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.
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| 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.
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| 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
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