Pocong

What is a Pocong?

In the Muslim faith, a person is buried in a shroud, the shroud is tied in several strategic locations, to keep the body properly wrapped during burial, after the body is lowered into the ground, the string holding the burial shroud is either untied or removed altogether.

Some people believe that if the string is not untied or removed that the spirit of the deceased is unable to pass on and will hop out of its grave to haunt people until someone removes the “knot/string”.

What Does a Pocong Look Like

The pocong will look like a corpse wrapped up in a burial shroud, its appearance will depend heavily on how old it is, the older it is the more decomposed it will be, there will of course  be a pungent smell of decomposing flesh and a feeling of dread in the air, almost as if the Poncong exudes a fear inducing aura, recent lore says that it will hop around because its legs will still have been bound in its shroud, but this in no way restricts its movement, it is said to be able to leap 50 meters at a time at amazing speeds, managing to keep up with speeding cars.

Older lore states that the Pocong floats a few inches above the ground, skimming along like a stone skipping on water.

How to Kill a Pocong

Since a pocong is technically already dead, there is no way to kill it, but it is possible to release the tortured spirit. This can be done by untying the strings that bind the burial shroud to the body. It is said that if a person can catch a pocong in a hug and untie the strings, that person will become rich beyond their wildest dreams of avarice.

How to Escape a Pocong That is Chasing You

There are only three options to choose from when encountering a pocong, free the spirit, drop to the ground and play dead **Not something I would recommend** or run in a zigzag pattern, it is said that the pocong will get confused and leave their victim to search for easier targets.

Pocong in Modern Media

The pocong legend is firmly established in Indonesia and has given rise to a whole slew of horror films dedicated to this terrifying creature. Rudy Soedjarwo directed a movie titled pocong that was so disturbing that for a time the French and German DVD versions were either censored or banned altogether, he later created a sequel “Pocong 2”, this led to a whole string of horror movies based around the pocong.

Around 2011 the pocong horror genre transformed into the horror/comedy genre that is prevalent until present day..