Matti concocts a delightful anthology film that strengthens its anthemic horror, grotesque sinister, and bizarre imagination.
UPSTREAM.PH
Actors: Vance Larena, Ricci Rivero, Donna Cariaga, Kent Gonzales, Ayeesha Cervantes, Pam Gonzales, Ameera Johara, Jay Glorioso, Ynigo Delen, Jake Macapagal, Cheska Diaz, Brace Arquiza, Ube Lola
Genre: Horror
Overview: Rabid probes into our everyday reality and anxiety, uncertainty and paranoia. It features distinct but interwoven stories that revolve around the different ways this world drive us, human beings, to the brink of madness
Running Time: 104 minutes
Director: Erik Matti
Why You Should See It:
Violence, mayhem, and madness, brim relentlessly in this horror-anthology that feels crafted in the mold of Shake, Rattle, and Roll. Playing under the context of the current pandemic, Matti’s four-story feature has undoubtedly bleak parts, but the ones where it stands out make it the perfect horror anthology to die for.
There are no twists aplenty in Rabid, but it conjures fun, albeit chaotic and sometimes, revolting, imageries that fully demand, and deserve attention. With Kami lang ba puwede malasin?, Matti offers a scare and sinister extravaganza, as it delves into the nightmarish pursuit of a family from a practically self-inflicted terror. In this episode, a family unknowingly lets a monster in when they welcome a mute elderly woman into their home.
In iba pa din ang karne, patience is needed to make sense out of its black-and-white and lazily slow momentum. There is a sense of wanting more, and that’s not solely because this is the shortest of the four episodes. Following the story of a sick woman whose body constantly deteriorates. The horror is found in her condition itself as Matti seemingly took it as a cogent metaphor for the monsters, we become due to severe illnesses. The director finds a compelling juxtaposition in the sick, Jane (Pam Gonzales), and her caring husband, Melvin (Vance Larena) who seemingly denies the horrifying malformation his wife is slowly becoming.
Shit happens [literally] allow shit happens. Viewers of the heavily-criticized Darryl Yap film, Tililing, are more likely to feel being in the same unsettling, revolting situation. Matti mixes the grotesque and the repugnant in this episode, where characters are made to play in a madness-driven stench fest.
In HM? the last episode, Matti makes an ostensibly jarring mix of horror and absurdity in the form of ‘kare-kare’. Donna Cariaga stars here as the retrenched ABS-CBN worker, Princess, who has to resort to online business, despite her terrible cooking skills. When a magical ingredient comes to her possession, things suddenly turn around, for her. She suddenly becomes the best cook in town. But this new gift has terrifying consequences, particularly to those who get a taste of her heavenly Kare Kare.
It’s not difficult to see the harrowing socio-political undertones under which the four stories of Matti play. He employs ingenious choices here to come up with sense-juddering visuals and depths, all to allude to the real horror that keeps most of us embattled during trying times like today. The results of his choices are astoundingly and insanely fun, which makes Rabid a searingly-palpable commentary and a timely precautionary tale.
5 – Excellent
4 – Very Good
3 – Good
2 – Tolerable
1 – Terrible
Stream ‘Rabid’ on UPSTREAM.PH now for only PhP150.00. Watch the official trailer below:
