Shake Rattle and Roll XV returns to its omnibus format, after the experiment with Chito Roño in the last edition. Once again, three different filmmakers are handed the reins to three different horror stories. As always, the results are pretty mixed, but the total product remains really compelling. Shake Rattle and Roll XV isn’t a perfect anthology of stories by any means, but it once again proves the lasting value of the franchise.
The first part is Ahas, directed by Dondon Santos. It’s inspired by the urban legend of some sort of snake creature residing in one of Metro Manila’s malls. In this segment, Erich Gonzales plays Sandra, the daughter of a mall magnate who’s just recently returned to the Philippines in time to celebrate the mall’s anniversary. Deep in the bowels of the mall resides Sarah, her half-snake twin sister. Sarah has spent years preying quietly on visitors to the mall, but now she wants to venture outside her pen. A lot of the details of the plot are sketchy, but the segment works well enough. It’s mostly just a bit of good fun, with Erich Gonzales clearly having a great time playing the monster. The logic of the segment doesn’t always hold together, and a twist development doesn’t land very well at all. But for the most part this is a pretty enjoyable romp.
Franchise veteran Jerrold Tarog brings Ulam, which stars Dennis Trillo and Carla Abellana as a married couple who move into an old house belonging to grandparents that never approved of their union. While they stay in the house, they have weird dreams where they seem to be slowly transforming into monsters. The segment is disproportionately well made. It’s the one segment that really feels cinematic. It is gripping right from its first moments, where the segment quickly establishes the tension that exists between the main characters. Restraint on the use of visual effects helps give the segment a visceral immediacy. Dennis Trillo and Carla Abellana are used really well. But the real attraction here in the cast is the great Chanda Romero, who really relishes the diabolical machinations of this particular plot.
Perci Intalan’s Flight 666 immediately loses points for not being titled “Tiyanak on a Plane,” which is exactly what it is. A late flight to Zamboanga is interrupted by the birth of something not quite human, which starts killing off the passengers one by one. It sounds like fun, but the segment really struggles to make its meager ambitions bear fruit. The visual effects are part of the problem. The monster just doesn’t look very good, and given the limited time and resources afforded to these projects, it never really had a chance. But the problems go well beyond the technical limitations. The characters are all paper thin, most of the actors tied to a single joke that never really goes anywhere. The two main characters, played by Lovi Poe and Matteo Guidecelli, exhibit no personality whatsoever.
Shake Ratlle and Roll XV is worth it for Ulam alone. It isn’t as thematically strong as the other segments that Tarog has directed, but it’s still a pretty dazzling showcase of genre filmmaking. Ahas is a fun little bonus. The plot doesn’t make the most sense (and I think they lost track of which twin was which at some point), but it’s still a load of fun. Flight 666 is a clunker, but it isn’t so bad that it ruins the experience. All in all, it is another fun year for the franchise, which continues to let filmmakers tell stories that no longer seem to fit in the modern mainstream horror mold. While it’s easy to make fun of the franchise for being a nearly yearly event, it remains a somewhat bright spot in the MMFF.
My Rating:
