exorcism of God,\u201d is set to make \u201cThe Hungry One<\/a>,\u201d a supernatural horror film unfolding over Malaysia\u2019s Hungry Ghost Festival.<\/p>\n

\n\tKuala Lumpur-based Abnormal Studios is handling worldwide sales and is introducing the project at the Busan International Film Festival<\/a>\u2018s Asian Contents & Film Market. Singapore-based Clover Films has already picked up rights for Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe story follows Emily, an American woman who travels with Simon, her Chinese Malaysian husband, and their son Louis to spend the summer at his family\u2019s mansion. Their stay coincides with the 15-day festival, when the underworld is believed to open and the dead mingle with the living. Emily becomes the target of escalating encounters with a vengeful presence trying to cross over, and must dig into the house\u2019s hidden past before it takes her family.<\/p>\n

\n\tFilmmaker and entrepreneur Justin Leong is driving the project through Los Angeles-based Lightning Pictures.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGrowing up in Asia, I always felt the Hungry Ghost Festival was incredibly rich visually, from the fire and offerings to the rituals and mythology behind it. When you capture that and shoot it cinematically, it\u2019s movie gold. It gives us a world that audiences may not have seen before, but one that feels immediately atmospheric, mysterious and made for horror,\u201d Leong said.<\/p>\n

\n\tLeong, who has deep ties to Malaysian-Chinese culture, drew on his own family\u2019s traditions to shape the story.<\/p>\n

\n\tHidalgo\u2019s first feature, \u201cThe House at the End of Time,\u201d remains Venezuela\u2019s biggest horror hit at the box office. It earned strong notices on the festival circuit and has since gathered a cult audience for mixing the supernatural with science fiction. His 2021 follow-up, \u201cThe Exorcism of God,\u201d bowed at Fantastic Fest and went on to sell to more than 150 countries, with Saban Films handling its U.S. theatrical release. It ended 2022 as the highest-grossing Latin American film worldwide.<\/p>\n

\n\tProducer Harrison Allen, who won the live action short Oscar at this year\u2019s Academy Awards for Netflix title \u201cThe Singers,\u201d is also on board. His latest feature, \u201cAnima,\u201d screened at SXSW this year. <\/p>\n

\n\tAlso attached is Thomas Percy Kim, a Sundance and Toronto fellow whose debut feature \u201cIsle Child,\u201d based on his own short that HBO Max acquired, premiered in Toronto. Screenwriter Justin Parker worked on the development of HBO\u2019s Emmy-nominated limited series \u201cStation Eleven\u201d and was a writer on docuseries \u201cReligion of Sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Hungry One\u201d is in pre-production, with its producers working to lock the last portion of its financing.<\/p>\n

\n\tAbnormal Studios, a subsidiary of Westec Media Limited, has been acquiring and releasing films since 2020 and has handled more than 400 titles to date. It now brings around 100 films a year to Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Mongolia and Nepal. Recent releases include \u201cHow to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies\u201d and \u201cTwilight of the Warriors: Walled In.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alejandro Hidalgo, director of \u201cThe Exorcism of God,\u201d is set to make \u201cThe Hungry One,\u201d a supernatural horror…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[307495,31260,27449,156,409,111,139,69,307496],"class_list":["post-626071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-alejandro-hidalgo","tag-asian-contents-film-market","tag-busan-international-film-festival","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-the-hungry-one"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}