The Fantastic Story Behind 'Darkest Night'

Seeming Supernatural Events Surround Film's Production

From it's earliest beginnings in Malaysia, the story behind Darkest Night was filled with tragedy, mishaps and strange, inexplicable events. Starting out with a mysterious, perhaps suppressed legend, the film's story grew into a movie surrounded by losses and "accidents." The filming of a disappeared family's story soon grew into a filming plagued by disappearances.

Malaysian 'Urban Legend' Ghost Story

After moving to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in May 2010, Russ Williams, the Darkest Night producer, sought to make a film there based on an older horror screenplay he had previously written, titled Out of Time. This script was about an isolated family that fell prey to black magic induced by a family member. Williams tells more of his early thoughts during this time in his Finding a Way interview on this website.

However, after hearing about a Malaysian urban legend type ghost story, he decided to combine the subject matter of the script with this legend. The legend's story concerns a Chinese family in the Malaysian Cameron Highlands, which mysteriously disappeared on February 1, 2003, during the night of a Chinese New Year celebration. For more information on these origins, see Doomed Family. This section also contains video of an interview staff conducted with a local source of this story, who claims to have witnessed strange events.

As Williams investigated this story and interviewed more persons in Malaysia, he discovered many similarities between the stories of Out of Time and the reported "disappeared" family. Though Williams does not claim that Darkest Night is "based on a true story," in personal interviews, he has said he believes the Malaysian story is a valid account. However, he makes no claims about the authenticity of local tales about ghosts that supposedly inhabit the actual ruins and area where the Malaysian family disappeared. Also, Williams refuses to give the name of the family in this urban legend, citing concerns for family members still living in parts of the country.

Production Moves to Philippines

The film-making climate of Malaysia proved unsuitable to filming there because of arbitrary government censorship, so Williams moved his location to the Philippines. The Chinese characters of the story became Filipino, and the lunar new year became Christmas. The characters and general family dynamic in the story remained the same, and the author only made changes necessary to accommodate a different culture, race and nationality.

As a result, the final version of the Darkest Night screenplay came about. See Finding a Way for more information on the film's move from Malaysia to the Philippines.

Photo Above: This photo was taken near the house in Floridablanca where Darkest Night was filmed. It shows "orbs," phenomena often associated with the paranormal. Witnesses during the shoot continually reported seeing orbs. For more photos, see the Surviving the Night page.

Supernatural Events Reported During Shooting

After looking for talent in the Philippines, Williams found the film's director, Filipino Noel Tan. He and Williams worked together closely on producing Darkest Night mostly in and around a rural mansion in Floridablanca, Pampanga in Luzon, where the entire production group lived together during that time.

There were many reports of supernatural events happening in the house while Darkest Night was shot, including local stories from the surrounding community that the house was really haunted. For example, the film's star, DJ Perry, reported deep scratches on his back from an unseen entity while working on the film. These scratches were documented by photographs. Other cast and crew members reported seeing and hearing ghostly presences while the house was darkened and quiet. For more information on these events, see the Surviving the Night section on ghosts in the house.

Strange Post-Production Disappearances

The Post-production for Darkest Night lasted about one year, from June 2011 to June 2012 and largely took place in Manila. Work on this phase of production was delayed and severely hampered by strange events during this entire time. For example, all of the film's later dialog dubbing (ADR recordings) mysteriously disappeared at one point and were never found. Also, much of the visual effects footage and music recording, as well as footage of several chroma-screen shoots, all simply vanished. These types of disappearances plagued the film's post-production almost continually.

Today, only the best of the film's original takes plus a few brief visual effects (VFX) sequences remain. All other additional footage from the film, audio and video, is lost. No one has been able to account for these strange disappearances associated with the film.

More Disappearances at Film Premieres

On November 16, 2011, there was a private premiere of Darkest Night for cast and crew plus their friends and relatives, in Manila. Again mysterious losses plagued the film, and the director was forced to show an inferior "rough cut" of the film because no finished video could be found. The release dates for the film were seriously delayed while another post-production phase was necessary to come up with a fully finished version of the film.

Finally, the film had its U.S. premiere at the Filipino Arts and Cinema (FACINE) International Film Festival in San Francisco on October 20, 2012. Interestingly, the festival's director, Dr. Mauro Tumbocon, reported that the original DVD for the film, which he had first received, would not work. Instead he had to preview the film for the festival from an "emergency copy" at the very last minute, before the film could be "officially" scheduled.

Amazingly, the film's premiere went quite well. Dr. Mauro Tumbocon, the festival's director, said Darkest Night is "an awesome experience. This film is a milestone in building bridges between Asian and American cultures."

Is There a Darkest Night Curse?

Almost every step of the production of Darkest Night labored under a dark cloud of fear and profound mishaps. Were the ghosts in Malaysia and in the house unhappy with the filming of their story? Maybe they were. If so, one hopes now that their story is told, they have all found some kind of lasting peace.