The most intriguing episode is the second one, “Ulam”, directed by Jerrold Tarog (in his third ‘Shake’ movie). Dennis Trillo and Carla Abellana are a couple who leave their apartment and move to the old ancestral home of Dennis’ family. They are welcomed by the unctuous caretaker, Chanda Romero, who then cooks special dishes for them at dinner. The “ulam” Chanda cooks makes Dennis and Carla hallucinate that they are transforming into a lizard and a dog, respectively. The hostility between them is also deliberately cultivated by some sinister force, culminating into unfortunate violence and tragedy. Both Dennis and Carla do extremely well in their respective roles, but Chanda Romero pulls the rug from under them and steals the episode by simply underplaying all her scenes as the diabolical maid from hell who is keeping a deep dark secret about the family.
The most fun episode, though, is Perci Intalan’s “Flight 666”, about a hellish plane ride where a “maligno” is born during the flight and starts killing the passengers one by one. The creature is actually a “tiyanak” but they refrain from using that word since it’s just been used in the recent Peque Gallaga reboot of “T’yanak”. This episode has the most characters, including Lovi Poe, Daniel Matsunaga and Nathalie Hart as flight attendants, Matteo Guidicelli, Kuya Kim Atienza and several other stars as passengers, plus Bernard Palanca as a hijacker who plants a bomb inside the plane. The narrative moves at a pretty fast clip and ends with Daniel and Kuya Kim trying their best to land the plane successfully.
The least interesting episode is “Ahas” by Dondon Santos. It’s based on the urban legend about a man-snake said to be lurking in the basement of a mall. Alice Dixson was even rumored to be a victim and Alice gamely does a cameo role here as the mother of Erich Gonzalez, who plays twin sisters, Sarah and Sandra. One of them is born with the body of a snake and eventually kills Solenn Heussaff, the wife of JC De Vera, a model with whom the snake woman falls in love. This episode has plenty of “laylay” moments, particularly when it turned overly dramatic with the “babaeng ahas” having a protracted and serious tearful confrontation with their dad, Ariel Rivera. Erich manages to be convincing in her dual roles but the other cast members are not really given much to do.
The three episodes all bank heavily on CGI and we’re happy to report that most of the special effects are really quite impressive. The snake woman is well rendered and can be truly scary. The scenes of Dennis and Carla transforming into monsters are also executed effectively. It’s only in the “maligno/tiyanak” that the CGI work is uneven. Sometimes, it’s very good and at other times, it looks shoddy. But still, it works and the kids behind us at the theatre really kept on screaming each time the creature is on a rampage.
One of the most amusing elements in this latest edition of the franchise is the running gag on John “Sweet” Lapus, who appears in all the episodes. He’s a designer who is attacked by the snake woman in “Ahas”. He survives and, in “Ulam”, he is the best friend of Carla who gets attacked by another monster. Again, he survives and in “Flight 666”, he’s one of the passengers attacked by the “maligno/tiyanak”. Is he finally killed or does he survive? You have to watch the movie and find out for yourself as we don’t want to spoil your viewing pleasure.
