Horror PLUS Filmfest: T'yanak

The original Tiyanak was one of the most memorable Filipino horror movies of its time. I don't remember much about the film other than a few famous lines and the titular monster, crude by modern standards but quite horrifying in the day.

Now more than 20 years later, Director Peque Gallaga goes back to this 1988 movie and remakes it with years of new special effects and cinematic knowledge to bring the story to a new generation.

Judy Ann Santos takes the lead role of Julie, a woman who takes the Tiyanak in her wing after a series of improbable events. She begins to form a maternal bond with the Tiyanak and protects it, despite everyone else being really really suspicious of the weird things going on. Meanwhile, Joven (Sid Lucero) has lost a lot to the Tiyanak and is out for revenge. And in the middle of all this is Maddie (Solenn Heussaff) who slowly treads the line from skepticism to belief.

The titular monster disguises itself as the most defenseless of creatures - a small baby - and it is in preying on the maternal instincts of others that it feeds, much like how some predators lure their prey into traps, like anglerfish and their illicium. Yet the movie does not pass judgement on its monster; it treats it like an amoral force of nature, given neither to reason or a sense of good and evil; it is a proverbial scorpion, left with no recourse but to kill for its own survival.

Deep in its core, Tiyanak is a statement about motherhood. In contrast to, say, Rosemary's Baby, where the very act of fitting into societal norms seems terrifying, this movie presents the 'terror' of motherhood via the dichotomy of its two protagonists. Julie embraces motherhood but cannot achieve it on her own, and indeed the presence of her husband is virtually nonexistent (I assume she is either separated or not on good terms, either way it's a dysfunctional dynamic to start a family on.) In contrast, Maddie has a fiancee and the means to create a child but chooses not to, and this influences her to turn against the Tiyanak (of course counting the many bizarre occurrences and murders.) It is worth noting, on the other hand, that she possesses the same maternal instinct as Julie, as she is the one who initially "rescues" the Tiyanak from the cave.The crux of the film now rests on how these two women deal with their own internal problems.

While Judy Ann steals the show (with a performance few actresses can match,) kudos has to be given to the baby. It's hard to make a baby act, or the more appropriate statement may be: it's hard to make a baby NOT CRY. There are also a few very nice cameos near the end that are impossible to miss.

The visual effects are mostly effective, but there's a certain charm about the old Tiyanak, like the old skin suits are to Godzilla. There's a lot of gore, but the best shots of Tiyanak are those left to our imagination. Technically the film is solid. One very memorable scene happens in the middle of the film, after the death of an important character. The scene is framed in one continuous shot, and it's packed with information - a testament to the technical prowess of its filmmakers.

It may be too late saying this (as the Horror Plus filmfest is winding down) but Tiyanak may be the only film worthy of the festival. Hopefully someone comes and picks this up on a distributable format - preferably bundled with the original film. Wink, wink.