Movie Review -- Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles

At first glance, Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles has the makings of a kickass movie. It’s the first ever Filipino movie to be shot on green screen, it has Erik Matti at the helm (writing and directing), and it has featured impressive copywriting (the tagline Ang Pelikulang May Puso, Atay, Bituka, at Iba Pang Lamang Loob should pique your interest, even if it’s just a little bit). As I sat in the cinema though, I found myself rooting for no one – I was planning to root for Team Aswang, but even the love of folklore didn’t help me appreciate these movie monsters.

Where it started to go horribly wrong
As I and the PR copy mentioned before, Tiktik starts with the bad boy Makoy (Dingdong Dantes) pissing off a family of pig farmers in a sleepy, creepy village. The pig farmers turn out to be aswangs and lays siege to Makoy’s girlfriend’s house. Did we mention that the girlfriend, Sonia (Lovi Poe) is about 12 months pregnant and is about to spawn a baby? If you’ve been keeping up with your Philippine folklore, then you’d know that aswangs consider unborn children as a sort of delicacy – in the movie, one of them even referred to the fetus as “balut.”

Sonia’s parents, Nestor (Joey Marquez) and Fely (Janice de Belen), along with their katiwala, Bart (Ramon Bautista), are forced to defend their home against the aswang attack.

Promise
The film showed promise, yes. I especially liked the ingenious way the aswangs found a way to infiltrate the victims’ house and how one scene felt like it was the Pinoy version of Scarface’s “SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND.” Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles had the makings of a siege horror movie (From Dusk Til Dawn, Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight) and it had the promise of camp or at the very least, fun.

The backdrops are pretty and ominous (one scene looked like it was shot on the way to Mordor), and while the CGI wasn’t perfect but it was still somewhat impressive.

Confused
Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles is not a monster movie. It did educate/remind us on the aswang’s aversion to garlic, salt, and buntot pagi, but it didn’t really explore the folklore behind them. The movie isn’t camp either. It did try in a few scenes, but didn’t quite pull off the “we’re not taking ourselves too seriously” tone. It’s not your garden variety Pinoy horror movie either – nothing is hiding inside the cupboard, nothing will suddenly grab you, and nothing will make you jump out of your skin. Was it a siege/monster campy horror movie? I’m not sure. The movie seemed unsure of what it was, or was it rather trying not to get pigeonholed?

Verdict
Personally, I was disappointed. I went into the movie theatre thinking that I was about to watch a kickass movie. The characters were not fleshed out enough to gain sympathy – at one point, near the end of the film, I was just hoping their large stash of methanol would ignite and kill everybody. I was left wondering if the scenes that established the relationships between the characters were cut during editing. Some bits were interesting, like Bart’s relationship to the aswang family and the entirety of Rina Reyes’ character, but those were never really expounded.

Visuals: 4 out of 5
Again, the CGI wasn’t perfect, but Erik Matti did supply the promised eye-candy.

Story: 1 out of 5
I would have liked some sort of focus somewhere, even if it was the Macoy-Sonia relationship. No dice though. We were more acquainted to the boy’s relationship to Boy Bawang and Bart’s relationship to Lipps candy.

Gore Factor: 2 out of 5
The some gory scenes with Joey Marquez were both twisted and funny – they were not overdone and were beautifully executed. There were a lot of gory scenes, and while some were okay, the others left a lot to be desired.

Average: 2 out of 5 
Overall, I think I may have been happier had I not expected too much out of the Tiktik. It had so much promise and we, as moviegoers, had so much to hope for. Personally, I was disappointed with the movie's overall package. It did have its moments, but a handful of moments doesn't make a movie. Hopefully, the next film that would venture into the way of the green screen - probably a fantasy or another horror flick - would use it to its full potential and not just piddle with its possibilities. In this movie, it feels like a marketing ploy, a USP (unique selling point) which ultimately did work for the movie, but left the other elements (cardboard cutout characters and plot) stale and recycled.


PS. I'd forgotten to include some things that irritated me during the movie and I attribute the omission to not wanting to spoil the movie for those who haven't watched it.

Advertising is okay, but should be tastefully done. Have you seen the Truman Show? Truman's wife would stop and advertise her dishwashing soap and other things - while in the middle of a conversation. It interrupts the flow of the story. The product placement in Tiktik was intended to be seamless, I guess, as some of the products were incorporated to the story. However, it interrupts the suspension of disbelief. Really, cornick as ammunition? My disbelief has been properly suspended, but guys, you have to hold it and keep it suspended.

In a recent tweet, Erik Matti explained that "Boy Bawang, Mighty and Lipps are not product placements in TiktikTheAswangChronicles. They are there solely because of story." I understand the Mighty part, you'd be hard pressed to find Marls in a far-flung province. You'd only find Mighty, Winnsboro, and other local brands. The Lipps explained something in the movie, though it was unnecessary. I took special offense to the Boy Bawang part. Come on, it's okay to put kids in monster movies, so long as it's necessary and so long as it doesn't make your movie ridiculous.

Unnecessary. There were many unnecessary things in Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles. Some felt overindulgent, including the split screens. They were good in increasing the tension the first few times it was used. After a while though, they just felt tedious.