SPH Media turned Stomp readers' ghost stories into a horror-comedy microdrama (interview)

SPH Media had never produced a microdrama, and its content lab had never made a VFX-heavy series; Singtel signed on as partner.

A horror-comedy microdrama built from Stomp readers' own ghost stories — SEA folklore creatures (Pontianak, orang minyak) in familiar Singapore places, made for phones.

Three Singapore ghost tales — a female ghost attached to a house, a music-loving ghost in an old matrimonial home, and a karaoke-loving ex-boss haunting an office — were shot on overnight sets, mixing live action with VFX creatures designed from Southeast Asian folklore. Eight parts release in three drops from 10 October 2026 across Stomp, HardwareZone and Singtel channels.

SPH Media's first microdrama and SPH Content Lab's first VFX-heavy series. At the media launch the first eight-part drop drew bursts of laughter and pin-drop silence; no viewership figures yet, as the series releases from 10 October 2026.

In interviews with Stomp around the launch, the team behind CONNECTED — a first-of-its-kind horror-comedy microdrama by SPH Content Lab in partnership with Singtel — described how the project began with spooky stories submitted to Stomp, which they wanted to turn into something distinctly Singaporean rather than a pile of jump scares. The series follows three stories set in Singapore, focused on friendship, relationships and human connection.

Star Lim Yan Xin said her screams on set were real — co-star Fauzi Azzhar confirmed they made his own reactions more convincing — and senior animator Harriet Buckland designed the spirits from Southeast Asian folklore: the first ghost draws on the Pontianak, another creature on the orang minyak, or "oily man". Co-directors Daryl Burney of Editlounge and SPH Media's Jason Riley combined live-action filming with visual effects in familiar Singapore settings.

At the media launch, SPH managing director Kuek Yu Chuang framed the series as a way to keep exploring new formats and celebrate local talent; Singtel CEO Ng Tian Chong said AI can speed up content creation, but "at the end of the day, it's still humans who develop the story". Head of content Phin Wong called it a fun communal watch made for personal screens: "funny, creepy, very Singaporean, and a bit of an oddball".

Reader-submitted ghost stories gave the series built-in local authenticity instead of imported jump scares.

Southeast Asian folklore creatures made the horror recognisably Singaporean rather than generic.

Releasing across Stomp, HardwareZone and Singtel channels pools the audiences of all three brands.

The actors' genuine fear became promotion: an interview about real screams markets the show's realism.

A legacy publisher's dormant reader submissions are a content mine: stories readers already sent you turn a branded-content series into something the audience wrote first.

CONNECTED releases in three drops from 10 October 2026 on Stomp's YouTube and Instagram, HardwareZone's TikTok and Singtel's own channels. The launch audience reportedly laughed and went silent in turns; audience numbers are not yet available.