MovieChat Forums > Alpointeu (2004) Discussion > The haunted mansion location...

The haunted mansion location...

posted 18 years ago by robbiepaton
15 replies | jump to latest

I recognised the haunted 'mansion' in this film.

It's at a place called Bokor Hill, near Kampot in southern Cambodia, which was built as a hilltop retreat by the French, where the air was fresher and less humid.

The location they use is in fact an old casino, and is one of several buildings that were abandoned in the fifties. There is also a church (very creepy), a hotel, and a few luxury villas, with much of the old furniture and fixtures just left to rot there.

The mist is real, due to it being on the egde of a cliff that produces a cloud effect, and it is the single most creepy place I've ever been, even without seeing this movie (we were the only people there when we visited)!

In the casino is a sign that says it is forbidden to sleep overnight which made me laugh - you'd have to be feckin mad to sleep overnight in that place.

"If you disagree with me, convince me. Don't just throw a rock at my head."

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] robbiepaton 18 years ago

Tell me about it!

We took a moped up there! Only just got to the top because we used up all the fuel on the feckin way up (nobody told us it was so far up the mountain and that the road was a wreck). Luckily the old geezer who sold stuff in the basement of the casino had a bottle of petrol.

Did you go to the church?

"If you disagree with me, convince me. Don't just throw a rock at my head."

[–] hitheeyoon 18 years ago

that place is actually quite creepy. i've heard red moss grows on the walls due to all the blood from the dead bodies. Also in some places here are bloody footsteps. brrr creepy

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] robbiepaton 18 years ago

Yeah it was a great place. You're right it didn't seem like Cambodia at all - more like an English moor like you say. I guess that's why the French liked it up there rather than the heat below.

I thought it was very like Silent Hill the videogame - which freaked me out even more.

Did you stay in Kampot or Sihinoukville?

"If you disagree with me, convince me. Don't just throw a rock at my head."

[–] robbiepaton 18 years ago

There is certainly a lot of red moss, but it's due to the moistre from the cold air that gets trapped by the cliff. I think talk of blood on the walls causing the redness and footprints is more folklore than fact!

There was some rumours about people being chucked off the clif during the post WWII troubles with the French, and I think during the Khemer Rouges time though.

"If you disagree with me, convince me. Don't just throw a rock at my head."

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] robbiepaton 17 years ago

No!!

Darn I wished I had seen that. Mind you this was a few years back. I went mainly to the bar on the beach front that showed movies projected onto a big sheet.

My memory of Sihanoukville was the kids on the beach that wanted to play footy all day and make braclets from string. And those women selling the mini lobsters with salt and lime juice on them - yum!

"If you disagree with me, convince me. Don't just throw a rock at my head."

[–] wujou_mao1000 17 years ago

i was in town during the monsoon and we both badly wanted to have a butchers at it, even tho we were told not to as the road is dangerous in the wet season.

i havent seen r-point yet, but i have seen the american/cambodian film 'city of ghosts' which also has the same location and french hotel.

some day, i'd like to go back there before the restoration is complete and spoil a real ghost town

[–] robbiepaton 17 years ago

They're restoring it??

"If you disagree with me, convince me. Don't just throw a rock at my head."

[–] jjcobra26 16 years ago

Well with Pol Pot not killing his country for everything anymore, I don't see why they wouldn't restore the place.

[–] robbiepaton 16 years ago

Yeah but its in the middle of nowhere, and seriously derelict. It would take serious cash to 'restore' it. And there isn't much of that going around.

It's cool as it is.

"If you disagree with me, convince me. Don't just throw a rock at my head."

[–] alillymouse 16 years ago

My picture gallery of Bokor Hill and The Black Palace taken in 2007, just before the Soka resorts bought the entire top of the hill for restoration/ a new complex:

http://urbandesertion.squarespace.com/cambodia-gallery/bokor-hill/

http://urbandesertion.squarespace.com/cambodia-gallery/the-black-palace/

The site is owned by the government but is now under 99 year lease to the Sokimex Group who are undertaking to relay the road and redevelop the site, repairing the old hotel and casino along with new buildings (hotels, hospital, restaurants, golf clubs etc). The project was announced on Jan 19th 2008, road construction is underway and expected to take 30 months at a cost of $21 million USD, during which time access for tourists maybe intermittent. The subsequent re-development is budgeted at $1 billion USD, new complex looks to keep maybe the casino as it is the rest will be developed ... apparently the time scale is 10 years!

[–] robbiepaton 16 years ago

Thanks for these. Brings back the memories.

I guess this development is progress and will bring in much income to that part of the world, but I cant help feeling sad that yet another out of the way traveller spot is going to be consumed by the tourist culture. I mean - a golf course just makes me shudder.

Apparantly Sihinoukville just aloing the coast is going the same way.

Shame

"If you disagree with me, convince me. Don't just throw a rock at my head."

[–] dj_mellowgold 17 years ago

If you liked the location for this film, an American film was shot in the same casino two years prior to RPoint : City of Ghost, starring Matt Dillon and James Caan.