Aswang

This starts off being something of a cross between Society and Rosemary's Baby and for the first half hour is really quite creepy. For the rest of the film things are distinctly more nasty and occasionally almost too repulsive to watch. Possibly budgetary restraints led to most off the movie being shot in just the one colour, brown, but not without effect. In fact the gloom is about as cheerful as this nasty film gets, there are splashes of humour but you are rarely in the mood for smiling and from the spooky Filipino maid, Cupid, to the manic leading man and his almost dead mother and crazed sister all is very, very wrong. I cannot understand the bad reviews this film has received because to me it seemed a shockingly different effort in the horror field. I suppose much has been borrowed from earlier horrors but there is enough that is different to certainly set it apart from much more celebrated films.

You could call this movie like "Rosamary's Baby", only done way worse. Not saying that "Aswang" is an horrible movie though, on the contrary actually. It's being saved by the fact that it's taking an original approach to a well known genre, without ever becoming a great movie as well though.

The movie is being a big of a mixed bag. On the one hand it's being a quite original and also atmospheric movie but on the other, it isn't a really well told one. It's a movie that takes a more slow approach but in its slower moments it doesn't manage to build up any tension. The movie is really lacking in some good interesting mystery and some well done horror. It doesn't make this the most interesting movie to watch.

With a more experienced director at the helm this movie would already had been a better one. A more experienced director would had know how to handle this story more properly and make it a more interesting and effective movie. Instead now the storytelling is too often lacking in its pace and approach.

Still it remains a somewhat refreshing movie to watch, due to its original take on the genre and also because it often isn't holding back on its gore. I therefore still consider this movie to be a watchable one and even a recommendable one as well, especially when you also consider that this was an extremely low-budget production.

6/10

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First off, if you are not a fan of Low Budget Horror Movies, go no further. You will not enjoy this movie. It appears to have been shot on 16mm film. Either that, or the stock they used was VERY old, because even in the new DVD transfer, there's a fair amount of grain.

HOWEVER, the plot is at least original (and you can't say that about ANYTHING out of Hollywood in the last few years) and the acting earnest.

That said, gore hounds will be disappointed, as this the new DVD appears to be a cut down "R" version that expunges some of the more graphic scenes. (I know they exist, at least one is shown in the trailer).

All told, this is an enjoyable Independent movie.

The Unearthing is a film I'd had been wanting to see for a long time and now wish I hadn't bothered. The movie succeeds at being disgusting and nothing else. It does offer a bit of a different spin on the vampire lore. The film's villains are based in the Philipino legend of the Aswang (don't laugh). The Aswang is demon or vampire that feeds upon unborn fetuses. Unfortunately it is never utilized in a way that is new or interesting. It's just a boring mess. And it's drawn out to a point where I wanted to start fast-forwarding to the conclusion we all knew was coming. The acting is appalling, the direction slack, and there is so much padding here that the movie could have been a 30 minute short. Trust me and avoid this one.

I've seen a lot of vampire films but never one like this. Tense, dark tale of a pregnant girl who thinks she's selling her unborn child to a rich family with inheritance issues but comes to realize that what they really need is something a whole lot worse. With terrific use of color AND lack of color (look how the scenes in Claire's house are all shot in the same bleached-out reddish sepia, like partly-washed-out bloodstains), neat twists on Gothic horror conventions, nasty use of garden implements, and an overall Blair-Witch-meets-Texas-Chainsaw vibe of unnerving low-budget conviction, this is a cheap but effective little chiller. Vamp fans who've stayed in the familiar Eastern European and urban American traditions should definitely give this Filipino-based oddity a try.