The storytelling takes a slower pace than Western horror and relies on suspense, a pervasive sense of doom and dread, and psychologically disturbing events and situations.
[2] After the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia ended Khmer Rouge rule in 1979, cinemas began to open again, but only showed foreign films (specifically from Vietnam, the USSR, and Soviet Bloc countries) due to lack of both human and material resources to make movies locally.
Despite these films being mostly propaganda vehicles with some from the romance genre, moviegoers starving for entertainment flocked to the hot, overcrowded theaters, standing in line for hours for a chance to buy tickets or bribe security guards to get in.
The new themes introduced by the Cambodian-produced films, including romance stories and tales of hardship under Khmer Rouge rule, were widely popular which resulted in 215 production companies and almost 40 theaters in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Battambang.
This allowed Cambodian producers to once again fill the vacuum[2] and just happened to coincide with the worldwide popularity of J-Horror (Japanese Horror films), spurred on in part by the success of the US remake of Ring.
Modern Khmer producers have catered to the young public's taste for movies within the horror genre but domestic production companies typically have low budgets and employ weak special effects.
A psychological thriller, The Weird Villa, produced by Angkor Wat Production and written by Pan Phuong Bopha, achieved some box office success and was considered one of the outstanding films of the year.
[citation needed] It was followed by several major grossing horror films including Nieng Arp (English title: Lady Vampire), also centered on the popular ap legend, and Ghost Banana Tree, produced by Campro Production.
[4] Top grossing and award winning horror films from this era include The Crocodile, a tale about the heroism of a man who killed the beast responsible for the deaths of several people in his village.
In addition, a recent downturn in the domestic film market has left some producers believing the horror genre is serving to keep Cambodian cinema alive.
According to Heng Tola, the current popularity of horror movies is waning in favor of "a more serious" emerging trend, both fueled by and feeding into the bitterness many Cambodians still hold on to regarding their country's recent history, specifically the humiliation of colonialism and losing territory, respect and political, economic and military prestige to powerful neighbors, Thailand and Vietnam.
[10] Similar to more widely known Japanese movies, the more popular films rely on storytelling that takes a slower pace than Western horror, building suspense and focusing on the characters' suffering and anguish.
[11] Films with revenge motifs are usually based on unrequited or betrayed love and often feature the offended person, who either is killed or commits suicide, rising from the dead either as a ghostly apparition or a spirit that can possess other bodies.