Creature Feature: Erik Matti’s TIKTIK

A few posts back, I mentioned Erik Matti’s upcoming movie TIKTIK: The Aswang Chronicles which caught my eye because of two things: a. Erik Matti and b. green screen. Erik Matti has had some hits and misses, but he co-wrote Magic Temple (which my 14 year old self will always love despite the subsequent sequel with Anne Curtis) so he has a “rep” for me. The second part is interesting simply because shooting a film purely on green screen has never been done before in the Philippines (yes, other countries have been doing this for ages).

What is TIKTIK: The Aswang Chronicles about anyway? Well, according to the blurbs, the trouble starts when the douchebaggy Makoy (Dingdong Dantes) manages to piss off an entire village of aswang. That’s never really a good idea if you like your innards where they are. In Makoy’s case, this is a severely bad idea since his girlfriend Sonia (Lovi Poe) is very pregnant. As mentioned in the Aswang (1992) article, aswang will gladly consume a full grown person but what makes their tongues itch, so to speak, are babies.

Which brings us to this tangent: Joey Marquez and Janice de Belen played husband and wife in the Aswang movie. Incidentally, Joey died within the first 10 minutes of the flick, while Janice hung around for some time while Alma Moreno (as the aswang) smacked her lips at Janice’s baby bump. Both appear in TIKTIK: The Aswang Chronicles too, as Mang Nestor and Aling Fely, respectively. They didn't fare very well against one aswang - how will they do against an entire village of aswang? (What do you call a group of aswang anyway? A herd? A passel? A school?)

The film also stars Ramon Bautista, Rina Reyes (who I will always remember for playing a anthropomorphic cat in Pulis Patola) and LJ Moreno, among others. Judging from the trailer, Roi Vinzon plays the aswang’s patriarch of sorts. Again, why would you want to piss off a village of aswang? And who would be stupid enough to piss off Roi Vinzon?

Anyway, TIKTIK: The Aswang Chronicles opens on October 17, 2012. I’d go see it to see who ends up as dinner – or if they do end up as dinner. (I’m rooting for Team Aswang on this one.) If the trailer is any indication, we'll be seeing comedy, horror, and gore (don't expect too much, this is a PG-13 movie) wrapped in a CGI burrito. See for yourself: