🎙️ Opening
👻 When you hear the words soft power… you probably think of K-pop, Hollywood, or maybe anime.
🤔 But what if I told you... that one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing cultural exports... is horror?
Not just horror movies. Horror games. Games where players from around the world... run away from ghosts they’ve probably never even heard of before.
The Kuntilanak. The Pret. Urban legends passed down through generations.
💡These stories are becoming one of the region’s newest forms of soft power.
🌏 Because instead of exporting stories borrowed from the West... Southeast Asia is exporting something that’s completely its own—its folklore.
Let's take a closer look.
🎙️ Hello and welcome to The Southeast Asia Desk Weekly Dispatch Podcast. I’m Akasha Viandri. This is where we slow down the headlines and make sense of the stories shaping Southeast Asia.
🎮 Playing Through Folklore
🎮 Think about this. Watching a horror movie is one thing.
😱 But playing one? That’s completely different. You’re not just watching someone run away from a ghost.
🏃 You’re the one running. You’re making every decision. Opening every suspicious door. And hoping nothing is waiting behind it.
That’s why games have become such a powerful way to introduce local folklore. Players don’t just learn about Southeast Asian myths... They experience them.
Let's start with Indonesia
🇮🇩 Indonesia: DreadOut.
One of the biggest success stories is DreadOut.
Released in 2014 by Bandung-based developer Digital Happiness, the game follows a high school student named Linda.
After a school trip goes terribly wrong, she finds herself trapped inside an abandoned town haunted by ghosts inspired by Indonesian folklore like Kuntilanak, Pocong, Genderuwo, and Tuyul.
📱 Linda doesn’t fight them with a gun. Her primary weapon is a smartphone camera. She photographs the spirits, revealing their true forms and using light to weaken them.
🌍 The game has now surpassed 2.5 million downloads worldwide… and even inspired a live-action film adaptation.
🇹🇭 Thailand: Home Sweet Home.
And Thailand has done it too through Home Sweet Home.
At first glance, it looks like a typical survival horror game. You’re searching for your missing wife while trying to escape terrifying spirits.
👻 But the deeper you play, the more you realize this isn’t just about monsters.
It’s about Thai spirituality.
The game draws heavily from Buddhist beliefs, ideas of karma and ghosts from Thai folklore, including the towering Pret, or hungry ghost.
🙏 In Thai culture, spirits aren’t always evil. Sometimes... they’re trapped by unresolved suffering. Or the consequences of actions in life.
🇻🇳 Vietnam: The Scourge
Now Vietnam is also stepping into the spotlight.
🎮 Released in 2024, The Scourge takes a different approach to horror. Instead of focusing on a single ghost... it draws from Vietnamese spiritual beliefs about the relationship between the living and the dead.
🙏 In Vietnam... remembering your ancestors isn’t simply a tradition. It’s part of everyday life.
Families honour previous generations, believing their presence remains closely connected to the present.
⚠️ The fear doesn’t come from a monster hiding in the shadows... it comes from the past refusing to stay in the past.
🌏 And that’s what makes the game stand out internationally. The emotions may be universal... grief... loss... and guilt. But the way they’re told... is unmistakably Vietnamese.
🇵🇭 The Philippines: Hapunan
Moving on to the Philippines, where horror can begin with something incredibly ordinary.
🎮 The indie game Hapunan starts with a simple job. Selling balut at night. No haunted mansion. No cursed castle. Just familiar neighbourhoods, quiet streets, and everyday life.
😨 But slowly... the ordinary becomes unsettling. And that’s the point.
The game doesn’t rely on giant monsters. Instead... it captures the uneasiness that many Filipinos instantly recognize while introducing international players to everyday Filipino culture.
🌍 Within months of release, the game surpassed 200,000 downloads on Itch.io.
🇲🇾 Malaysia’s Yan: Parasomnia.
Last, but not least, Malaysia with Yan: Parasomnia.
🎮 Players explore a mysterious world inspired by Malaysian Chinese family traditions, urban legends. Players investigate eerie environments, uncover hidden stories, and survive supernatural encounters rooted in local beliefs.
🌏 More Than Just Entertainment
👻 Ghost stories have always done more than scare people. They carry memories and the values of the communities that tell them. That’s what makes Southeast Asian horror so distinctive.
Instead of borrowing familiar monsters, these stories are deeply rooted in local folklore.
🎮 And video games have given those stories an entirely new audience.
Every encounter introduces players to customs… beliefs... and legends that have been passed down for generations.
Without even realizing it, they begin asking questions.
👻 What is a Kuntilanak?
🙏 Why do Thai spirits seem so different?
🕯️ Why are ancestors so important in Vietnamese culture?
That curiosity is powerful. Because once people start searching for the stories behind the scares, they’re no longer just playing a game. They’re discovering a culture.
🌏 That’s what makes these games such an unexpected form of soft power. They don’t teach through textbooks. They don’t persuade through speeches.
Instead... they invite people to experience Southeast Asia through its own stories—one legend... one tradition... and one ghost at a time.
🎙️ Closing
👻 Horror has always been about confronting the unknown.
🌏 But today... it’s also helping the world discover Southeast Asia.
💡 As The Southeast Asia Desk puts it...
fear has become one of the region’s most unexpected cultural exports.
And judging by the growing success of Southeast Asian horror games...
the world is more than willing...
to keep the lights off...
and press “Start.”
🎙️ I’m Akasha Viandri, and this has been The Southeast Asia Desk Weekly Dispatch Podcast, where we slow down the noise and follow the region’s compass. 🧭🌏
📬 If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to our newsletter at thesoutheastasiadesk.com, and join us again next weekend for stories to linger over—one weekend at a time. ✨
