House of horror with a difference

MANILA, Philippines - Welcome to the latest horror show in town. It’s different. And the difference is that it is a PETA (Philippine Educational Theater Association) production. And so you have young actors and actresses, hideously made up, screaming, threatening you inches away and scaring the daylights out of you.

This startling story of a haunted house, Bahay Trese (House No. 13) is ongoing inside the World of Fun (WOF) at the Sta. Lucia Mall in Cainta, Rizal (www.bahaytrese.com.ph) until Jan. 17, 2016, 3 to 9 p.m.

Before entering, you have to deposit everything “para komportable kayo” and sign a page-long waiver. An attendant sweetly asks me my age, and I tell her. “It’s only for those up to age 59,” she informs me. “So,” I say, “how can I write about the show if I don’t experience it?”

I reassure her that, to my knowledge, I don’t have a heart problem, asthma, vertigo, claustrophobia, etc. And so an exception is made for this senior citizen.

Only groups of five to seven can be accommodated, and you are warned not to touch any of the actors.

A caretaker materializes from out of nowhere in the darkness, as a door opens suddenly and moves violently. He warns you of what is in store for you, in this case, a group of media practitioners. Film clips show the destruction of Manila in 1945 at the end of World War II. Buildings ablaze, and there are mangled bodies of civilian victims.

The scene shifts to a haunted house, where a family was massacred by the Japanese. There are photos of the unfortunate family members, a little girl who died after the war and her father, a doctor, who was supposed to have committed suicide. Caretakers interviewed recount tales of restless spirits, who will now frighten those who dare to enter this place (an eerie production design by Boni Juan).

There are nine rooms in all, including a foyer, an altar room with images of the Blessed Mother (to appease the spirits or to reassure the anxious visitors?), a mad man’s laboratory and a little girl’s bedroom, no doubt the daughter of the doctor.

In every room there is a spine-tingling surprise. A corpse in a coffin comes alive and threatens the intruders, only to be pacified by the caretaker, called Mang Abe. A screaming banshee flails away at the group, and the media colleagues shout and laugh nervously, holding on to each other’s shoulders and trying to maintain a single file.

A little girl bolts from a rocking chair, runs to a corner of the wall and, facing you, ascends slowly like a spider, a Spidergirl glowering at you, pulled upwards by invisible strings.

That’s the most clever touch of the show.

Relief comes after about 15 minutes, as a zombie points to the exit. We scamper away pursued by the monster, who is right behind me. There is finally a light at the end of the tunnel, as we speed through a winding stairway and return to the World of Fun, its games, rides and bright lights providing a contrast to the dark, twilight world below.

A brief horror show, but enough to give you palpitations.