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Reaction Paper

This reaction paper summarizes a 1992 Filipino film about an aswang, a shapeshifting supernatural creature from Filipino folklore. The film depicts the aswang as a demonization of women, often scapegoating them for issues like infant mortality. In the film, a family driver flees with the daughter and nanny of the family to his home village after the mother is murdered by robbers. They become involved with investigating attacks by an aswang, which can transform into animals and enjoys eating children. The paper critiques the film for including an unnecessary robbery subplot and not providing enough context for the aswang character. While lengthy, the film provides an interesting portrayal of the aswang folklore.

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Ann Acoba
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43 views2 pages

Reaction Paper

This reaction paper summarizes a 1992 Filipino film about an aswang, a shapeshifting supernatural creature from Filipino folklore. The film depicts the aswang as a demonization of women, often scapegoating them for issues like infant mortality. In the film, a family driver flees with the daughter and nanny of the family to his home village after the mother is murdered by robbers. They become involved with investigating attacks by an aswang, which can transform into animals and enjoys eating children. The paper critiques the film for including an unnecessary robbery subplot and not providing enough context for the aswang character. While lengthy, the film provides an interesting portrayal of the aswang folklore.

Uploaded by

Ann Acoba
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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REACTION PAPER

For this 1992 adaptation of the Aswang, we are once again in the Philippines, and the version we see is
that part of the mythology that demonized the female (either for being too pretty or being too old - you
really can't win, sometimes) and looked to scapegoat infant mortality and miscarriages.

The movie was also titled Shapeshifter, and this aswang is truly capable of changing into a variety of
animals, including cats, pigs, and snakes, in addition to monsters. We'll get to that, but it also includes a
lot of jumbled plot aspects.

Therefore, the story begins in the forest with an elderly lady performing a ceremony that results in her
becoming youthful. At the store, a party is being held by a group of males. We learn that Emil's wife,
Rosita, is expecting a child as the theme of the celebration. He enters the jungle to relieve himself and
there is a suggestion that the boys have given him a gift.

In the forest, he sees the beautiful form of the aswang and goes after him. So, to be fair, he brings his
fate down on himself. He follows her for a while and, eventually, we see that she becomes a tusked
anthropomorphic creature before becoming a pig. He is eventually attacked – the guys hear a scream
and assume it is a woman and then something innocuous. The attack was brutal and we see him ripped
in half, still in the distance

Catlyn (Aiza Seguerra) is with her nanny Veron (Manilyn Reynes) in Manilla while the family driver Dudoy
(Berting Labra) takes them home. Catlyn feels upset about leaving so early because she remembers that
her father will be calling from a business trip in Tokyo. Catlyn appears to be a practical joker by the time
they return to the house. As they arrive home, the gates are open, and there is a strange van parked
outside. Dudoy has them wait in the car while he investigates, and we soon discover a sight of blood and
the maids' bodies. Veron, however, follows him in, leaving Catlyn in the car. This is the scene of a robbery
(and the security guard is in on it). Both Veron and Dudoy manage to get out again, with the nanny
witnessing from a vantage spot the murder of Catlyn’s mother. Catlyn also goes in and gets out, but ends
up confronting the robbers before escaping. The three manage to get away.

Rather than going to the police, Dudoy flees to his home hamlet, where Catlyn's father has a huge
mansion and, ironically, Dudoy's nephew Emil has just been murdered. Of course, the three become
involved in the aswang nonsense (Catlyn becomes a target because the aswang enjoys eating children),
and the thieves and killers finally come for them (and we get a "Home Alone lite" moment). And this is
what I mean by "the kitchen sink," because the entire robbery scene was superfluous. It's also evident
that Dudoy remembers the aswang from when he was younger, but we don't get to hear about it.

We do hear an older woman tell a cryptozoologist (Leo Martinez, Vampire Hookers) that the aswang
departed thirty years ago when a church was erected, but that the aswang has returned as the church-
going populace has declined to the point where the priest has gone and the building has been
abandoned. We witness the aswang shapeshift and translocate; if a film of the aswang as a young lady is
played back in slow motion, it shows her former appearance. She may attack a pregnancy through a hole
in the ceiling with her long tongue.
Occasionally, we encounter a neck bite during the day, and if the aswang is harmed, she must return to
her house before sunrise to recuperate. Someone must wait on the top step of her cottage with salt to
prevent her return. If she is hit with salt, she will be injured. If she does not enter the hut, she will perish
with the morning in a tremendous fire. There is a book that has a technique of warding off the aswang
that Dudoy finds, but we don't get any idea of how it works.

The heist storyline could have been removed, Dudoy's relationship with the aswang clarified, and the
film could have been cut by 30 minutes. As it is, though, it is excessively lengthy but still interesting. I'm
afraid that the terrifying appearance of the aswang as the crone isn't truly so fearsome; she's only a lady
of a certain age. But I was certainly entertained.

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