A horror movie?

Horror films were never really my thing, but for a first project I was pretty nervous about getting my film right. When I thought up the concept for Toutai, my justification was that Horror flicks can be pretty dark, sometimes a black screen. Hence, if I mess up anywhere, I can hope to dark it out in editing. Also, with a low budget and small crew, the creative part of my mind told me if I could bring out a thrill with pretty much no money spent on it at all, I could prove myself worthy of directing a more costly film.

The basic story-line is a girl trying to remember things after being possessed by a spirit.  The idea for Toutai isn't original, a film buff would pick that up almost instantly. I sampled ideas from films all around the world, all for the sake of exploring directing and special effects. Films that inspired me for this script included Identity, Old Boy, A Chinese Odyssey, Kill Bill, Anniyan and Insidious. 

I can't say the film itself was a great success, but the learning curve definitely was. Sound errors, lighting issues, continuity problems, I made them all. As a director, what I found tricky was building a convincing romance plot, not a genre interested in and hence that was the films biggest flaw.

To watch the movie, check out Toutai.weebly.com