Delicious European Treats (courtesy of Selena)

Our good friend and ex-night teammate Selena Tan recently came back from her Europe vacation and bought back these scrumptious sweet treats for us last week!!! Isn't she the greatest?!?!?

This is my personal fav from the whole box! Isn't it quaint? With that chocolate "portrait" encased in a biscuit frame? I almost couldn't bear to eat it!

This was interesting. I never thought I'd taste almond-tea-like flavor in a biscuit. Peculiar yet tasty.

Ferrero Rocher fans would LOVE this. It's similar in taste, only more bite-sized.

Thanks again, Selena, for these fabulous, yummy snacks!!! It sure brightened up our day with a much needed sugar fix!

YES!!! "Leafy" Good Luck has FINALLY begun!!!

I couldn't believe my eyes...and had to do a double take... YES, ladies and gentlemen, I've now officially become a believer of the Julie Roberts Four Leaf Clovers' magical good luck! Why? Because I finally struck TOTO tonight!!! Ok lah, it's just $30 for matching 4 numbers, but HEY, I've NEVER struck TOTO before lor! So this is SUPER exciting for me!!!

After weeks of not matching anything more than 2 numbers, I was resigning myself to the thought that the clovers probably aren't gonna bring me any luck with regards to lottery, but instead for other areas of my life like I mentioned in my previous post. But I still bought like a quickpick now and then just to try out my personal luck. After all, it's just like $1 only, no harm right? So anyway, earlier this evening, as I went out to dinner with my family, my handphone beeped with the latest TOTO results. So I checked my wallet and saw, sigh...the quickpick I bought last week only matched three numbers. I called my ex-team leader Michelle Guei and asked her if that would win me anything? She said no, minimum must have four numbers. Sigh...I thought, ok, yet again, no luck...

Then, later on, during dinner, I suddenly remembered that I had bought another quickpick this very afternoon too! So, I checked my wallet again and found that I overlooked the lotto slip as it was sandwiched between a few 2-dollar bills! And much to my delight, I saw that I struck 4 digits out of the winning combination!!! YAY!!! Ok, I know that many of you would be like...cheap thrill...or big deal, but hey, I never won any lotto before EVER! So this is SUPER exciting for me!!! Hee!!!


So there you have it, I guess the four/six-leaf clovers did bring me good luck! But I realized, just as the shop CEO said, you gotta share your luck and love with others to gain good luck. I mean, right after I decided to buy my parents their clovers to share my luck with them did I finally struck the lotto! (And who knows? Maybe that free gold tiger helped too!)

Ooh, and for those of you 8 Days readers out there, yes, that's me on Pg 37!!! Right smack in the middle! Cool huh? I strike lotto and get featured in a magazine ALL IN THE SAME DAY! How's that for good luck?

Pa's 59th Birthday Dinner At Little Red House Seafood Restaurant

As I previously mentioned in my previous post, it was my Pa's birthday two days ago on 3rd November. Yup, he just turned 59! I still find it hard to believe he and my Mum are gonna be joining the sixtysomethings next year...they just don't look their age at all! Anyway, as I already talked about during my earlier post, my birthday gift for Pa was a four leaf clover gourd keychain. Check it out, I left it on his study desk...

As usual, being his casual self, Pa just opened his gift, told me it was nice, then put it back into the box and tucked it into a special corner on his shelf for precious keepsakes. I had to tell him that the keychain is meant to be carried around with him to serve its purpose of bringing him good luck and health, and personally help him add the gourd accessory to his current keychain myself, so he'd use it. ***roll eyes*** Ha ha ha... Anyway, that night, my Mum, youngest brother Donald and I brought him to one of our family's favorite restaurants, "Little Red House Seafood Restaurant" (小红楼海鲜酒家) at East Coast Seafood Centre for his celebratory dinner. (My younger brother Rodney couldn't join us due to work commitments, but he had already brought us out to a pre-event dinner last week at Swenson's)

I really love this place!!! Our family and relatives have been loyal customers and been patronizing it since its "historical" days when it was right smack in the middle of the rural outskirts of Singapore! In fact, I'd say that the restaurant managers here would have even witnessed the growing up years of myself, my brothers and my cousins, seeing that we'd come here nearly every celebratory event (birthdays, promotions, etc) yearly!

Now, I don't know about your family, but for our family, it just seems that once we've identified what tastes good at a restaurant, everytime we return to it again, we'd just order back almost exactly the same dishes again! Yup, that's EXACTLY the same case here! I think, with the exception of the breaded fried sotong balls (they keep saying they're gonna bring this back as a seasonal item, but it's been years but there's still no sign of its return) and satay, which they've taken off their menu since the mid 90s, the rest of the items we've ordered are pretty much the same dishes we've been having since I first came to the restaurant when I was a toddler!!! And they still taste just as good all these years! Check em out!!!

Steamed Prawns (清蒸白灼虾)

I really LOVE LOVE LOVE this dipping sauce!!! It has just the right mix of dark soy sauce, garlic, and red chilli to give the steamed prawns that extra OOMPH!

Fried Dough Sticks (炸油条)

This was our "replacement" dish for the fried sotong balls we used to ALWAYS order. Sigh...it just doesn't come close, but will just have to do until the restaurant "revives" our much beloved "dearly departed" dish.

Crispy Duck Szechuan Style (香酥全鸭)

This is a MUST-HAVE when you come here!!! The duck is deep fried until it's nice and crispy, YET amazingly it is never soggy or dripping with oil. Instead, what you get is crisp duck skin with firm and tender meat, and when you dip it into the sweet sauce... oh so HEAVENLY!

Red House Mee Goreng (马来炒面)

Nice springy noodles, with a tinge of spiciness, fresh, yummy prawns and a good mix of beansprouts and veggies. Almost thirty years later, and this dish still tastes just as good. Fantastic!

And of course, the finale dish...

Red House Chilli Crabs (辣椒螃蟹)

No visit of ours here would be complete without a taste of this dish! Yeah, yeah, I know that taste is subjective and I'm sure all of us have our own favorite chilli crab dish out there but for our family, this is the definitive dish! Spicy yet not overwhelmingly tongue-scorching hot, with well cooked eggy bits and a hint of sweetness, not to mention firm, juicy crabmeat and lots of roe, this dish is TO DIE FOR! YUM!!! Ok, ok, I'm not that big a crab dish lover, but I swear by the sauce man! Now served up with fried or steamed 馒头, it's just super addictive! Although I do admit that it used to be SO MUCH yummier when it was served back in the day with well-toasted french loaves diced into bite sized cubes, but now the restaurant has stopped serving that, sigh...

So that's it. Another fruitful trip to "The Little Red House". Till our next celebratory dinner, BURP!

Glass Half Full of Clovers and Good Luck?

Looking back upon the 32 years of my life so far, I've gotta admit I've sorta been always kinda lucky. I grew up with a memorable and enjoyable childhood that was untainted by ugliness thanks to my parents' and relatives' decision to overprotect and shield me from stuff they thought were undesirable to kids, e.g. violence, sex, grief, etc. I've had the fortune of meeting and making fast and pretty close friends with common interests (TV and movies) that lasted me all through primary, secondary and tertiary education. I've never really had to be concerned about finances - my family always made sure I was adequately provided for to spend on food and entertainment. I've even been lucky enough to win quite a few contests and lucky draws without effort - I remember once I called into this radio station to talk to Victor Khoo and his puppet Charlie and got through on the first try and won a Fanta cooler bag!!! And I'm not sure why, but things always have this mysterious way of working out for me eventually in the end. e.g. when I lost a job previously, another one "magically" opens up for me almost immediately, when I'm "broke" and wished I had some extra money to spend, somehow a little money always finds its way to be (whether be it my parents or relatives decides to just pass me a little extra on their own accord, or the bank or CPF would suddenly have some reason to send me some money e.g. overpayment of some account previously or the shares, etc. My parents says it could be my meaty, big ears...which symbolizes fortune, but I think it's God and Lady Luck looking out for me.

Lately however, this year, all that good luck seemed to kinda alluded me for a while. Upon graduating with a degree in Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications from Oklahoma City University earlier this year, I've been aggressively sending out resumes to seek for a transfer to the Marketing Communications department in the company I'm currently working for (StarHub) as well as applying for jobs related to journalism, marketing, communications and PR in other organizations. Unfortunately, there were precious few replies from most of these applications, and those that did respond with a job interview did not work out in the end either.

In addition, our family financial situation has also taken a nosedive of late. Due to the economic downturn, there was no pay raise for me this year. Then, a few months ago, my Dad ran into some major disagreements with the head honchos of his company - They were upset tha he was raking in all these MAJOR business deals for the company, and that ALL the business contacts were all going to him directly to liaise in negotiation, and not only do none of the credit go to them, since my Dad did all the work, but when they go on business trips overseas together with my Dad, these business contacts were only interested in talking to my Dad and practically treated them as invisible. So they nitpicked on him on all the minor matters 鸡蛋挑骨头 and eventually forced him to give up his permanent position at the company. It was only after when they realized that with my Dad no longer working for them, the MAJOR businesses also went away with him, did they ask my Dad to work with them again, BUT only on a project-based basis instead WITHOUT monthly fixed salary. So that effectively plunged my family into the dire circumstance of being without a fixed income and surviving however best we can, since bills still had to be paid no matter how bad the situation is. I did my best to chip in but really couldn't contribute much to the household based on my current low-paying job (plus I too had to pay for ALL the cable bills at home, plus a mountain of other monthly bills too). My middle brother who just joined the workforce after graduating mid this year from NUS Business School was just as helpless to the situation being in a commission-based job. Things weren't all that rosy with my relatives either. I mean, previously when I'd visit my Grandma and aunts, we'd always go for dinner at their favourite restaurants, but these days, it's always simple homecooked dishes instead. Guess that new condo, and my cousin's NUS studies course fees must be taking quite a toll on them.

Desperation was beginning to inch up on me. And even though I was a free thinker, I began turning to faith in hope of turning the situation around. I prayed even more fervently than ever to God (well, I DID spend some 10 odd years of studying in a Methodist school you know - Anglo-Chinese School), I followed my Buddhist parents to pay my respects to my two dearly departed Grandpas during Qing Ming Festival, as well as visited the temple and prayed to Kwan Yin and sought their blessings for my family; and I even took a chance at trying my hand (not too much) at the local lottery (4D, TOTO, Singapore Sweep), hoping that my beginner's luck would prove to be lucky. But alas, things still showed no sign of improvement.

So, one day, when I chanced upon one of my old friend Willie Hoo's picture in an advertisement for "Julie Roberts Four Leaf Clovers", I emailed him and asked him what the whole deal was about? He told me after he got his clover, things began to improve for him at his workfront (his relationship with his boss improved). When I asked him if I should try it out? He said why not since there's no harm in trying, and suggested I go and check up the official website (http://www.julieroberts.com.sg/) to find out more.

From the website, I found out that the "four leaf clover is a widely accepted symbol of good luck with its origin dating back to ancient times. Saint Patrick used the three-leaf clover, called the Shamrock, to preach on the "Holy Trinity" to the Irish. The popularity of the Irish four-leaf clover (Trifolium Repens) spreads and today it is universally accepted as a symbol of good luck; not only in the west but also across the world. On average, there are 10,000 three leaf clovers for every instance of a true four leaf clover. The leaves of four leaf clovers are said to stand for Faith, Hope, Love, and Luck. It has been known that whenever one finds the four-leaf clover, "something good always happens". The mystique of the four leaf clover continues today, since finding a real Trifolium Repens Four Leaf Clover is still a rare occurrence and represents good luck." And to date, the shop has brought good luck to the well-being, health and careers of thousands of their customers, aided lots of couples in successfully conceiving, and even helped four thousand over customers in striking the lottery!

I was sold. So two month ago, along with my best pal at work, Sherly, we headed down to the shop and bought ourselves our lucky clovers. For me, I chose a six leaf clover on a horseshoe keychain, and two other four leaf clovers (one on a seahorse keychain and another on a poodle keychain - they were CUTE!)

Hoping to be as lucky as some of the other customers who had given glowing testimonials on the website, I was disappointed when in the following weeks, not only had nothing spectacular happened to me health or career wise, and I had not struck ANY lottery at all, but instead I seemed to have a little bad luck when my supervisor and executive uncovered my error in a waiver at work and issued me a writtern warning letter! Not only that, I was getting into a lot of arguments with my parents over our financial circumstances too.

Refusing to give up hope, I returned the the shop again a month later, and sought the advice of the Filipino shop assistant lady on which was their best selling item in the shop which is most popular amongst the testimonial givers, and how to maximise the luck from the clover accessories. She suggested that I could perhaps try their six leaf clover sticker which I could paste in my wallet and also, as strange as it might sound, I could try talking to my clovers, telling them my hopes and dreams, and making wishes to them. So I decided to give it another go and promptly bought the six leaf clover sticker and the shop assistant helpfully pasted it in my wallet for me.

But still, in the few weeks that followed, nothing amazing or positive seemed to happen for me. I was beginning to give up on the notion of good luck coming forth from the clovers. But somehow, something within me kept telling me not to give up hope and to perservere on with good faith. So as a final resort, I emailed to the store CEO Mr Robert Tan to seek his advice on my situation. He called me back the next day. After relating to me the story of how he came up with the notion of selling four (or more) leaf clovers as a business and sharing with me many many stories of how individuals of various religions benefited from the clovers, he urged me to open my heart and, as the poem in the clover gift box suggests, "share (my) love with everyone, have faith in God and in (myself), have hopes that dreams do come true and with determination, (my) lucky clovers can work for (me)". And also, not to put too much hope into winning the lottery, ha ha ha!!!

That night, I reflected upon myself and my predicament, and realized that, just like my best gal pals Caron and Sherly have always commented about me, I've been looking at the glass half empty, when I should have been looking at it half full. The clovers I bought DID bring me good luck!

1) My mistake at work could have very well cost me my job, but instead I managed to get off with a written warning letter, narrowly escaping retrenchment.

2) Even though my performance allowance was forfeited as a result, I was seconded to the Night Team for two weeks, which effectively helped me earn back that allowance, as well as the allowance I missed out on for another week due to training! So I broke even in the end. No loss.

3) I was lucky enough to be arranged on the same training week as my pal Antonio, hence being able to catch up with him during that week, as it's always soooo super busy with him during his normal work week that it's next to impossible for him to find time to meet up and chat with me about each others' lives.

4) Despite my family's financial situation, they still managed to treat me out on my birthday to my favorite dish of stir-fried eel at one of my favorite restaurants. And my younger bro Rodney bought me one of my fav cakes from "Awfully Chocolate"!

5) Even though I couldn't afford to buy fancy birthday presents for my pals this year, my best pals still remembered my birthday and called or smsed me that day to offer me their good wishes.

6)My newfound close friend at work, Serene, actually rallied my colleagues together to chip in and bought me two Golden Village Gold Class movie vouchers and $30 worth of HMV vouchers!!!

7) One of my best gal pals Caron treated me to a stage musical, "Duck and Dive", for my birthday treat, when I've been a little depressed about not being able to go to the musicals for months now, having had to cut down on my spending budget.

8) After six years of singlehood, and a number of failed blind dates earlier this year, I by chance called up one of my old friends Lip Sin and he actually told me that there was a local club for bears, chubs and chasers which encouraged "healthier" social activities to bring together PLU who are plus sized who were (like me) not into pubbing, clubbing, KTVs and saunas. In fact, the club has been there for 3 yrs now! And I didn't know why I only thought of calling that friend of mine up only now,but I'm sure glad I did! Cos now, I'm a member!

So you see, now that I took a second look back on the past two months, I now rediscovered that I've been quite blessed in good luck in MANY ways! And check out how ALL the accessories I bought shine with such an amazing, awesome, magical glow in the photographs! I never noticed it before about them! Cool huh?

So, now that I figured that the clovers DO work, I decided to do as Robert (the shop CEO)suggested and share my love with everyone! And the first people I decided to do this with are my beloved parents! With my Dad's 59th birthday being yesterday, after my brunch at Orchard Yong Tau Fu, I then walked over to the "Julie Roberts Four Leaf Clover" shop to buy him a birthday present. After browsing through the selection, I finally settled upon the Gourd keychain with two four leaf clover, because it was said to bring not just good luck and wealth but also safeguard the owner's health too. So since my Dad's luck and health hasn't been at their peak lately, I figured this would be the best gift choice for him!

I also decided that while I'm there at the shop, I'd get a keychain for my Mum too and settled upon this beautiful heart-shaped one which I was sure she'd love!

After completing my purchase, I didn't have enough budget left to get the Tiger Fengshui ornament atop his cabinet, which I had badly wanted to get for my parents (since the first time I set foot in his shop) because both of them were born in the Year of The Tiger. And surprise of all surprises, Robert told me that since I was so filial in getting good luck ornaments for my parents, and since I've been such a faithful and frequent customer to his shop, he'd give it to me for FREE!!! You can imagine my JOY!!! I shook his hand and told him I really couldn't believe my luck!!! He smiled and told me that maybe my luck is beginning to show. Hee hee hee...

And now the GORGEOUS golden tiger stands proudly perched upon my living room TV table. Needless to say, my parents were thrilled with it and their good luck keychains. In fact, they still cannot believe I got the tiger for free! Yup, that's good luck for ya!

Orchard Yong Tau Fu

Having stayed up till 1am last night working on my PC organization (deleting unwanted files and burning the rest onto DVD-Rs) and getting 60% of it done, my original plan when I woke up this morning was to try and get at least another 20% completed by today. But after sprucing myself up, grabbing a morning bite, and sitting down for less than half an hour in front of the PC, suddenly my monitor screen flickered and went black!!! I stared dumbfounded at it for a few seconds and then promptly let out a shriek of horror, shock and dismay! I then leaped out of my bedroom couch and rushed out to frantically checked the electrical mains and found that none of the switchbox tabs had been flicked up, but still NONE of the electrical switches and appliances in the entire house was working. As I opened the front door to check with my next door neighbour auntie if she had the same problem, I saw this guy in worker overalls walking down the stairs and opening all out external switchboxes and flipping up the switches. After clarifying with him, I found out that they are doing some maintenance and servicing works on our block's electrical mains and so there would be a planned outage from 9am to 5pm on half our block's units! When asked why there was no notice to inform us tenants of this, he said that there was a notice pasted on our lift but perhaps someone may have taken it off out of mischief.

***faint***

Anyhow, this meant that I needed to make some changes to my original plans for the day. I mean, I couldn't stay home right? I can't watch TV, play my DVDs, or work on my PC WITHOUT electricity. So after some thought, I figured...hmmm...I've been having a craving for the Orchard Yong Tau Fu for quite some time now, so why not go down and satisfy my craving? So off I went!

Soonafter, I arrived at the place at 10.30am, which was thankfully a good deal of time before the lunch horde came in - so there were plenty of empty seats to go around for me. Hee hee hee... No kidding ok, because once the masses "attack" at lunchtime, you can pretty much forget about getting a seat here!

I LOVE the wide variety of both cooked and fried items to choose from here. Everything is so fresh, well-prepared and neatly layed out for your easy selection. None of that soggy and lumpy stuff you get from some of those other Yong Tau Fu stalls out there. Plus, eating here doesn't make you thirsty unlike some of those other stalls out there that seem to pile on the MSG into their food items like there's no tomorow. If you're a greens person, there is A LOT of veggies to choose from! From tomatoes, lady fingers, carrots, bittergourds, to kang kong, chye sim, etc...feel free to go wild with your pickings! And their sauces!!! Heavenly!!! You know how some of those Yong Tau Fu stalls' sweet sauce are so overcooked, they actually end up becoming a little bitter? No such case happening here - both their sweet sauce and chilli sauce are made just right! In fact, the sesame seeds are actually mixed into the sweet sauce adding a fragrant aroma to it! Also, you gotta check out the soy beans in the soup! Cooked to perfection, with an unbelieveable "sweet" taste to it, that's why many patrons here love their Yong Tau Fu soup-based too!

Of course, if you know me well, you'd know that being the "unhealthy" kinda guy, I went for dry version with mostly the fried items and a handful of steamed items like tofu, beancurd puff, etc. Heh heh heh...Ooh! And oh yes, how could I forget! To top off the meal, do try a glass of their homemade barley drink! I had mine chilled. Nice and cooling, with actual tender cooked barley beans at the bottom...YUM!!! Just nice for our sweltering weather recently.

So that's it. Craving satisfied. So have I gotten you hungry for some excellent quality Yong Tau Fu? Yes? Well then, hop on down to:

Orchard Yong Tau Fu
5 Koek Road
#01-09
Cuppage Plaza

Oh, and more good news!!! For those of you who are worried about the queue situation, the towkay there told me that they're opening a branch soon at the new 313:

313 (Somerset)
313 Orchard Road
5th Floor Stall 11

Can't wait!!!

Darah (Indonesia)

Film Title: Darah
Director: The Mo Brothers (Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto)
Running Time: 95 minutes

It has always been my personal opinion that the golden era of horror movies really belonged during the 70s and effectively ended in the late 80s when it began giving way to the gore and blood fest that monopolized the horror genre as we entered the new millenium.

Whilst younger audiences may not appreciate the low-budget (and occasionally cheesy-looking) horror effects, the lack of rationale/motive of the killer/supernatural being, hidden messages and/or symbolism reflecting on societal cultures, and/or the long meandering build-up of suspense before all hell breaks loose, it is often these elements of the horror films of yore that earned many of these horror flicks their place as timeless classics in the "Horror Hall of Fame" and high praise from critics worldwide. Don't believe me? Just have a go at any of the recent remakes of any of the horror film classics (Some of my personal fav classics would include "Pirahna", "Wait Until Dark", "Puppet Master", "Friday The 13th", "Suspiria", "The Howling", "Children of The Corn", "Cannibal Holocaust", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "A Nightmare On Elm Street", "Carrie", "Poltergeist", "Misery", "The Evil Dead", "The Omen", "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane", "American Werewolf In London", "Night Of The Living Dead", "The Wicker Man", "The Shining", "Dracula", "The Birds", "Dawn of The Dead", "Halloween", "The Elephant Man", "Rosemary's Baby", "Jaws", "The Exorcist", "The Silence of The Lambs", "Psycho", just to name a few) and then compare it against the original. Chances are 9 out of 10 viewers would pick the original over the glossier remake, despite its bloodier, gorier and more explanatory premise.

Suffice to say, you can probably guess by now that I am not a huge fan of the more recent horror films. Even the few exceptional good ones that I came across in recent years (e.g. "The Others", "The Sixth Sense", "Se7en", "Final Destination", "Fallen", "Saw", "Vacancy", "The Midnight Meat Train", and a number of Asian favorites like "Dark Water", "The Grudge", "The Eye", "Dumpling", "Naina", "Shutter", "Alone", "4bia", "The Chaser", etc) were still a far cry from the abovementioned horror classics. So you can imagine my glee and excitement when I finally came across a film that I felt could FINALLY match up to the standard and quality of those good ole' fashioned horror movies! Yes, and that film is "Darah" - Indonesia's stab at the gore horror film genre.

As with most horror classics, the story premise is simple. Having been estranged from his sister Ladya (Julie Estelle) for years as a result of inadvertently causing their parents' death years ago, Adjie (Ario Bayu), his pregnant newlywed wife Astrid (Sigi Wimala), and three of their best mates - scaredy cat Jimi (Daniel Mananta), playboy Eko (Dendy Subagil) and Alam (Mike Muliadro) who harbors a crush on Ladya, gathered at the bar where Ladya works, for one last night of celebration, so that Adjie could attempt to resolve his differences with his sister before he and Astrid leave the country and emigrate to Sydney the following day.

Minutes later, after a failed reconciliation between the two siblings, and a bar brawl between Alam and some bar patrons who had tried to harass Ladya, the party of six crowded into Jimi's car, as a torrential downpour ensued, ready to take off to the airport to send the newlyweds off. Just as they were about to leave, suddenly a pale, disoriented and dishevelled young lady wandered out right in front of their car. Identifying herself as Maya (Imelda Therinne), she told them that she was robbed and asked if they could help give her a lift back home. Egged on by Eko who was smitten by Maya, the gang agreed to do so.

When they finally arrived at Maya's home, an old, isolated mansion deep within the woods, she insisted that they all come in so that her mother would be able to thank them personally for bringing her home safely. Initially reluctant, being concerned they may miss the flight, they eventually relented, deciding to wait a while for the rain to subside a little before traveling on.

BIG MISTAKE.

Once inside the house, Maya proceeded to call upon her mother Darah (Shareefa Daanish). Without so much as even a hair out of place, the astonishingly young-looking and elegantly dressed mother (who looks more like Maya's elder sister, since she appeared to look only a few years older than her daughter) greeted the six guests with a frosty demeanor (complete with fierce, dead-set eyes and a thin, cruel lips) that sends shivers right up ones spine, and monotonously expressed her gratitude to the group and insisted that they stay for a home-cooked dinner that she'd be personally preparing for them to thank them for the help they rendered to her daughter. Only Ladya seemed to sense something was amiss, looking worried especially when Darah began showing more than a polite interest in her sister-in law Astrid's pregnancy, and when she came across Darah's son Adam (Arifin Putra) sinisterly dragging a big, black rubbish bag out of the house and into the woods in the heavy rain.

And she would be right to be suspicious. Because it wasn't before long before all six friends found themselves drugged, trapped, terrified and fighting to stay alive, as they are hunted down, slaughtered and butchered one by one maliciously and sadistically by Darah and her three seemingly unstoppable protege murderer children Maya, Adam and Armand (Ruly Lubis)!

Athough some may argue that the twenty minutes or so build-up to the start of the action to be quite tedious to labor through, I on the other hand personally agreed with the directors' choice in going by the old-school method of spending more time in building the suspense and atmosphere of tension before unleashing terror unto the audiences! I also LOVED how the Mo Brothers managed to extract the winning elements of successful horror films by the likes of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Vacancy" and "Three: Dumpling", weave them together seamlessly (without appearing to be ripping any of them off), into a non-stop adrenaline churning rollercoaster ride of horror, adding an touch of Southeast Asian mythology, and finishing it off with a delicious twist at the end. And truly, no words can describe what a fabulous job Shareefa Daanish did with her spine-tingling portrayal of the titular character of Darah (observe how she slowly progresses from a cool, calculated murderess at the start of the film to where she FINALLY loses her cool and come after the female protagonist Ladya, stark raving mad and wielding a chainsaw!). It's no wonder she singlehandedly thrashed her competition and brought home the trophy for Best Actress at The 2009 Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival!

My verdict?

5 out of 5 stars (It's definitely one to add to the "Horror Hall of Fame"! In fact, I can't wait to get my hands on the uncensored director's cut edition DVD once it comes out!!!)