We interview the creator of The Maid, Netflix’s first Thai ghost movie production.

Guru talks to the people behind the first Thai-produced Netflix horror film ‘The Maid’

Now that we’re able to go out and about again, watching a film about a house haunted by secrets and a mysterious ghost shouldn’t be too bad, right? The Maid is the first Thai-produced Netflix horror film that was released a week ago, starring Teerapat Sajakul and Sawika “Pinky” Chaiyadech. Though the film seems like a straightforward horror story featuring a baby-faced and naive main character, a mysterious rich couple and a terrifying ghost out for blood, it quickly gives you a bunch of twists to keep you on the edge of your seat, as well as a couple of jump scares, all achieved with the help of terrifying visuals and bone-chilling sound design. Guru spoke to Lee Thongkham, the film’s director and writer, and Traithep Wongpaiboon, who was the sound post-production supervisor, about the film and what role sound plays in getting audiences scared.

Was the film a commentary on social class?

Lee: No, I’m not good at that kind of stuff. My focus was always on style and tone. I focus on the experience of the viewer as you go along and make people think. You think it’s going to be a straightforward horror movie but then it shifts, so people will have different opinions about the movie.

Was the movie always meant to be streamed or did you think about releasing it in cinemas?

Lee: In the end, it was always going to be streamed. But we were looking for a platform that had a wide audience because people will have different opinions on the movie. Netflix has an audience around the world that will have different comments and experiences so it was the best decision.

How did you go about developing the movie?

Lee: I wanted a movie that reminds you of Thai TV drama. When you watch lakorn, it doesn’t go as extreme as this. It’s basically turning a 12-episode lakorn into a one hour and forty-five-minute movie and then adding a little spice into it. I wanted to misdirect the audience with the story. With my producers’ help and the writing staff, I asked them, ‘Can I go this far in Thailand?’. I just want to go as far as I can, but now we’ve got Netflix, which is mainstream, so I can go even farther.

How important are pacing and sound design in horror movies?

Traithep: I think for horror movies, there are more opportunities to showcase the sound design, and that means each time, we had to innovate new, scarier sound elements, as well as the pacing. If you watch a lot of horror movies and you get the same sound playing in the same pacing or timing, then the sound wouldn’t create that jump scare. So in new movies, we slow down the pacing or quicken it up — the pacing is very important.

There’s a distinct change with the sound in the movie from the beginning to later on in the film. Was this intentional?

Traithep: We intended to create an experience as if the audience is entering a haunted house, both with the visual and sound, in the beginning of the movie. But as the story progressed, we didn’t let the sound effects compete with the musical score — we needed to let that lead. So the sound effects seem less prominent later on but they’re still there. If you listen carefully, the surround sound really envelops you.

Lee: It’s also the shift of the genre and the style. That’s why we did that.