Never is there a more perfect time for a scream queen to shine than on Halloween. With the day of the dead almost upon us and horror movies ripe and ready for a bloody round of binge-watching, we rounded up five films armed with Filipina actresses with weak knees and banshee wails for your Halloween movie marathon.
5. Angel Locsin in TxT (2006)
This movie takes that dreaded text from someone’s ex to the next level. Several years before smartphones boomed, this movie gave cellphone addicts a good scare with the story of a nurse haunted by her dead ex-boyfriend through several outdated Nokia mobile phones. There were several shots where Angel Locsin was (comically) screaming as she stares at a cellphone. The most memorable one though happened at the 50-minute mark after she pries a random phone from a dead patient’s eerily raised hand.
4. Maricel Soriano in T2 (2009)
Running through her old tenement building, Claire (Maricel Soriano) screams as she chases a group of engkantos going after her adopted daughter, Angeli. It sounds like a lot but that was the gist of the most gripping scene in this 2009 supernatural horror film. Soriano plays the Save an Orphan Foundation volunteer Claire who takes in Mika Dela Cruz’ character (Angeli) as her current mission. Little did she know that the little girl she adopts has some very persistent and aggressive family members after her.
3. Janice de Belen in Tiyanak (1988)
Lotlot de Leon may have done majority of the screaming in this 1988 classic, but it was Janice de Belen’s postpartum woes that take the spotlight. Playing the role of guardian and protector to the monster terrorizing the Marsos family, de Belen’s character Julie fights, kicks, and screams to keep the little demon baby alive. Her best screaming fit though happened during the opening scene where she breaks down over a miscarriage.
2. Amy Austria in Patayin Sa Sindak si Barbara (1995)
Despite not playing the lead in the 1995 remake of Patayin Sa Sindak si Barbara, Amy Austria holds the best scream in the movie for sheer exaggeration and believability. It was close though. At the 52-minute mark, Lorna Tolentino and Austria basically have a screaming match, as the ghost (Dawn Zulueta) flings house furniture at them. Austria does Tolentino one better thanks to her reaction when she sees the ghost while she’s washing dishes. Staggering backward, she lets it rip straight from her diaphragm.
1. Kris Aquino in Feng Shui 2 (2014)
“Endon! Ingrid!” Kris Aquino’s character Joy Ramirez screams as she frantically runs up the stairs. A bedroom door flies open and standing behind her daughter’s bed is one of the ghosts from the cursed bagua or pa kua, an eight-sided mirror used as an energy map in feng shui. That’s all it took for Kris’ iconic wail to be immortalized in film history. Full of ear-splitting falsetto, her shriek became so famous it was turned into a ringtone and used in several remixes.
Can you think of other actresses that should have made it to this scream queens list? Do you have other favorite Filipino horror films? Let us know.
Header photos courtesy of flippish.com and filmpolicereviews.com
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Writer: ANTHEA REYES
