Thai horror is perhaps it’s own genre within a genre, known for how it incorporates Thai folklore and beliefs into their movies. Perhaps one of the best known Thai horror flick is 2004’s Shutter, which was later remade into an English movie with the same name. Parkpoom Wongpoom, the director of Shutter, has since gone on to film other Thai horror classic too such as Alone and 4bia. Now, Apple has tapped him up to shoot his latest short film, ‘Those That Follow’.
Dubbed as a ‘hallucinatory tale of karmic revenge’, Those That Follow is a return to filmmaking for Wongpoom, who had been on a four year hiatus before this. His latest short film, shot on the Apple iPhone 13 Pro, tells the sale of two teens who are on the run after a robbery goes wrong. Hiding at a local ghost mask festival, they soon realise that they aren’t alone. Like classic Thai horror flicks, Those That Follow plays on Thai culture’s ‘Phi Ta Khon’, or ghosts following people. Phi Ta Khon is a big thing in Northeast Thailand, and they often celebrate Phi Ta Khon between March and July, making this film’s release ever timely.
As for the actual filmmaking process itself, Wongpoom—who has made short horror films before in his anthological movies 4bia and Phobia 2—described it as ‘an experiment to show the world what we can do and inspire future filmmakers to make their own films’. He points out that the iPhone 13 Pro’s camera along with features such as Cinematic Mode greatly helped to deliver cinematic-like visuals and shots that previously were not possible. Low light shots in particular turned out great, thanks to the iPhone 13 Pro’s ability to capture more light than its predecessors.
“[Apple] iPhone 13 Pro can capture visuals in low light, revealing details in that darkness. When we hid scary elements or ghosts in the shadows we could still capture it all in excellent quality and allowed us to tell the story that we wanted,” – Parkpoom Wongpoom
If all of that sounds like a great time, then you can check out the full short film below. Alternatively, if you’d rather not get scared to death but still are a fan of filmmaking, you can also watch the behind the scenes video of how Wongpoom got around to shooting ‘Those That Follow’ on just an iPhone 13 Pro by clicking here.
