Of creepy looking trees, still scary fun and then some

This year’s Shake, Rattle, and Roll is hampered by weak, though ambitious storylines; is buoyed by respectable cast members; is haunted by slap-dash execution; but is infused with the spirit of young directors wanting to make a mark. It’s still good fun—the kind you’d complain about after, but look forward to doing all over again in a year’s time.

It’s my personal tradition to start the Metro Manila Film Festival with the horror movies first, so I dragged my friend Emily along with me to watch Shake, Rattle, and Roll 9. I’ve been following this franchise since forever, so much so that it has become sort of a yearly tradition as well. I remember being a little pleased with last year’s installment, and, ever the optimist, I also had high hopes for this one.

The first segment was called Christmas Tree (directed by Paul Daza), where the monster is, surprise, surprise, a rare, undiscovered species of a pine tree that is supposedly from the Amazon jungle. I don’t know about you, but I’m of the opinion that you just can’t make a monster tree scary, especially if it is a Christmas tree. Not even if you have the best special effects technology in the world, which Shake, Rattle, and Roll obviously didn’t have.

The story starts with a family coming home for Christmas for some much-needed cheering up. A series of flashbacks shows us that the father died recently in a car accident, and the mother (Gina Alajar) has brought her brood of three children (Lovi Poe, Nash Aguas, and Sophia Baars) to their grandmother’s (Boots Anson Roa) house. The young uncle (John Prats), conveniently explained away as a menopause baby, helps the children deal with the loss. John Lapuz provides comic effect as the loud house helper with a hideously fake (and bordering on corny) Visayan accent.

As if Christmas wasn’t already tragic enough, they now have to contend with a monster Christmas tree that wanted to eat them all up. How they save their lives is the sort of stuff only Shake, Rattle, and Roll films can dream of.

The cast of this segment is its saving grace. Only Lovi Poe fails to shine (in her one big solo scene, where she scurries around the kitchen for something with which to kill the monster, she remembers to flip her hair like a real 80’s Regal baby), but her performance is forgivable, considering that it is the singer’s major film debut. It’s obvious, though, that Boots Anson Roa is one heck of an actress—she managed to register solid fear on her face, even if the tree was eons away from scary.

The second segment is Bangungot. It stars a fresh-from-a-love-triangle-scandal Dennis Trillo as Jerome, who is caught in a love triangle with obsessive colleague and one-time fling Marionne (Roxanne Guinoo) and fiancée Florence (Pauleen Luna). Most aspects of this segment worked for me. For starters, the casting was perfect (wink, wink). The scenes were well-composed. The monster wasn’t original, but it was creepy enough.

What didn’t work, however, was why they had to connect it to the concept of bangungot, when, in the end, Marionne herself discovers it’s not even remotely connected. A little tweaking of the storyline, however, and the final image of a screaming Marionne clinging on to a desperate Jerome would have been a hundred times more potent.

The third segment is Engkanto (directed by Mike Tuviera). A goth band and their roadies travel to a far-flung province for a gig, only to find themselves in an abandoned resort haunted by a beautiful engkanto (Katrina Halili) and some zombie-like creatures. The motley crew (Mart Escudero, Melissa Ricks, Matt Evans, Jewel Mische, Felix Roco) fight for their lives, aided by a local (Sam Concepcion) who happens to be a victim of the engkanto. Their manager (Jojo Alejar) provides comic relief that somehow keeps the rest of the cast’s amateurish acting afloat.

Engkanto (directed by Topel Lee), in my opinion, is the best in the trilogy. My only beef is that, like Bangungot, it didn’t stay faithful to the mythology.

All in all, I would say that this year’s Shake, Rattle, and Roll is consistent with the franchise’s previous installments. It is hampered by weak, though ambitious storylines; is buoyed by respectable cast members; is haunted by slap-dash execution (low budget, tight schedules?); but is infused with the spirit of young directors wanting to make a mark. It’s still good fun—the kind you’d complain about after, but look forward to doing all over again in a year’s time.

Happy 2008 everyone! Here’s to more of the good old things you won’t mind going back to, and even more of the good new things we look forward to!

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