T’yanak

Of the plethora of think-pieces that John Carpenter’s Halloween has inspired over the decades, one thought remains most astute of the masked killer Michael Myers. He is not the predator, nature is—because it has allowed his existence, this err. The scene towards the film’s end perfectly illustrates my point: Myers, faced unto his latest undoing, examines the corpse he has pinned so savagely to the wall. He had not a lick of sense of what doom he had caused; it was just him and the way of him.

This is not entirely the case with Peque Gallaga and Lore Reyes’s T’yanak, although it resonates the same sentiment. The feral monster in the film is both a predator and an error to nature, but can a predator be wronged for going after its prey? Does one think of the same about a crocodile which sharp teeth are set deep on its game?  Thus, the ‘babaylan’ (played by Angelina Kanapi) argues that it is only right that the ‘tiyanak’ be killed and we be devoured by the creature, for it is in every one’s primal nature to survive—whatever the stakes. “Walang masama doon,” the ‘babaylan’ says, “Lahat tayo ang gusto lang…mabuhay.”

Yet the survivalist aspect of T’yanak only serves as its backdrop. Gallaga, who also co-wrote the script with Lore Reyes, knows where his film can use some refinement, and succeeds. It is the same story about a shape-shifting infant who turns into a vampiric monster and prowls on its victims; it is only different in that the story is latched on the relationship central to the family that takes in the innocuous-looking baby.

Julie, portrayed by Judy Ann Santos, is riddled with frustrations of her inability to conceive a child—three miscarriages, she is exhausted—and there it was, a baby right in her doorstep, found by her sister-in-law Madie (Solenn Heusaff) in the woods. What to do, what to do? The imprint of mother-and-child is almost immediate; just as fast, it burns cold in Santos’s eyes. Madie is ‘practical’ that she opts for a childless marriage—her fiancée Mark (Tom Rodriguez) makes peace with it—and there it was, a child she finds abandoned in a cave. What to do, what to do? The imprint of mother-and-child is almost immediate; just as fast, she cradles and takes it home. With this Gallaga and Reyes have metaphorized the terrorizing monster as women’s most profound fear—motherhood.

I only have a daze of memory of the 1988 original which starred Janice de Belen. The prop creatures in that film are things of nightmares, and here they are replaced with some practical effects and a lot of CGI. The entire effect is by least praiseworthy, considering the scale of production.

This, however, shall not imply that the film is lesser an experience. Directors Gallaga and Reyes have intimate sense of horror build-up; besides that the fear intensifies, it multiplies within deranged minds. Sid Lucero’s Joven, a husband whose wife is beheaded by a ‘tiyanak,’ runs around town like a savage, wields a shotgun, and fires at the creature every opportunity he gets. Julie, dazed in her matriarchal delusion, threatens anyone who tries to harm her baby ‘tiyanak.’ The script writes these characters well: they have crisp, conversational dialogue and vivid motivations and distress. But when the third arc drags on and crams to tie all loose ends, the intelligent direction, the studious build-up and well characterization are almost squandered.

You can’t take it away from the film, though. It is resolutely solid until the final act. It is replete with terrific portrayals and sensitive flourishes. It is one of the better horror films to come in our native cinema this year. And hey, do not lose confidence—this is goldmine! A much-awaited deus ex machina of native horror films, spitting phlegm on gigantic manures that precede it.

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T’YANAK (2014)

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Peque Gallaga, Lore Reyes / PH
Horror, Thriller / 115 min. / PG
Screenplay: Peque Gallaga, Lore Reyes
Cast:  Judy Ann Santos, Sid Lucero, Tom Rodriguez, Solenn Heusaff, Liza Lorena…

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the film in one line of dialogue:

“So kaya mong patayin ang baby ko?”

~Julie (Judy Ann Santos)

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