Press Release
Some Rules Should Never Be Broken

Tartan Asia Extreme’s The Maid  in Stores Nationwide September 12th

“A dark and twisted ending…a slick and scary experience.”
-Fangoria

LOS ANGELES — May 22, 2006 — For Immediate Release — Further expanding the influence of Asian horror outside of Japan and Korea, writer /director Kelvin Tong brings Singapore's first homegrown horror movie stateside. Earning a record-breaking US$700,000 at the Singapore box office, their highest opening ever for a local film, Tartan Asia Extreme’s The Maid will clean up on video shelves nationwide September 12th.

During the Seventh month on the Chinese calendar, the gates of hell open and the dead rise to walk the Earth. There are rules people must follow for 30 days in order to survive. Never swim, never turn back at night when you hear someone calling your name, and never talk to strangers on a deserted road. Break any of the rules, and you face the haunting consequences.

Rosa (Alessandra de Rossi), a young woman from the Philippines, arrives in Singapore to work as a domestic maid. Naïve and innocent, she has never believed in the supernatural and ultimately breaks the rules of the seventh month, one by one. Now she will pay a terrible price for her ignorance.

The Maid is writer/director Kelvin Tong’s first horror film and stars award-winning Italian-Filipino actress Alessandra de Rossi, who has won two FAMAS Best Supporting Actress awards at the Metro Manila Filmfest.  She also earned a Best Actress Award at the Gawad Urian Awards for her role in the film Mga Munting Tinig (Small Voices), which was the Philippines’ official entry at the 75th Annual Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

The Maid presented in anamorphic widescreen, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and DTS Surround Sound 5.1.  Special DVD features TBD, but will include the original theatrical trailer and trailers of Tartan Asia Extreme’s upcoming releases.

All releases on the Asia Extreme label are supported by broad-based and multi-faceted consumer advertising campaigns; a comprehensive online viral marketing campaign; and a public relations push to English-, Spanish- and Asian-language media. 

Tartan Video’s Asia Extreme is a premiere collection of stylish international cinema from the proven Asian horror genre which shocks, scares and astonishes in equal measure.  In the U.K., Tartan has sold over $50 million of Asian product making it Britain’s leading independent film genre.

Hamish McAlpine, the founder and owner of Tartan Films, who are celebrating twenty one years of distributing films in the UK, launched Tartan USA in 2004 with an eclectic and controversial slate of films from established auteurs and up-and-coming filmmakers.  Previous Tartan film releases include 2004 Cannes Grand Jury Prize Winner OLDBOY, the sincerely creepy A TALE OF TWO SISTERS, Michael Winterbottom’s 9 SONGS and Takashi Shimizu’s MAREBITO. The latest releases include the critically-acclaimed Romanian Oscar entry THE DEATH OF MR LAZARESCU and the final film in Park Chanwook’s “ Vengeance Trilogy”. LADY VENGEANCE. For more information, visit www.TartanVideoUSA.com