The young guns of horror are back

You can hardly argue with a franchise film. Like Star Wars enviable history, Shake Rattle and Roll (SRR) is now on its eighth "reincarnation"; and as pundits would have it, horror in December is still an irresistible proposition. It all becomes a matter of which is one’s favorite film in the franchise. The "fresh paint" for this year’s version has much to do with the "Young Guns" directors Mother Lily has drafted for the film, one of her four entries in the current Metro Manila Film Festival. Rahyan Carlos, Topel Lee and Michael Tuviera are the directors of the trilogy; Rahyan handling the "scary funny" first episode 13/F, Topel taking on directorial chores for the "scary creepy" "Yaya", and Michael helming the "scary gory" "LRT."

As with a number of horror films, SRR 8 is about taking the ordinary, mundane and humdrum, and imbuing it with horror, tension and unmitigated fear. An innocuous children party for 13/F, a choice of yaya for one’s bunso, and a ride on the LRT: these are the innocent premises upon which SRR 8 builds its terror quotient. The energy and enthusiasm with which the directors throw themselves into their respective episodes are apparent. The saturated lighting of Yaya and LRT are great in giving us an otherworldy effect; and Michael makes tremendous use of the LRT terminal so that the action progresses beyond the train. In Topel’s case, there are light touches like the kiss between classmates/children that heighten the tension precisely by giving us humor and warmth. Folk legends like the aswang and the halimaw are given fresh leases on life by placing them in the context of modern-day domestic or urban life. Horror driven by humor is always a precarious balancing act, and if there is one weak link in the film, unfortunately, it would be the first episode. To my jaundiced eye, the humor seems a little too forced and extraneous to the storyline, and while the audience I was watching with was enjoying themselves, I felt that brisker editing would have been "manna from heaven."

In the cast, the undeniable standouts are the child actors, especially Nash Aguas in the Yaya segment. As Benjo, he is the terror of all yayas, constantly playing practical jokes on them, so there’s delicious irony when the new yaya (Iza Calzado) turns out to be terror personified, an aswang who is out to steal the life right out of Benjo’s baby sister. In LRT, the interplay between Keempee de Leon and Manilyn Reynes’ characters hit the audience in the right spot given their true life history.

There is a lot going for SRR 8, and if fantasy and horror still dominate the box-office tills no matter what time of the year, then movie fans are in for a treat with the film. The patience of getting through the "just average" first episode is rewarded by the time the end credits roll; and I personally found Yaya the most rewarding. It’s about time we gave Topel a full-length mainstream feature film.