Short Film: Mosquito Lady

Using the folklore of the Philippines and the manananggal, this 2023 short film comes in at around thirteen minutes and was directed by Kristine Gerolaga.

It follows Gemma (Hanna Lorica) who, as we meet her, is in her room and is clearly pregnant. She takes a covering from a cross and prays for help but it falls, the figure of Christ breaking and bleeding – though when she looks again the blood is gone.

She calls her cousin Sophia (voiced by Kristine Gerolaga) as she looks at abortions (she will, of course, have been too far gone) but State law requires permission from her parents. Memories come of her mother (Ina Dahilig) and father (Rhandy Torres) lecturing her on promiscuity but also suggesting that the unkempt house down the road contained a woman (Maria Lingbanan) who is rumoured to be a manananggal, they called her mosquito lady.

the manananggal

She has looked at the legend of the manananggal online – we see a thing that says if she is touched by sunlight whilst disconnected from her legs she’ll die – and we also get memories of them saying that Sophia had been attacked by her and nearly died (and that the creature tried to get Gemma whilst her mother carried her). Nevertheless, desperate, Gemma leaves her house and heads to the house down the street…

ripped wings

What occurs in their interaction is for you to discover through the short but I wanted to mention the blood graffiti that begs for forgiveness, by her wings that have been ripped off and stuck to the wall (presumably self-inflicted). I thought that was an interesting touch that I would really have enjoyed learning more about. However, this is a great little short and worth your time.

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.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

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.

Darna – review

Director: Joel Lamangan

Release date: 1991

Contains spoilers

Darna is a long-standing Filipino superhero, though I went into this film cold, knowing nothing about the character. She was a reboot of artist Mars Ravelo’s earlier Varga character and I could see elements similar to Shazam/Captain Marvel in that, whilst he has to say his name to become Shazam, Narda must swallow a mystical stone and say the name Darna to become the superhero. There are also elements that are reminiscent of Wonder Woman, particularly in this film when she deflect bullets with her bracelets. But with all that said she is her own character and is popular in the Philippines.

the medallion

The film starts in South America in 1900 as explorer Dominico Lipolico (Edu Manzano) searches for a cave. He and his local bearers find it and he ends up fighting them all for what treasures may be in there. In fact, it is a place of the devil, which manifests as a green fireball and offers him youth, wealth and power (via a medallion) so that he can go out and bring darkness to the world.

angelic visitation

Cut to the Philippines in 1975 and Narda (played as an adult by Nanette Medved), as a young girl, is out with her brother Dong (played older by Tony Lambino) playing hide and seek. Narda hides in a cave and has a visitation from an angel who tells her that she is the chosen one who will fight as Darna. Dong finds her sleeping when a meteorite (or comet according to the subtitles I saw) crashes down. They find it and it reveals a glowing stone that flies into her mouth. She says that the angel called her Dana and we hear a noise indicating she transforms, though it is off screen.

having a swim

Cut to modern day and Narda is having a bit of a swim in a pool, below a waterfall, wearing a shift – as you do. She is being spied upon by four creepy guys (there are a lot of rapey blokes in the film). Dong meets up with her but the guys decide to get physical with her. Dong throws her the stone and she shouts Darna and then beats the guys up until they end up tied naked at the top of the waterfall begging forgiveness. We discover that Narda lives with Dong, their younger brother Ding (Atong Redillas) and their grandmother and has a crush on George (Tonton Gutierrez) – she and George are reporters and work with photographer Buster (Dennis Padilla), which of course gives this a gender-swapped Superman dynamic.

manananggal

The primary bad guy in this is Dominico who is described as a “world famous archaeologist, businessman, philanthropist, artist and playboy” who travels to the Philippines under the guise of doing good works but out to spread darkness and get the mystic stone (a thread that seems to vanish and becomes trying to force Darna over to the dark side). To do this he transforms model/fashionista Valentina (Pilar Pilapil) into a gorgon. He also takes Dong’s teacher Impakta (Bing Loyzaga), who crashes his celebrity party, and turns her into a manananggal. This is our vampire, of course, and she separates her upper half, has bat wings and fangs.

with victim

She is a particularly nasty vampire – luring a homeless child with a teddy bear and ripping her apart (partially off-screen). Whilst we see her leave her lower half behind, she can also appear human to lure a victim (Buster as it happens). We see a victim with a bloodied neck and blood at her mouth and her defeat involves a neon cross.

Nanette Medved as Darna

The film was fun enough with an air that Narda is a honest girl from a humble background and the enemies are of the celebrity class – or in Impakta’s case aspired to be part of that class. The forcing them into being monsters through satanic rite is also tried on Darna and it is through family (in the form of Ding and Dong) that she resists and there is, of course, the overarching Christian-centric viewpoint with this being a battle between good and evil and Darna created through a celestial intervention.

Valentina the gorgon

However, it does suffer as many superhero films did in the past. It is definitely camp and it is nowhere near high cinema and the talking sock puppet snake (ok, not really a sock puppet, but near enough) was the height of the campness on display. Cheeky kids (in the form of Ding), comedy characters (Buster) and Narda’s habit of dropping or putting the stone down rather than jealously guarding it as the precious item it is both adds peril and a sense of disbelief. I think for this outing for Darna that 4 out of 10 is more than fair but I will be on the look out for other incarnations of the superheroine.

The imdb page is here.

Manananggal in Manila – review

Director: Mario O'Hara

Release date: 1997

Contains spoilers

This was a film hailing, as the title would suggest, from the Philippines and features the manananggal – the bat winged vampire woman whose bottom half is left behind as she searches the night for blood, viscera and babies.

The film struggles with effects, as we’ll see, but also struggles story-wise the viewer can piece it together but it is a bit of an old mess, I’m afraid, and the prologue doesn’t support the general storyline. So, with no further ado, the prologue…

Alma Concepcion as Bea

A title informs us that it is Maskara Festival and we are in Eastern Zamboanga, the year is 1896. The men who wear masks seemed to be facially disfigured when removed and a woman dances through ribbons, all the time laughing. A woman Bea (Alma Concepcion) awakens and calls through the house for Desidek (Tonton Gutierrez, Shake Rattle and Roll 9). She asks a servant where he is and she doesn’t know, so sends her to look for Filipa. Filipa is gone and Bea assumes the worst, she runs out into the night and curses Desidek, stating that she will hide in darkness and he will never find her.

modeling

Cutting to modern day Manila and Bea is a successful model who has built a familial backstory for herself and publicly proclaims her love for Randy (Poppo Lontoc). She is on shoot when she is told that someone called Desidek is phoning for her. Elsewhere, Timmy (Aiza Seguerra, Shake Rattle and Roll IV) is dropped of at the apartment she shares with her sister, Terry (Angelika Dela Cruz), by their uncle Gaspar (Edwin O'Hara). Terry is heavily pregnant. The new neighbour is moving in and later invites the siblings over for dinner – it is Bea. As they get to know each other Terry suggests she is married and her husband is in the States – it is a lie.

Timmy inspects a body

Cops, led by a Detective named Al (Mike Magat, Ang Panday), chase a group of armed robbers into a construction site. There is a gunfight, with most of the robbers taken down. With the last one, something flashes through the night and drags him away. The next day the last robber is found, hung from a beam by his feet. The lax police let Timmy wander up to the crime scene and have a good look at his eviscerated torso, his intestines have been removed (though we don’t see that, the camera remaining stubbornly behind the corpse). Stopping for a chat with Al, it appears that he used to be a security guard at her school and had a crush on Terry (coincidence that). Here we have a major issue with the film, the failure to make it believable; be it a school kid casually inspecting a crime scene (and the cops not making any effort to keep her away) or the scene where she is suddenly floating and everyone treats it like a minor ailment (rather than a breach of physics), plus the coincidence that Al’s father just happens to be a medicine man who can reverse Timmy's gravity defying condition.

feeding on the fetus 

Then there is the confusion around Desidek – cursed to never find Bea (it would seem), he finds, grabs her and forces a kiss – that she then reciprocates. He has a pig form (and pig-man form) but also seems to be sustained by viscera kept in Bea’s cauldron (that doubles as a coffee table) and the film eventually suggests that they are still in love, the relationship does invalidate the opening scenes. Bea is open about using magic to Terry and helps her relationship problems in an extreme manner. Terry's ex-boyfriend, Jonas (Eric Fructuoso), denies that he is their baby’s father and so Bea attacks his pregnant sister to make him appreciate the baby in Terry’s womb! We get a typical manananggal attack but the tongue appears to be a thin straw, later we see it as a thick, flexible and extremely long tongue.

fake manananggal

If you think that Bea might be after Terry’s baby, you are probably right – but not in the way you’d imagine. However, I won’t spoil that any more. I should mention the old woman dressed as a manananggal, arrested by Al, who then spits green gunk in his face when in gaol – what was that bright green stuff? Was she actually more supernatural and less mad old woman in fake wings? The film ain’t saying. We get some really atrocious effects around Bea’s manananggal form, though the movie was filmed on a budget. Animated bat shape across the night and inanimate acted form with giant wings and a massive prosthetic chin on Bea are both the order of the day. We do see a torso split away from the legs – though it isn’t well done – and the way to kill a manananggal would seem to be stake and burn, rather than prevent reattachment of the legs.

real manananggal

This was a less than impressive film from the Philippines, on many levels. However there were some effective moments too that, with a bit more budget and a lot more tightening of both the story and conveyance of the narrative, could have made for an effective movie. As it stands this is not the best thing I’ve seen, by a long shot. 3 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Shake Rattle & Roll IV – review

Directors: Peque Gallaga & Lore Reyes

Release date: 1992

Contains spoilers

The fourth instalment of the popular anthology series from the Philippines, I actually found this to be a particularly weak entry into the series. Perhaps not helped by the fuzzy video quality of the film (though that also probably helped the manananggal effects look quite good in the section we are interested in.

Before we get there, we should note that the first story is Ang Guro, which was essentially a riff on Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde on a college campus. The second story (probably the most interesting of the bunch) was Kapitbahay in which a desperate Witawit (Rene Hinojales) starts kidnapping children as it wishes to stop its tree being cut down.

newspaper

The third story is Ang Madre, and centres around the manananggal myth. The story takes part in a poor area of a city where there is a brothel and where a pair of sisters and the young son, Teks (IC Mendoza, Shake Rattle and Roll 8, Shake Rattle and Roll X & Shake Rattle and Roll XV), of one of them live and scrape a living together. The fear of the manananggal is reflected in the press and, looking closely, you can see it described as half-woman and half-vampire.

on bat wings

This is because the manananggal is one of the types that splits in two, leaving its legs behind as it flies on giant bat wings. In this case, eventually, it becomes apparent that there is a male (Miguel Rodriguez) and female (Aiko Melendez) manananggal. At first, however, an old lady (Lilia Cuntapay, Aswang (1992), Shake Rattle & Roll V & Island of the Living Dead) is blamed for the attacks – and both this and the previous segment do focus on mobs blaming or scapegoating an innocent. It is Teks who realises it is actually a nun from the clinic who is the female vampire.

hot sauce

The lower body is susceptible to attack and we do see Teks use a hot sauce (it might be the chillies, the peppers or the garlic in such sauce that proves effective) and this actually seems to melt the lower body down to nothing. We also see the hot sauce being used as a defensive weapon against the flying manananggal, ultimately sunlight is also an effective weapon – if the torso is still separated. There is little other lore to look at in this one, though as mentioned earlier, for such a low budget effort the sfx around the manananggal is fairly impressive (though the print will hide issues).

the manananggal

As I mentioned right at the beginning, this was a weak entry in the series. This section felt unfocused, the first segment was pretty darn fluff. The middle section worked better and, when this worked it was in aspects like the mob rule that I touched on. The score, as always, is for the vampire section only and this one looked quite good (despite the poor print) and had some worthwhile gore despite inherent weaknesses. 4 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Tiyanak – review

Directors: Peque Gallaga & Lore Reyes

Release date: 1988

Contains spoilers

This is a Filipino movie from the 80s and I was rather excited to see that it was on Amazon Prime (subtitled, of course) despite the fact that it is an atrocious analogue print. Why? Well because the Tiyanak of the title is such an unusual vampire type.

Tiyanak, by the subtitles, translates to monster baby and Bane lists the creature under the name Aswang Tiyanak saying: “It hunts women by shape- shifting into an adorable baby and placing itself somewhere it will be found. When it is discovered, the aswang tiyanak waits until it has been taken home. Then when its would-be rescuer is asleep, the vampire will assume its true form and attack, draining the victim dry of blood.”

as a baby

Now, in actual fact the use of the word aswang is somewhat superfluous. Aswang can be an overarching name for monster or a creature in its own right. So, by dint of being a Filipino monster the tiyanak is an aswang. Aswang are mentioned in this film as a separate type. So it starts with a couple who are crossing a rich family’s forested land, watched by a young boy who works for the family. The wife (Betty Mae Piccio) hears crying and they split up looking for source. She finds an infant lying in what looks like leather. She picks it up but it transforms into a demonic form and attacks, strong enough to throw her around and drag the corpse despite its diminutive size. Her husband finds her corpse and when the boy declares it was a tiyanak attack he punches the youth for his trouble (despite knowing the truth of it).

Lotlot De Leon as Christie

Christie (Lotlot De Leon) has just returned home with her friend JoJo (Ramon Christopher). She meets her brother-in-law Mars (Rudolf Yaptinchay) and is informed of the killing on their land. She is told that her sister, Julie (Janice de Belen, TikTik: the Aswang Chronicles), needs her. Julie is distraught as she has suffered two miscarriages – the second at the 6th month point. In fact she gets quite hysterical and Christie gives her a good slapping because of this!

Lola has the right idea

Then we get some lore as the Grandma (Mary Walter, Shake Rattle & Roll) explains that when there was the war for heaven some angels refused to take sides. When Satan was cast to Hell they tried to return to heaven but were barred from entering and became Malignos – aswang, manananggal and tiyanak. When asked why they attack humans if they were angels we are informed that it is jealousy as humans are the only ones amongst God’s creatures who can enter heaven. Long story, short; Christie discovers a baby in an old building on the property and Julie undertakes to adopt the baby (Angelica, as she is a little angel sent by God, she believes). This is despite the Grandma seeing it and declaring it a maligno that they must immediately kill. The baby, of course, goes on a killing spree.

tiyanak form

So, whilst too young to crawl in human form, it becomes a little rubber doll with sharp teeth at will and attacks when it is dark (but not necessarily at night – after all it isn’t Dracula, it is pointed out). When it turns from demon to baby it sheds its skin (the leathery thing it is found lying in). It heals rapidly and can cross vast distances very quickly. To be killed it needs to be burnt but it avoids fire (so burning its shed skin will allow it to be trapped and killed). The killing aspect is strange as the Grandma declared that Malignos were undying and yet she not only wants to kill it, she tries to do the deed. Their bites can fester nastily if the victim survives.

a tiyanak wound

The photography seems poor but then again the print is awful and the demon baby has more comedy value than fear factor. There are silly moments, for instance Christie (who has been thoroughly terrorised by the creature and seen it in its true form, including when it indulged in slaughtering a maternity hospital) gets the chance to end it, the tiyanak takes human form and she is overwhelmed by her maternal instincts. Luckily there was a handy pre-pubescent boy to save her hide on that occasion.

evil in a bonnet 

The biggest issue, however, is the length. At over two hours it really does outstay its welcome. It could easily have had an hour or more shaved off it. Had that occurred it might have been a fine part in say a Shake Rattle & Roll anthology but as its own vehicle it becomes painfully stretched out. On the other hand, you don’t often see a tiyanak film and it is worth seeing for that reason and it does have some camp horror moments that will likely work better in a group with alcohol imbibed. 3.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Vampariah – review

Director: Matthew Abaya

Release date: 2016

Contains spoilers

Vampariah is a Filipino/American production and is based, I understand, on director Matthew Abaya's earlier short, entitled Bampinay. It carries its cultural reference through the central vampire in the film – the aswang. The aswang can sometimes be a confusing concept and is often depicted as a shape shifting creature with a desire for human flesh & blood.

The aswang in this would actually be more accurately named as a manananggal – being the self-segmenting sucker of viscera, which can unfurl bat like wings and fly. However, the term aswang is not incorrect as aswang is more properly an overarching term for the various monsters of Filipino mythology and the manananggal is therefore a form of aswang.

Aswang in flight

The film begins with a brief introduction to the aswang, suggesting that they used to be revered by, and protectors of, humanity. However there was a betrayal and they became hated. They leave their legs behind when taking on their predatory form and it is re-union with their legs that allow them to walk in daylight (fail to return to their legs and the sun will destroy them). We also hear from Mahal (Kelly Lou Dennis), our primary protagonist, who is part of a society of undead hunters – undead in this being a collective term for the whole panoply of vampire species.

Jeffrey Lei as Mr Fang

The hunters have access to an impressive array of weaponry and technology. Most vampires can be destroyed through an assault to the head or heart. The prime field operative is Marcus Kilmore (Scott Mathison) who, we later discover, is a bit of a dick. When we meet Mahal she is out in the field hunting down a kyonsi called Mr Fang (Jeffrey Lei). She is contacted by HD (Roberto Divina) who has a line on an aswang attack for her – Mahal obsessed with tracking down the creature who killed her father. He reminds her that the kyonsi isn’t very bright and can be distracted with chi – she is able to use an implement to channel said energy.

smart wear

Mr Fang shows us an underlying level of humour within the film, done deliberately with an absurdist air and utilising some wonderfully amusing facial expressions by Lei. The kyonsi would seem to be owned by the hunters but often gets loose. Mahal discovers that the star (Jason Bustos) and crew of a TV cryptid hunter show have been killed in the Philippines whilst searching out the legendary aswang. Her boss, Michele Kilman (Arlene Joie Deleon), doesn’t want her out there – the aswang are notoriously difficult to kill and dangerous – but also does not order her back.

dead van driver

When she examines the body of the TV hunter she is confronted by his ghost – this is her gift, or her curse for that matter, as she is able to see the dead but they see her as their killer and react accordingly. She also discovers that the aswang was not a Philippines resident but had travelled there from the States. The aswang is Bampinay (Aureen Almario) and has already returned to America. We see her being cat-called by a van driver and her disembowelling him with her tongue. Of course Mahal will eventually meet Bampinay and things will not go as she expects…

Bampinay dines with a victim

Abaya wrote as well as directed the film and there is an entire sub-text he adds in about cultural identity. For instance, Kilman poses as a news-anchor and uses that platform to spew a (US) right-wing anti-immigration rhetoric, which sits uneasily with her Asian ethnicity. Of course, the use of the vampire as both the Other and the focus for the demonization of immigrants are classic tropes within the genre. The transplanting of the Filipino vampire-type into America and subsequently building an audience sympathy for said vampire provides an interesting and perversive narrative. However, beyond anything else he is building a good, old-fashioned adventure.

Kelly Lou Dennis as mahal

This is, then, very ambitious – the use of various effects for the gear the hunters use (including using smart wear to view holographic communications, drones and various weaponry) and the manananggal effects are ambitious given the budget, but for the most part work quite well. There is scope in the world created to use a variety of undead types and we get a name check for the chupacabra, a horde of experimental chi-controlled zombies and the aforementioned kyonsi, as well as the aswang. Note, with the vampire types we have other minority ethnic related myths (and a Chinese aspect to the zombies given the use of chi in their control), feeding into their narrative surrogacy for the immigrant.

feeding

The story is ambitious also, but perhaps could have done with lingering longer on certain narrative aspects. The female leads all did well and, in the main, the male characters are secondary and only lightly sketched, which again was quite a subversive direction for the film and welcomed. The film gets quite bloody at times and perhaps had a graphic novel feel in places, which again worked to stave off the impact of a low end budget. I really rather enjoyed this one. 6.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

The film's homepage is here.