ANN/THE STAR – The leading trio in the new horror film Rahsia confessed their aversion to the horror genre. Despite attending the film’s gala premiere in Kuala Lumpur, Nabila Huda, Fikry Ibrahim, and Marsha Milan admitted to shutting their eyes during certain scenes of of the movie.
“I was having a bit of chest pain as the film is just too intense for me,” Marsha told StarLifestyle after the screening.
“So, for me to be a part of this movie and to shoot the film was quite a challenge.”
For the record, both Nabila and Marsha have acted in horror films before, namely, the box-office hit Munafik (2016) for Nabila and 7ujuh (2018) for Marsha.
“Making a horror film is okay because you know the technicality behind the scenes. But watching it is a different matter,” said Nabila.
But all three agreed that the chance to act in this reboot was just too good to pass up.
The 1987 original directed by Othman Hafsham was the first horror movie to win the Best Film award at the 7th Malaysia Film Festival (FFM7), besides bagging seven other awards that night.
The reboot is directed by Othman’s son, Shamyl Othman (Kami Histeria), and written by Alfie Palermo (One Cent Thief).
It also features well-known actors Eman Manan, Rashidi Ishak, Mislina Mustaffa and Susan Lankaster.
“When they offered me the role and told me who else was involved in the film, I was like ‘Wow!’,” said Fikry who is making his film debut with Rahsia.
“After reading the script, I felt I had the confidence to be part of this movie because the story does not only have horror elements but it also has a strong family element, which I thought was very interesting.”
The film was mostly shot at the VIP Bungalow, in Carey Island, Pahang, in the early part of 2020.
“We stayed at the house you see in the film,” said Nabila.
According to Fikry, there wasn’t much disturbance at the house except one time when a figure of a small boy ran in the house when there was no such scene to be filmed at that time.
Nabila added: “I didn’t even know this happened. The crew only told me this much later.”
If there was a disturbance of any sort, it was when Nabila’s husband came to visit her in Kuantan and found her acting strangely, said the actress.
“He said I was being terse and distant. And that he didn’t like (my character) very much,” shared Nabila.
“But I think that has to do more with me trying to figure out how to tackle a scene more than anything else. For me, every scene is like a puzzle that I must solve before shooting it. When he came, we were two weeks into shooting (out of 27 days).
The award-winning actress also said that every scene was challenging for her, “I had so many emotional scenes in the film. And some physical ones too!”
One scene required her to push a bookshelf away from the wall. And as seen in the film, the shelf really did almost fall on her, and this wasn’t planned.
“Since the director didn’t call cut, I just continued. It was only after the scene ended that everyone came over and asked if I was all right,” Nabila said. – Mumtaj Begum
