If you are a junkie for local movies by Jack Neo, you’ll be pleased to know that his latest one, “Where Got Ghost?” isn’t another witty social satire wrapped in comedy, but serves up a generous plate of scare with laughs.

Seeing how hilarious the short clip of the new movie asking audiences to switch off their mobile phones in all Golden Village theatres was, one wonders what the entire movie will be like.

UrbanWire got a sneak peak into that at its official press conference for the movie was held on August 4, at the Hotel Inter-continental Singapore. The ballroom was lit with dim green lights and scary music hummed in the background to accentuate the horror theme of the movie.

The last Singaporean film that came close to the genre was Kelvin Tong’s Men in White, which was a huge disappointment among viewers. Much of that was due to the expectations set by The Maid, which made his mark in the industry as a bona-fide filmmaker. Executive producer, director and writer Jack Neo and co-director Borris Boo (I Not Stupid series) have taken on the same challenge and produced this horror-comedy hybrid.

Speaking entirely in Mandarin, Neo says, “The horror genre is something that I always wanted to venture into, but there are a lot of experts in this industry who make wonderful horror shows. Thus, I feel that if I tried to make a purely horror movie, the audience will be disappointed. So I came up with a special- a “hormedy”!”

This adopts the same concept as the Thai horror flick 4Bia, where instead of 4, 3 short thrilling tales are combined into one movie. The trio: Roadside Got Ghost, Forest Got Ghost, and finally, House Got Ghost.

He continues, “When I was a young boy, I used to watch shows that put together many stories from different countries into one movie. That interested me a lot and so I decided to apply this same concept but use 3 different Singaporean horror stories.”

Along with Jack Neo at the conference were the rest of the cast members from each of the 3 stories. Some familiar faces associated with Neo’s movies as well as his TV work include Mark Lee (Ah Long Pte Ltd), Henry Thia (Money No Enough), and Richard Low (I Not Stupid).

On stage, the chemistry among them was obvious and they often poked fun at each other’s expense. In an instance, Richard Low made a joke about how the old lady ghost in House Got Ghost is the cheapest character to maintain on set because she doesn’t need to put any make-up and can play her role just as she is.

One can see that this mix of local talent is the perfect combination to produce a comedy. As for the horror aspect, we will just have to wait until the movie comes out.

During the press conference, the cast also related tales of how they experienced real ghostly encounters while filming.

Marcus Chin, a character for Roadside Got Ghost revealed how they coped, saying “We wear red underwear and pray frequently to ward off spirits.”

In a particular Forest Got Ghost scene that was shot at a rural area in Buangkok, the cast also took special care not to ‘disturb the dead’.

Wang Lei, a character for Forest Got Ghost says, “We were joking before filming started and then the director suddenly asked us to stop. After filming I asked him why we couldn’t joke and found out that someone had actually been murdered at that scene we were shooting at before.”

“Where Got Ghost?” is jointly produced by Neo Studios, Malaysia’s biggest production company Primeworks Studios, veteran production company in Hong Kong Big Pictures, and lastly, Scorpio East Pictures.

As an ending note, cast member Mark Lee says, “When you watch this movie, either you will laugh till you cry, or be scared till you cry.”

Rating: To be advised

Release date: 13 August 2009

Rating: PG

Genre Horror-Comedy

Runtime: 106 minutes

Starring: Jack Neo, Mark Lee, Henry Thia, Marcus Chin, Richard Low

Director: Jack Neo, Borris Boo