The pontianak, or kuntilanak, has long been a staple of Malay horror. In addition to serving as an allegory for the tension between traditional and modern cultural and spiritual practices, these monsters gave name to a real city. In this...

Scott Higgins is a professor and chair of the College of Film and the Moving Image at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut. He teaches courses about film history, genre, and aesthetics. He is the author of Harnessing the...