Shake, Rattle and Roll: The Tradition

I’m quite sure I’ve written about this before—how I’ve made sure to watch most of the Metro Manila Film Festival entries that catch my fancy for as long as I can remember. When it’s showing, which is on most years, I start with Shake, Rattle and Roll. This year sees the tenth incarnation of the film series that started in 1984. I’m thinking a DVD set with all ten films (30 shorter films, in total) would be a great gift.

This year, even if Joey, my cousin with whom I always watch MMFF films is in town, there was a slight change in my Christmas movie-watching routine: I got my brother Nolan and my mom to watch Shake, Rattle and Roll X with me! It was a feat in itself as they don’t really watch Tagalog films.

Shake, Rattle and Roll X follows the format of the rest of the films in the franchise: three short films for the price of one. And, true to tradition, it still had the guerilla film-making feel of the other films, topped with average, though sometimes effective, special effects.

The first film, Emergency (directed by Mike Tuviera), stars Wendell Ramos and Mylene Dizon as blood-thirsty creatures that live in the forest. Supposedly, they chose to live in the forest to leave the humans in peace. However, one man decides to kill Mylene’s character using buntot ng pagi (a stingray tail). I’m thinking it could be because aswangs still thrive on human flesh and blood. Mylene’s character succeeds in striking back and running away from the man, but she gets hit by an ambulance being driven by Jay (JC de Vera who) is accompanied by Dennis (Janus del Prado). They bring the aswang to the hospital, to be taken care of by Doc Sarah (Roxanne Guinoo). The rest is scream-inducing excitement.

My only beef is that the film is peppered by comic relief, which isn’t bad per se, except when the transition is awkward. There’s drama between Doc Sarah and Jay, while Dennis and the hospital administrator have comic scenes that leave you feeling like you’re watching two different films.

Speaking of awkward transitions, the second film, Class Picture (directed by Topel Lee) follows the first one rather too quickly, it takes a while for it to register that you’re already watching the second film. The eerie tale of the ghost of an evil, vengeful school teacher-nun is engaging because it taps into the rich pool of campus ghost stories in the Philippines. Joy (Kim Chui), a psychic, is a young college student who spends the night in school with her orgmates to finish working on a photo exhibit. With her are ex-boyfriend Lui (Gerald Anderson) and some other friends, like Pinky (IC Mendoza).

For some reason, Joy has a tendency to enter doors that mysteriously open in the dark, and I suppose it is because of this that she accidentally sets the evil spirit of murderous Sister Maria Belonia (Jean Garcia) free to hunt her and her friends down. Apart from this, and the rather anti-climactic “explosive” ending, this film was really rattling.

The last film is a delicious fantasy comedy, Nieves (directed by Mike Tuviera). It’s otherwise known as the film Eugene Domingo was supposed to star in. Marian Rivera was an ingenious choice, though, because she was absolutely stellar in her role as Nieves, the engkanto slayer. I was impartial towards her, not having seen her turn as Marimar, but I became an instant fan. Her beauty is quite stunning, especially when juxtaposed with her decidedly Caviteña demeanor. She may have doll-like beauty, but she can be as authentic a palengkera as you can get.

Nieves is the wife of Adonis, with whom elementals always fall in love. Feisty Nieves is always under attack of the otherworldly sort, so she learns to fend for herself. Things take a turn, however, when she loses Adonis to the engkantada Acacia (Diana Zubiri) and it takes a boy, Junie (Robert “Buboy” Villar) to get her back to her old form in order to save the day.

The only thing I found jarring in this film is the sudden shift from comic scenes to dramatic ones, much like in Emergency. Perhaps it’s something Tuviera should watch out for. 

I think they can still do more with Nieves. She’s a breath of fresh air in terms of creativity and originality. I think we need more locally-bred heroines like her who thrive in the country’s rich worlds of fantasy and mythology—worlds that even Neil Gaiman himself found fascinating and worlds we’re in danger of forgetting. Paging, Mother Lily.

Email your comments to [email protected] or text them to (63)917-9164421. You can also visit my personal blog at http://althearicardo.blogspot.com. Channel Surfing will resume its Tuesday and Thursday column schedules next week.