Very Frightening Tales – review

Director: Dale Fabrigar

Release date: 2023

Contains spoilers

Very Frightening Tales is an anthology made up of what seems to be a series (of 5 episodes, according to the series IMDb page) supplemented with a couple of shorts from the same filmmakers – the segment, the Delivery seems to have an IMDb page as a short under the title Lullaby. None of the segments are overtly vampiric but we do get close enough in two segments for me to review the film.

the package

The first I want to look at is the aforementioned the Delivery. Now this is the flimsier of the two, as regards it being vampiric, and it might have been a “Use of Tropes” article had it not been for the second segment. After an intertitle tying the segment to a Philippine heritage, it begins with a mother (Noreen Lanie) putting her baby down. She hears knocking and ringing at the door and opens it to find a package left on the step.

perhaps an aswang

The package has Philippine stamps on it and inside it has packaging in leaf, with something wrapped in leaf also and tied with twine. Unwrapping that she finds a fetish. She rings her mom (Roczane Enriquez, Vampariah), the connection is bad but she describes the statue and mom says not to touch it (too late) as it contains an evil spirit and warns about the baby. We have seen movement and the baby monitor shows movement. She rushes and gets the baby but then we see the lights go out, her eyes glassed over and a flash of a face with sharp teeth and long tongue. This reminded me of aswang, hence looking at the segment, and the ending suggested possession as she weaves before a shrine created with the fetish.

Madison Ekstrand as Melody

The second segment to look at is Dinner Rush. The boss (Eric Roberts) is sat as a restaurant table and Melody (Madison Ekstrand) pours him some wine. She asks if he needs anything else before her shift finishes and he asks how she likes her job, suggesting she stay and learn more – how the sausages are made. In comes a man, Mike (Christopher M. Dukes), who describes the job he has just done for the boss – and it is clear it was a hit. Melody brings out a bowl of food that Mike takes a spoonful of.

sharp teeth

There is something in it and he draws it out of his mouth and then realises the dish is made up of body parts. This, it becomes clear, is the boss’s way of telling Mike he is to be retired. The telling parts here are that he suggests Mike could be turned, made into something like the boss and also Mike empties a clip into the boss, to no ill effect, only to apologies for a force of habit. His retirement is to be provided by the other patrons, who all develop sharp teeth. Flesh eating, immunity to conventional weaponry and sharp teeth – these could well be either vampires or ghouls, the latter being closely related within the genre as mentioned in other reviews (they are credited as creatures).

Eric Roberts as the boss

The full film is some 57 minutes long, meaning that it doesn’t outstay its welcome. There is a general maintained level of quality between the 7 sections (though the creature in Fortune was perhaps a let down after an interesting premise) but they are perhaps too short to be fully narrative in every case. The review scores for the two vampire(ish) segments and I think they deserve a solid 6 out of 10, with the caveat that they are more vignettes than full stories, both.

The imdb page is here.

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Use of Tropes: Shake Rattle & Roll Extreme

It is always great to get a new entry into the long running Philippine horror anthology series, Shake Rattle & Roll. This new one from 2023 recently dropped onto UK Netflix. The first segment, Glitch, is a great demonic entry and I was also rather taken by zombie-esque final segment Rage with people turned by space parasites, and the segment carrying the fun conceit that the more violence they commit the more powerful they become.

The segment that has led to this article is Mukbang, directed by Jerrold Tarog, which was interesting because it moves directly into the world of internet influencers. However, whilst the creatures in it are not named as such, I did get a bit of an aswang feel.

Jane Oineza as Ms Vee

We see a motley crew of different influencers arrive at a mansion. We have Adelle (Esnyr Ranollo) and their assistant Beyoncé (Phi Palmos), Ashley B (AC Bonifacio) and her assistant Hannah (Jana Taladro), Ms Vee (Jane Oineza), and Chef Kino Javier (Ninong Ry) and his assistant Issac (Ian Gimena). They are meeting Robin (Paul Salas) and Reye (Elle Villanueva) who have set the whole thing up to hit a million subscribers. The viewer notices that each influencer character is introduced with their followership levels. Late is Lionell (RK Bagatsing), Vee’s boyfriend and influencer in his own right. Also there is caretaker (and, we later discover, butcher) Mr Isko (Francis Mata).

influencers

It is a collaboration, including a Mukbang and Mr Isko will provide the meat. Beyoncé is the first to change. We see them wandering, meeting Robin, something indistinct with glowing eyes appearing behind them and then Beyoncé acting odd in scenes thereafter. The general plot is that there are monsters in the mansion. Now aswang is a term meaning monster (and can be very generic) but aswang are mentioned once later when Adelle puts on makeup and pretends to be one.

what's behind Beyonce

The monsters themselves are referred to as kindred and the plot is one of world domination. A kindred will rip the heart of a victim out and eat it, in doing so they take on their appearance. The rest of the victim is then butchered by Mr Isko who gets Chef Kino to ignorantly cook it for the Mukbang, with the villains amused that the human influencers are tricked into cannibalism. The disguised kindred needing to eat the flesh to consolidate their appearance and regain strength. The idea is to take over the influencers, gain their platform, and then start inviting followers to further events.

one of the Kindred

It is the association with aswang (even in the generic monster sense, and we can note that the kindred are credited as monsters), the eating of the heart to gain a victim’s shape and the cannibalism that leads to this mention. This is the most comedic of the three segments and the influencers are not really drawn as pleasant. Unkind (in cases) to their assistants, cheating, more concerned with content than safety to the point of doing an advert for a sponsor whilst being attacked. The two who come off better are revealed to be villains of the piece (Robin and Reye) and, in some respects, the influencers themselves might be said to be vampires.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mention: Unveiling: The Horse Demon

This was a 2019 film by Neal 'Buboy' Tan, set between the Philippines (primarily) and the UK (at the head of the film) and despite some real story/continuity issues actually becomes quite a fair film looking at Philippine folklore. It is primarily about the tikbalang, or horse demon, which is not a vampiric creature. However, we do get some vampire moments, if only fleetingly.

The film, after a view of a woman in labour with a supernatural air, follows Mario (Guy Lockwood), a young man in London who likes to train and do a martial art. In a hospital a woman is in agony. He visits her and the Doctor says they can’t find out why. Turns out that, despite the actress looking his age, she’s his mom and she tells him to go to the Philippines and seek out his father if he wants her to live.

Guy Lockwood as Mario

In the Philippines we get a long section of him being robbed and momentarily jailed due to fighting back (and then somehow moving on despite losing all his belongings including his passport and money, and somehow able to take selfies with an iPad) and disliking the Filipino people. As things move on, he discovers they are generically lovely folk (his hatred being a reverse racism from growing up and being bullied) and going deeper into the islands looking for his dad. A couple of people accompany him and get murdered by supernatural creatures (and nothing more is said about them) and he discovers his supernatural legacy.

manananggal 

So… vampires. The first might be a dream, whilst staying with a friendly couple. He hears something, exits the hut and sees a manananggal split in two and then fly at him. This is the most obvious visitation and whilst drawn like a dream we need to remember he has little knowledge of the Philippines (his mother moved to England when he was 6). Aswang (which are named vampires in the subtitles) are also mentioned and we see a variety of low budget creatures including aswang and we see some man/dog transformation, which is an aswang trait. There is a naïve earnestness when we get to the more supernatural element of the film despite the ham-fisted storytelling.

The imdb page is here.

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Honourable Mention: Hawaiian Ghost Stories

This was a 2020 film directed by Blake and Brent Cousins and, at the time of writing, has no IMDb page. I don’t know whether the fact that this collection of campfire tales, told to a group of kids by an elderly gentleman, have the transnational focus because Hawaii is multicultural or because there aren’t that many local ghost stories to chose from (the term ghost is stretched here also as many of the stories include corporeal creatures)?

It is within that transnational focus that we find out mention. A pair of ghost hunters are investigating an abandoned asylum and the thing that allegedly haunts it. However before going there, they have had a message from a nearby village.

interview

When they roll the footage that has been shot we get the story of a village whose population are of a Philippine extraction and the event is said to have been caused by an aswang. Now one could argue that, if a supernatural event occurs and is seen by a group from a particular ethnic background then they will name the phenomena from the lore that is available to them. In this case there is a belief that the aswang are also called draculas and suck blood.

footage

Sort of… so the video footage shows some goats, when a noise is herd and the adult son, carrying the camera, goes to investigate and sees his elderly father struggling with something. That something is very pixilated and when we see it in still it is still almost featureless, poor cgi modelling. He eventually puts the camera down and they go and beat it together but, we can assume, it gets away. In interview the father says that aswang devour livers but the interview does touch on them being draculas. It is no more than a fleeting visitation.

in the cave

So, some poor cgi, shaky footage (of the found footage variety) and the use of Dracula as a collective noun. How this then fits in with the asylum isn’t clear. The cgi was so poor that it may or may not be the creature they find later (if it is, the visitation is still fleeting). However they refer to the creature both as a deformed (former) patient – and throw in an establishment cover up and a buried cadaver – and also a yokai. It is interesting that they used the Japanese term as it is a collective noun just as aswang can be (aswang can mean a specific, sometimes vampiric, type of creature and at others a generic collective noun for monsters). The film itself is pretty poorly pulled together, with consistently amateurish acting, bad cgi and little in the way of either cinematography or atmosphere.

Blood Hunters: Rise of the Hybrids – review

Director: Vincent Soberano

Release date: 2019

Contains spoilers

This is another aswang movie to come out of the Philippines, though the film’s country of origin is the USA and it was recorded in English rather than Tagalog. Rather than embrace horror this is very much an action film and whilst the Aswang (or hybrids – I’ll get to that) look similar to some flicks we don’t actually see anything particularly vampiric.

It starts with a comic book as the opening credits roll and then a voiceover tells the viewer about battles between humans and aswang, the latter led by an Aswang Queen. The humans were represented by Section One, a group of soldiers and mercenaries, and they captured the Queen. They took her blood but the Queen was killed and one of the commanders injected himself with her blood and became a hybrid of human and aswang. Where we are now is a place where it is the hybrids that are being hunted.

Sarah Chang as Gabriella

We move to Gabriella (Sarah Chang), who is in the forests. Nearby, on an abandoned, decrepit bus, a girl cries and she is approached by the hybrid Gundra (Mekael Turner). Gabriella gets to the bus, they fight and he, moving at astounding speeds, throws her out of a window and… well he buggers off, it seems. This is where we get a weakness, in that things kind of happen without good explanation or being referenced, even. Later we do hear that they are keeping Gabriella alive but we’ve already had the suspension of disbelief damaged.

Mekael Turner as Gundra

Gabriella is actually hunting down Naga (Temujin Shirzada), as he killed her husband and child when she was a cop, Gundra is more a ways and means. She manages to track Gundra down again and takes a shot with a projectile that blows up something he’s stood on. She is thrown by the explosion, he seems to have totally escaped the explosion and stands over her. After a family exposition dream sequence she awakens in a bed, where hunters Kali (Roxanne Barcelo) and Max (Ian Ignacio) have taken her… again we don’t know why her enemy didn’t finish her off.

aswang

So, she is at a training camp and after she passes the news on that Naga is back, with Gundra, it is decided that they will have to take the fight proactively to them and need the hunters Monte (Monsour Del Rosario) and Bolo (Vincent Soberano), who is a hybrid himself and seems to inject hybrid blood. The film then essentially has them raid a hybrid encampment using guns at first and then hand to hand combat (as guns don’t work – so the one’s they took out with guns were presumably human?). The action works well but there is a betrayal telegraphed, which was obvious as the character was the only one available to be the betrayer and the return of a family member that had no emotional impact.

the queen

This is the issue with the film, the dialogue delivery was wooden and the narrative fairly broken, so there was no emotional attachment to the characters. The story was poorly constructed but the action lifts it up that bit. There isn’t much else to say for this one – the action with more careful plotting and decent delivery (in the actors’ first language) would have left us with an interesting action flick. As stands, 3 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

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The Monsters Without – review

Director: Randal Kamradt

Release date: 2021

Contains spoilers

This Philippine film is far from perfect but it is not fatally flawed, indeed it has a lot of charm. It was provided to me for an honest review by Randal Kamradt and, as you’ll see, it really does a nice job at introducing certain Philippine folklore themes to an international audience, or I assume that was the aim with the film’s dialogue being in English. However, I don’t think it quite knows what it wants to be genre-wise – though it is certainly a fantasy film rather than a horror.

Christina Yr. Limoll as Setsuko

The film starts with some background on the Yablo, as the generic name for the monsters, who came to earth from somewhere else. Then, when humans evolved, the Yablo and humans clashed and war ensued. Now the Yablo live hidden from view and are embedded in the ecosystem. The intro also mentions an elemental creature called Nameless (Nick Medina) supposedly the oldest and wisest of them.

Jake Macapagal as Romero

It becomes apparent that this is all being said to a guy in a bar by Setsuko (Christina Yr. Limoll), but the guy moves on to another woman. Leaving, she gets a ride with a bike taxi ridden by Rommel Romero (Jake Macapagal). It is here where one of the weaknesses of the film is apparent in that sometimes the narrative isn’t well explained. It is clear that there is something with this vehicle (she mentions things like a lack of license) but what exactly is going on isn’t explained. They get out of the city and a gang hold them up, until a Yablo in a tree grabs and eats a bandit. Setsuko offers Romero a job.

April Rose Estoy as Wonder

She works for PHASE, a team that studies, documents and protects Yablo. We meet a new intake of recruits in the form of Benito (Leonard Olaer) and Miranda (Jessica Neistadt) who are teamed up with Richard (Andrew Reiley) and April (Dana Jamison). They are under the command of Wonder (April Rose Estoy), who is Romero’s sister. They go out into the field after a report of a Yablo that eats energy as an aphrodisiac and meet Romero out in the field – wearing a suit.

Carcass in the cave

As they enter a cave tiyanak are mentioned and they find the carcass of a killed Yablo. There is, however, living pictures to contend with and we notice something strange with Miranda. The cave was the resting place of the Nameless and it has been released. They also find Setsuko, who wears a wedding dress. There is a side plot here of Setsuko and Romero failing to get married, something they remedy now, but the point of it was, again, not well broadcast in the narrative. 

Miranda in aswang form

So, we get a few plot threads interwoven, with the Nameless on a course to remove the Yablo from our world and take them back to where they came from. Something that would have a devastating impact on the ecosystem. PHASE, the new recruits discover, is corrupt at its core. And then there is Miranda who is – it is revealed – an aswang. Now the film conflates aswang with manananggal and she can detach her upper half and fly. This conflation, as far as I understand, works in that aswang can be a generic name for the creatures of Philippine folklore as well as a creature in its own right (as portrayed in other films).

manananggal

The film crams loads of ideas in and has a lot to say around ecosystems and eco-exploitation, as well as having something to say about immigrant integration and the continuing impact of colonialism. It also has an LGBT friendly viewpoint. The practical monster effects are rather good given, what one imagines was, a very limited budget. The joins show in some of the green screen work and certainly in some of the logos/uniforms, which look cheap. The acting chops are varied in terms of competence, though one feels acting in their first language might have helped. The biggest issue is that this didn’t really know what it was. It felt like a kid-aimed flick but some of the content felt older (if only a tad). Better narrative explanation wouldn’t have gone amiss. However, it kept me watching and was definitely imaginative. On balance 4 out of 10, but with the caveat that it is watchable and its great to have the Philippine folklore used and presented to an international audience.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable mention: Trese: Season 1

Trese was a short run animated series, released in 2021 and directed by various filmmakers. It originated from the Philippines and is based on a comic book series from there. It was a series that premiered on Netflix. For the actors I’m using the English-speaking cast as I watched it in English dub.

It centres around Alexandra Trese (Shay Mitchell). She has inherited the position of upholding the peace accords between the Underworld and the human world. She is often seen, with her two primary agents/bodyguards - the twins known as the Kamba (Griffin Puatu), helping Police Captain Guerrero (Matt Yang King) solve crimes with a supernatural bent. The series takes in a lot of the Filipino mythological and folkloric figures through the episodes.

aswang

The reason for the honourable mention is primarily around the inclusion of aswang. Whilst they appear fleetingly throughout the series, they are centre stage in the first episode with a train breaking down at night and the passengers – as they depart the train – being attacked by an Aswang clan. As well as the train attack Trese has to investigate the sacrifice (therefore murder) of a ghost who was trapped by using powdered mermaid bone.

Alexandra and the Kamba Twins

Trese knows that the bone could only have come from the Aswang clan by the docks and discovers that the case points back to the corrupt Mayor Sancho Santamaria (Lou Diamond Phillips). He is up for re-election but, as Trese looks deeper into the crime, she discovers he cleared out a slum area for regeneration by relocating the people to a hotel but, after tricking them there, turned the tables and they are held as a living larder for the aswang.

silhouetted creatures

Beyond the aswang we do get the occasional glimpse of manananggal but they do not play a significant role in the series. The animation was good with this but the thing, for me, that let the series down was the length. With just six episodes crowbarring Trese’s role as both detective and guardian, plus the backstory elements (seen in black and white flashback) and the conspiracy occurring around her was too much. A longer run 12 (or even 24) would have established the character's detective and occult prowess, consolidated the world, explored the backstory fully and allowed the conspiracy to unfold at slower pace, which would have built tension and character sympathy. That said, it is well worth watching as is.

The imdb page is here.

Santigwar – review

Director: Joven Tan

Release date: 2019

Contains spoilers

The Filipino folklore of the aswang is often given a comparative association with the vampire, but we should remember that aswang is both used as the genus of a specific folkloric creature and also as a generic term meaning monster.

In this film the term aswang is used, but the main hunter (the Santigwar) also says that these are specifically kamadlang. This isn’t a term I had come across before, and a google left me none the wiser (feel free to educate me on the term in the comments especially if I have taken the name out of context). Be that as it may we have a group of creatures that can shapeshift (though they take on a drooling monstrous form and we do not see other typical aswang shapeshifting), cast magic it appears, and eat human flesh (and virgin flesh specifically for power).

conducting ritual

It begins with an old woman, Nana Rosa (Lui Manansala) – who we later discover is the queen of her aswang clan – ritualistically chanting. Nearby is a young man, whom she bites at one point. In a house that has charms hung at the windows, two young girls (Hasmin (played older by Alexa Ilacad) and Lea (played older by Michelle Vito)) have a box. Their father (Dan Fernandez) stops them from playing with it; it is a Santigwar box, containing weapons to fight evil.

hagridden

They have their evening meal but something is out there and we see something dropped into a pitcher of water to contaminate it. Mother, Siony (Mary Jean Lastimosa), drinks some water and starts to choke, and in a really interesting moment we see her in a mirror and it appears she is being ridden – tying somewhat into being hagridden. When she dies her face seems transformed, twisted – later we hear that she was a daughter of Nana Rosa but abandoned the clan when she fell in love with a human Santigwar and this killing is for revenge. Again later, we learn that after this dad packed the younger Lea off for her safety, whilst he and Hasmin sought to find and kill Nana Rosa.

Jay and Benny

Cut ten years forward and a group of lads are in a diner, they are Aldrin (Marlo Mortel), Carlo (Marco Gallo), Jay (Paulo Angeles) and Benny (Keann Johnson). They are waiting for Aldrin’s girlfriend Ara (Pam Gonzales) as they are going out to her family’s place in the country – though the studious Benny (well, he wears glasses) has to be persuaded to come. As they travel there, there is some not so gentle ribbing of Benny for being a virgin… strange that Ara is the one who brings it up in the first place…

Aubrey Miles as Ynes

So, as they drive they have a near-miss-collision with Hasmin and her dad, almost running them down (albeit unconvincingly) – the latter now seeming rather infirm and during the incident Hasmin picks up the scent of Ara, and later discovers that the region where Ara's family lives is desolate following an epidemic. At the house there is a sister and cousin, Melai (Michelle Liggayu) and Sabel (Emie Conjurado), as well as Ara’s mother Ynes (Aubrey Miles), who seems very interested in Benny – even cooking him a special part of the evening meal. Of course, there won’t be any Mrs Robinson action, as they need him to remain a virgin. But you can guess that the lady aswangs will split the guys up in a divide and conquer routine, keeping them busy until Nana Rosa decides its time for them to die…

Hasmin prepares her weapon

And here it goes wrong… beyond paper thin characterisation there just isn’t enough done with the hunting section. There is little atmosphere and, although there is a death, no real peril as we don’t overly care for the characters. As the aswang hunt the guys, Hasmin is hunting the aswang – she again pretended to be nearly run over (by the slowest moving vehicle ever) in order to warn Benny to leave – strangely he took no notice of her... I mean “leave this place” portents whispered by a strange girl you’ve nearly run over twice in the day surely must hold gravitas?

transformed

The aswang, when transformed, have weak eyesight but strong senses of smell and hearing. Hasmin has a green water that masks someone’s scent and boils in the bottle when an aswang is near. She kills by knife (with another liquid poured on it, type unexplained) and, with her first kill, takes time to salt and burn the corpse – otherwise they can come back… This rule is not religiously followed thereafter, and I don’t know why, as Benny took the time to bury a friend whilst being hunted by a family of aswang.

aswang

This one suffers for the lack of character development, atmosphere and, quite frankly, balls out violence. It might have been a fair action/gore horror had the filmmakers gone that way – but they didn’t. I can’t help but feel that mum and dad’s origin story would have been a more interesting film also. The creature makeup is just that, makeup, and they look like unfrightening drooling things rather than creatures of terror. 3 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

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NYV: Punk – review

Author: KV McQuain

First Published: 2016

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll... and the UNDEAD!?!

Forced to flee across the country, a teenage runaway must struggle with self-discovery and raging hormones on the New York Punk scene while being hunted by an ancient, bloodthirsty evil.

For fifteen year old Christian, living in rural isolation with only his mother for company was as boring and bleak a life as he could imagine. Nothing ever happened and the most exciting thing to look forward to were monthly visits from the nice old lady who took his mother shopping in town. After being subjected to a bizarre and humiliating birthday ceremony, Christian decides to leave home to think things through. And when the opportunity for adventure presents itself, he jumps at the chance.

But being on his own is more terrifying than he ever dreamed. Barely surviving a brutal attack, Christian finds himself being hunted across the country by an ancient bloodthirsty evil, putting himself and those he cares for in mortal peril. He must learn to navigate the hazards of the tough Punk music scene if he is going to survive on the gritty streets of New York City long enough to discover his destiny. Can he survive on his own? Will he find the life he dreamed of? And what the hell does OMFUG mean anyway?

The Review: Is hosted over at Vamped.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Aswang – review

Director: Michael Laurin

Release date: 2018

Contains spoilers

This is a US/Philippines’ production that uses the traditional form of the aswang. The term aswang literally means monster and is both an overarching term for several folk creatures from the Philippines but also for a specific monster type often associated with the vampire.

You’ll see that in this there is an interesting merging of the western monster types (we see the aswang with standard vampire fangs at one point and it is called a type of ghoul at another) with various versions of the Philippines’ creature.

adults of the family

It begins with a family arriving in the Philippines. Tia (Shelene Atanacio) is from the area and married to Richard (Michael Laurin) and they have two kids Alice (Shannon Laurin) and David (John Michael Laurin). They have been met by Tia’s brother Vince (Merwin L. Gicain) who has taken them to meet Richard’s cousin Jake (Bryan Billy Boone), who has been over for two months fixing up Richard and Tia’s beach house. Unfortunately it isn’t finished yet and so Jake has hired the Liamol House – Vince is aghast and says they can’t stay there, it is rumoured to be haunted by aswang.

the Liamol House

They go to see the house and Richard describes it as the Addams House. The kids discover that there a cemetery in the backyard and the house itself looks absolutely decrepit. Local rumour is that it is built on a cemetery, as well as hosting one. When they get inside it clearly needs cleaning throughout. Why then they stay there when they have the beach house (which can’t be in any worse state) or, indeed, the offered opportunity to stay with Vince, is beyond me. Of course, there wouldn’t be a film if they did that.

Lady in white

The first night Alice wakes and sees a figure out back (it is later seen to be a lady in white). We also get visitations by a dog (also the aswang) and she shapeshifts quite a bit to be fair and in her lady in white (with veil) form she takes on Tia’s visage. Jake and the kids find pictures of Aswang in the basement and, of course, do the sensible thing and start playing Ouija boards down there and eventually the aswang puts Richard under her control. This is done with a combination of hypnosis, saliva through a kiss and bites. It is described as possession.

Merwin and the mananambal

A local young cop, Merwin (Christopher Eli Razo Hubahib), who is a friend of Tia’s, comes to the house as a corpse has been taken from a grave and he wants them to keep an eye out for anything strange going on. He tells Tia that it is the time when aswangs look to create other aswang and he also mentions a mananambal (Ernesto A. Tundaan) who is due to visit in a couple of days. A mananambal is a traditional healer/wizard and it is he that tries to help the family. What is interesting is that he uses a combination of traditional and Catholic aspects as he does this.

bitten

So, the aswang takes both the young form and an old lady form (Brigida H. Magalona) and can also appear as a shadow (which is a real rubbish looking sfx, just a person in a whole-body black suit). At one point we see her acting ghoul like by digging a nice meaty bone from a grave (though the graves looked too old to have such fresh occupants). To keep her at bay we get the use of garlic, oil (that boils in her presence) and to fight her we have a silver dagger and a sting ray tail. Whilst possessed Richard suddenly can speak tagalog.

fangs and blood tears

The set-up feels a tad false. The fact that they stay at the spooky house, ignore Tia’s family offer of a place to stay and do things like play Ouija board all seem a bit forced and silly. That said the pay off isn’t bad. This isn’t the best horror film put together but it does what it is trying to do and has quite a bleak outlook. The use of Western vampire fangs feels a tad put on for the US audience (not that other films don’t give aswang fangs, but it felt a little more appropriated in this). The acting wasn’t fantastic but it didn’t need to be. 4 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US