Holloween on my mind

Having seen The Echo recently, and having been impressed by Yam Laranas directing, I can’t wait to see Patient X, which is supposed to be about the aswang. I’m hoping Yam will do this creature justice and revive much of our dying lore.

Iwas born two days before Halloween. As a child, I found this fact a little bit embarrassing, as if it would be fodder for senseless, but hurtful bullying. As a teenager, a wide-eyed horoscope-crazed friend, who was born three days earlier, told me I was born under the sign of Scorpio, as if it automatically earned me a high spot in the social hierarchy. Admittedly, I have played up to the stereotype from time to time—usually to scare people with my supposedly underlying dark nature. For all my cowardice, I’m really into scaring and being scared. Thus, my interest in action, suspense, and the horror, the horror!

Owing to the season, a lot of thrillers have been showing on television lately. This week alone, I’ve caught bits and pieces of Dolores Claiborne, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, How to Make a Monster, The Swarm, and The Number 23. None of them are good for serious scares, unfortunately. I think I’ve just about seen it all, when it comes to mainstream scares.

I’m still setting the theme for my long Halloween weekend, though, with DVDs of Villa Estrella, which I wasn’t able to watch on the big screen, and The Midnight Meat Train, which was recommended by a friend who writes horror stories. I’m looking for DVDs of two other movies I missed, Jun Lana’s Tarot (Marian Rivera) and Kulam (Judy Ann Santos).

I’m also up for a True Blood marathon and, because this fabulous series has renewed my interest in vampires, I’m finally giving Twilight, the book and the movie, a try. I’m crossing my fingers I don’t turn into one of those thirty-somethings who pine for a dead teenager with a glittering chest.

Then again, there’s something about that that does pique the curiosity.

Having seen The Echo recently, and having been impressed by Yam Laranas directing, I can’t wait to see Patient X, which is supposed to be about the aswang. I’m hoping Yam will do this creature justice and revive much of our dying lore.

Neil Gaiman himself found our mythology fascinating, with our tikbalang and kapre and aswang and what-not. There is no reason we should not be mining that for our film and literature.

I’m still waiting for a new Pinoy horror film that would explore the eerie stillness of 12 noon to 3pm, when children would be told not to go outside because the elementals would be up and about. I’m still waiting for a real Semana Santa scary movie that would explore the pagan juxtaposed with the religious, and how, on Good Friday and Black Saturday, evil would be free to roam even in broad daylight.

I’m still waiting for a horror movie that explores our other pamahiin without chalking it up to an evil creature that can easily be ruined by poor special effects—why, for example, you have to wait until the third time someone calls your name, or why people say, in Filipino, “Tao po!”

In the meantime, I’d have to dig up old films for this fix. If you have any recommendations, I’m just an email or text away.

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.