Cuddle Up With a Corpse Pillow This Halloween

Image: Mon Hia / Facebook

BANGKOK — How would you like to spend a night next to an undead soul trapped in its shrouded corpse?

Two Bangkok entrepreneurs think you might. After making a splash with their disturbing water monitor body pillows, the same couple is now selling creepy bedgear based on ghosts from Thailand other countries.

They include the bodiless Krasue, a Chinese zombie called Jiangshi and Japanese slit-mouth dame Kuchisake-onna. But what is attracting the most attention online appears to be Pocong. According to Malay folklore, Pocong are dead bodies with souls trapped inside them.

It has something to do with the ties on their death shrouds, but the legend is mostly lost in translation to Thailand, where many media reports simply refer to them as “corpse pillows.”

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“It’s actually not a corpse,” shop owner Nattawud Supsumruam said matter-of-factly on the phone. “It’s a Malay ghost, but many people don’t read what I said.”

Nattawud said there was little response when he and his girlfriend first announced their shop, Mon Hia, would sell ghost pillows. But since they went on sale Friday, the corpse-looking pillows have gone viral. The post was shared more than 36,000 times as of Tuesday, garnering more than 15,000 accounts reacted to it.

The prospect of inviting death into the bed thrilled some and appalled others.

“How do I order it? I really want it! I listen to ‘The Shock’ every night before bed. It would fit in so well!” wrote Thiyaporn Khamthong, referring to a famous ghost story radio show.

“I wouldn’t take it even if you gave me for free. I’m scared,” wrote Moo-uan Moonoi.

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Nattawud said 20 people bought the Pocong pillows the first day. He’s even heard from some interested buyers from Malaysia and Indonesia, where the folklore originates from.

Asked why his shop only sells bizarre pillows, Nattawud said it’s the shock value.

“We want to do something unique that no one else has ever done,” he said. “Our concept is to surprise people.”

Image: Mon Hia / Facebook
Not everyone loves the water monitor pillow. Image: Mon Hia / Facebook