| The Curse of the Film
Production:
At the 1st production meeting
for this horror film, we all met at Director Matthew
Abaya's house in Daly City. The production manager
George Nguyen sat with his back to the window
and didn't see what was coming next. Before the
meeting started, There was a loud thud on the
window. "It was a bird! It hit the window!
", Abaya yelled
Every one
ran outside to see. Maybe it was a dark blessing
to the film production, but everyone was saddened
that this poor bird lost it's life. Abaya theorized
that the presence of birds is a symbol that the
aswang is present. We are all cursed unless we
make the aswang in our film convincing. They live
to tell. Did they succeed? Check
it out and
judge for yourself.
What
are Aswangs (Asuwang or Manananggal)?
- This is a strange breed
of vampyre unique to Philippines (Visayas, Bikol,
Ilikano, Tagalog, Cuyonon). The legend tells
a story about a race of mostly women who shape
shift at night and feed on their victim's blood
and viscera. They particularly like the embryos
of pregnant women. There are similar incarnations
in Thailand and other parts of South East Asian
countries.
- Strengths: By
day she looks like a normal woman. She can be
unaffected by the sunlight unlike the typical
nosferatu. She is not exactly a day walker,
but she gains her supernatural powers as night
approaches. She can easily disembowel and feed
from victims with her long piercing tongue.
Before midnight, she separates from her
lower half and sprouts bat-like wings for nighttime
flight. Some say she can resemble a bat or a
bird in full transformation. She can appear
very charming and can transform you into a creature
of the night by blowing down the back of your
neck.
- Weaknesses: Aswangs
do not like vinegar, garlic or anything spicy.
They immediately retreat at the strong odor.
For this reason, most Philippine food is made
of salty ingredients with generous amounts of
vinegar and garlic. This will not kill
them unless you discover the lowered severed
half of an aswang and pour the elements down
it's open side. This will prevent her from being
able to reattach. When day breaks, she
will die.
What are
the Kyonsi?
- This is hopping corpse
or zombie. They were common in China during
the Qing Dynasty and still exist in some parts
of Asia and in the Americas. When a person dies
abroad, it is customary to return the deceased
to their home village. With the exorbitant costs
of buying horses and wagons to ship the dead,
Taoist monks discovered an economic method where
they could control a corpse and make them hop
all the way home. Sometimes, the corpses get
lost in transit and could become very dangerous
if a certified corpse walker is not present.
Do not try to reason with the dead. After all,
they are dead and do not listen anymore. Some
believe that they are a type of vampyre because
they can develop sharp canines and bite you
rather hard. They will not drink your blood,
but you could die from the infection and become
undead as well.
Strengths: They
can usually be stronger in death then in life.
Dark energies have that strange power.
Weaknesses:
They may be strong but
they are not smart. They are impulsive and are
able to react only from the natural reflexes
in the human body. Their only sense is smell.
They are usually blind and do not experience
pain. You can stop them if you place a Taoist
spell on their head to neutralize the negative
energy in the corpse. The best way to stop them
would be properly return them to their home
village. For those wandering in the Americas,
return was often times very expensive, so many
still exist causing terror in the countryside.
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