The Healing - 2012 - Philippines

The Healing - 2012 - 6/10 

 
Seth takes her dying father to a tiny village where a miraculous “healer” lives.
The results are astounding.
So much so, that ailing friends and neighbors demand she take them. 
The next time, something is different.  The healer is tired, but they insist.
Back home, miracles.  Then … a dark reckoning.
Philippines supernatural, with a whiff of earlier Hong Kong horrors.
English subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3372672

Ghost Bride - 2017 - Philippines

Ghost Bride - 2017 - 6/10 

 
Mayen is the fiercely independent daughter in a struggling family.
The family are performers in old-fashioned Chinese opera. 
No one attends much, owing to television and cellphones.
Father is a financial failure, the family faces eviction.
Mayen, beautiful Mayen, has suitors.  Greedy, sleazy, lying, two-faced.
A matchmaker offers a huge amount of money if – if – Mayen marries a dead man.
Philippines horror takes its sweet time to get going.
Forty minutes in, however, once the agreement is made…hold on.
Wildly, deliriously over-the-top mash of horror, monks, priests, demons, ghosts.

Blood Thirst - 1971 - Philippines

Blood Thirst - 1971 - 5/10

 
One might think the girls would not walk home alone.
Middle of the night, deserted streets, with a serial killer stalking.
Corpses are drained of blood, arms sliced open.
Baffled Manila police chief contacts a Stateside buddy.
Who then spends most of his time inside a club, watching Serena.
Predictable Horror outing, albeit interesting for the Philippines locale.
English subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3372135

Feng Shui - 2004 - Philippines

Feng Shui - 2004 - 6/10 

 
Joy finds a mirror on the bus, left behind by a passenger.
The mirror is a bagua design, meant to bring good luck to the possessor.
And indeed, Joy’s luck soars.  Job promotion, husband gets a bonus, the new house.
Alas, there is no free lunch; for each fortune, there is a death.
The bagua is a cursed thing, with a deeply ugly history.
Film mixes greed, Daoism and supernatural elements.

The Horror From Beyond - 1965 - Philippines

The Horror From Beyond - 1965 - 5/10

 
Beyond what?  Lo, a wooden coffin, floating, retrieved by a fisherman.
Inside, an intact skeleton, perfectly connected, even when manhandled.
Following a death (#1), police consult local scientists, leading to death #2.
No one notices the skull turn this way and that, listening or watching.
Soon enough, Skelly dons some clothes (modesty, please!) and toddles to a barbeque.
More killings ensue as ole bag-o-bones shambles along.
Despite bullets and science and law enforcement and our lonesome killer, this is Dullsville.
English subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3370956

Paradise Of Terror - 1965 - Philippines

Paradise Of Terror - 1965 - 5/10

 
The plane is flying over enemy territory (Vietnam), ferrying a diplomat and an Asian Colonel.
Rebel gunfire strikes the aircraft, everyone parachutes to safety.
Lost in the tropical jungle, they come across a modern house.
Air-conditioned, meals prepared, showers, coffee, ghostly women from time to time.
Lethargy sets in, their missions forgotten, they become lotus eaters.
Excellent photography, an adequate cast, yet the story lacks oomph.
Too much talking, rather than elaborating on the mysterious house.
Subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3370771

Eerie - 2018 - Philippines

Eerie - 2018 - 6/10

 
Too many girls have been found dead at the Catholic girl’s school.
Murdered, suicide, misadventure.
Guidance counselor Patricia intervenes, butts heads with boss Sor Alice.
Interviews the unhappy girls, including the deceased.
Filipino horror mines guilt, persecution, mystery.
Religious overtones may deter many.

Night Shift - 2020 - Philippines

Night Shift - 2020 - 6/10

 
Day seven for Jessie, assistant in the “End Of The World” – AKA the Morgue.
A religious skeptic, Jessie works with the deeply religious Dr. Alex.
Corpses arrive throughout, where they exhale, twitch, often move.
Owing to a massive storm, Jessie has been working nonstop 24 hours.
Her exhaustion gives rise to hallucinations, or are they?
Possibly too slow boil for many, and religious overtones, the dominion of Death, may be off putting.
For fans of Revelation, the Blood Moon (Book Of Joel), and the Fourth Horseman.

In The Wink Of An Eye - 1981 - Philippines

In The Wink Of An Eye - 1981 - 7/10  
AKA - Kisapmata

 
He has trouble letting go.
Even though daughter Mila is pregnant, the male is ready to marry her.
Her father does not want to let her leave.
All manner of excuses, reasons, coercion, threats.
After all, Mila is more than just a daughter, she is his property, and something more.
Creepy suspenser with tension that tightens from the onset.
Steeped in incest, this is more frightening than most “horror” films.
Sadly, based on true events.

Itim - 1976 - Philippines

Itim - 1976 - 6/10
AKA - The Rites Of May

 
The magazine is shuttered for summer, so Jun leaves Manila for small village San Ildefonso.
Jun’s doctor father, incapacitated following an accident, exists in a gloomy manor.
Taking photographs during Lent, Jun soon finds himself attracted to Teresa, who is lost in a fog.
Nor is this mere attraction, but the hand of Teresa’s dead sister, Rosa.
Who begins to manipulate her sister, and the couple, for her own purposes.
Photography is dreamlike and hazy throughout, many scenes maddeningly opaque.
Chances are, you will deduce the plot and twists before the end.
Jungle mix of Catholicism, shamanism, superstition and taboos.

They Call Her … Cleopatra Wong - 1978 - Philippines

They Call Her … Cleopatra Wong - 1978 - 6/10

Near-perfect counterfeit currency is flooding several Asian countries.
Police and government agencies are stymied.
Interpol contacts their best agent: hard living, hard loving, Cleopatra Wong.
Who, following the trail, zeroes in on the convent.
You got it.  Nuns.  And yes, a new subgenre for me, nuns with guns.

 
For lazy travelers, Cleo scuttles from Singapore to Hong Kong to Manila.
Accompanied by kitschy, action stock music.
Dubbing is a parody of clichéd stereotypes.

 
Lots of martial arts, long chases (one on Singapore’s cable car.
Of course, nuns with guns.  Who’s going to resist that?

Snake Sisters - 1984 - Philippines

Snake Sisters - 1984 - 5/10

 
The snake lays sixteen eggs; three extra large ones hatch out as human females.
Life is idyllic on the tiny island until the females begin menstruating.
Then they start seeking another sort of snake.
Nudity throughout, quite a bit of sex, and eating (implied) of animals.
I don’t know the history, so don’t know if this is pure fantasy or based on Filipino folklore.
Definitely a curio, and perhaps more for seekers of such.

Cover Girl Models - 1975 - Philippines

Cover Girl Models - 1975 - 5/10

 
Three girls and a photographer head off to exotic Hong Kong and regions thereabouts.
Once there, they are unwittingly involved with smugglers and espionage.
Not that they know, they are mostly hapless eye candy.
They bring their own wardrobes (please, designers would supply fashions they wanted showcased) that appear to have been grabbed out of a fabric shop.
On the sly, the photographer keeps pushing for nude spreads for girlie mags.
The girls refuse, they are fashion models after all, but there is nudity throughout.
Poodle fur, pointless drive-in goop.