after moving to kuala lumpur, malaysia, in may 2010, williams sought to produce a film there based on an older horror film screenplay he had previously written, titled "out of time". this script was about an isolated family that fell prey to black magic induced by a family member. after coming across a malaysian urban legend type ghost story, he decided to combine the subject matter of the script with this story. the local legend tells the story of a chinese family that mysteriously disappeared in the malaysian cameron highlands on february 1, 2003, during the night of a chinese new year celebration.