''Nieng Arp'' ( km, អាប), with an international title of ''Lady Vampire'' and also known as ''Vampire'' and '' Bodyless'', is a 2004

Cambodian Cambodian usually refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Cambodia ** Cambodian people (or Khmer people) ** Cambodian language (or Khmer language) ** For citizens and nationals of Cambodia, see Demographics of Cambodia ** Fo ...

horror film. The film is based on

Khmer folklore Cambodian literature ( km, អក្សរសាស្ត្រខ្មែរ, ), also Khmer literature, has a very ancient origin. Like most Southeast Asian national literatures its traditional corpus has two distinct aspects or levels: *The ...

beliefs about ''Arp'' or ''Ap'', a mythical popular demon which is found in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

. The film is directed by Kam Chanthy, a Cambodian-born director who was trained in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

Plot

In the middle of a long night, a young woman and her boyfriend are confronted by a group of gangsters on their way home. The girl is violently raped and her lover is killed by gangsters. While unconsciousness she is possessed by an old witch, immediately making her part of the next generation of ''Ahp'' ghosts. After becoming an ''Ahp'', she takes vengeance on the gang that raped her. 16 years later, a group of students on a field trip to

Battambang Battambang ( km, បាត់ដំបង, UNGEGN: ) is the capital of Battambang Province and the third largest city in Cambodia. Founded in the 11th century by the Khmer Empire, Battambang is the leading rice-producing province of the coun ...

arrive at the van and pray to a battabang guardian. Then they see a group of people looking at a corpse. They find a house whose owner is the Ahp ghost. They ask permission to stay there for their field trip and she says yes.

Critical reception

The website ''The Fright'' said the film is in the throat-ripping tradition of Mystics in Bali and Demonic Beauty. The review strongly praised the camera work and lighting. They criticized the low quality of special effects, however, as not able to match expectations for special effects in modern film production.

Box office

This film is considered to be the first successful Khmer horror film in recent years, having grossed over $100,000 solely from the six movie theatres in Phnom Penh. In the DVD version, the film consists of two discs with no special features or scene selection. English subtitles were included on a DVD release for foreign audiences.

Special effects

Special effects are primarily not computer generated. In one scene, a doll's head filled with pig intestines was used to make the ''Ap''s head.

Origins

In the Khmer ghost legends ''Ap''s were a people who were able to remove their heads at night to fly across the rice fields in search of sustenance, usually blood. Stomach, heart and intestines trail from their necks. This nocturnal female ghost with a floating head is part of popular

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...

, namely the folklore of

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailan ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, Laos,

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

and

. In Laos this ghost is called ''Pi-Kasu'' while in

it is known as ''Krasue'' and in

Penanggalan The ''penanggal'' or ''penanggalan'' is a nocturnal vampiric entity from Malay ghost myths. Its name comes from the word ''tanggal'' meaning to remove or take off, because its form is that of a floating disembodied woman's head with its trailin ...

''.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://khmer.org/product/0,prod,0,0,0,2516,0.htm, Nieng Arp
Official Website
2004 films 2004 horror films Khmer-language films Cambodian horror films Vampires in film