Status: Fake
I've come across two different videos on Youtube that show night scenes of roadblocks in Singapore. I don't have that much information about either video, but stylistically and thematically they're very similar (and very low quality). People are clowning around at a roadblock in the middle of the night, when suddenly (at the end of each video) they see a ghostly white figure. Screaming ensues. (Warning, in case you're watching these at work: The one on the right contains some cursing.)
The caption on the first video (on the left) identifies the ghost as the "pontianak".
Wikipedia defines the pontianak as:
a type of vampire in Malay folklore. The pontianak is usually a woman who died during childbirth and becomes undead, seeking revenge and terrorizing villages. She often appears as a beautiful woman, usually accompanied by the strong scent of frangipani. Men who are not wary will be killed when she morphs into a hideous vampire, she will also eat babies and harm pregnant women.
Wikipedia also
links to a paper (which downloads as a word document) by Timothy White of the Dept. of Literature at the National University of Singapore that puts these kinds of movies in context. White notes that during the 1950s and 60s Singapore had a thriving film industry that churned out many horror films featuring the pontianak. However, these films
"are all, by today’s standards, woefully unrealistic, especially in terms of the way they look." Evidently these short Singaporean ghost videos popping up on the internet must be inspired (even if unknowingly so) by that country's tradition of cheap horror flicks. The obvious fakeness of them is just part of the cinematic tradition.
Related posts:
Sep. 19, 2003:
Indian Ghost Hoax
Sep. 21, 2003:
Indian Ghost Hoax, Part II
Comments
Real vampires?
Real ghosts?
the second one is obviously fake the laughing sounds like a recording & that was some terribl acting... the only thing scary about these videos is the singing
Incidentally, the second clip (looks like a prank or a really bad short film illustrating a known ghost story) comes out of the very strong tradition of military ghost stories in Singapore, where they have a two-year compulsory national service for young men. We're talking guys who've never lived away from home, or outside of highly urbanised centres, suddenly camped in isolated woods...
By comparison, the first one (drunk guy being checked by cops?) appears quite subtle for a ghost clip from the region. Very subtle. So subtle that if you blink, you miss the alleged ghost altogether.
Oh, and if you really do see a real pontianak, you don't have long left for this world anyway, which is why pontianaks are always assumed to look bloody frightful.
Search in YouTube for "Alien en Meridas"
But the 2nd one? Seriously, that's some major LOLage there. Firstly they're doing weird random stuff ("full moon!" who cares?) and then the stupid screaming laughter. They go on with some rubbish and then bang, dude in sheet appears.
Interesting to note that nobody responds to the first one at all. I wouldn't have any trouble believing that someone just wandered into the shot.