Freak Show : Certified Ace Movie Review : Kubot The Aswang Chronicles 2

Kubot : The Aswang Chronicles, a sequel that is overshadowed by it's predecessor.

Genre: Horror Comedy
Country: Philippines
Studio: GMA Films, Reality Entertainment
Release Date: December 25, 2014

Director: Erik Matti
Starring Dingdong Dantes, Isabelle Daza, Joey Marquez, Lotlot De Leon, KC Montero, Elizabeth Oropesa

When Tiktik : The Aswang Chronicles hit theatres in the Philippines way back October 2012, the film was well-received by audiences and critics alike as it was the first ever Filipino movie entirely shot on green screen chroma key. The film gained praise for it's visuals, and was lauded for Erik Matti's direction. The film features Grindhouse-style violence, action and gore, pushing the limits of it's PG-13 rating.
The film centers on Makoy (Dingdong Dantes) as he travels from Manila to the province of Pulupandan to get back his girlfriend, Sonia (Lovi Poe) who is pregnant with their child. Sonia, being urged by her mother Fely (Janice De Belen) to stay away from him anymore, refuses to go back with him and decides on taking the child by herself.
Her father, Nestor (Joey Marquez) on the other hand, is on Makoy's side. He asked him to stay at their house for Sonia's birthday instead, and he agrees on helping them for the preparation.

But after a scuffle with some of the the residents from the meat market, things went pretty awry as they are revealed to be tiktiks, a form of aswang which mythological creatures that are hungry for human flesh. These tiktiks start attacking them at their house, trying to get the child on Sonia's womb to feed on it. Makoy and the rest of the family must then fight together to protect the child, and for their survival if they wanted to live up until sunlight.

The story is pretty much similar to the setup of a 2010 Hollywood movie, Legion. This time, it revolves around a group of people trapped in a diner as demonic entities surround and attack them, trying to get a hold of the child in one of the pregnant character's womb to kill it.

The only thing that makes Tiktik : The Aswang Chronicles really entertaining to watch is through the way it was visualized and executed. The visual effects in the movie were gorgeous to look at. From it's amazing backdrops, to it's horrifying creatures, one can really see the effort and hard work put into this project to materialized on screen. Also, Erik Matti's way of direction also adds up to the film's merit. It's violent and gritty. Tiktiks tearing out people's throats. Aswangs pulling out hearts of their victims. Makoy pulling out an aswang's intestines by skewering it in the belly with a large wooden fork. It's so bloody, yet so fun to watch.
This makes the movie totally entertaining.

And last December 25, 2014, a sequel entitled Kubot : The Aswang Chronicles 2 was released, continuing the story were it originally left off.

So did the movie met my expectations? Let's have a breakdown of the film to check and see.

Story

The story picks up where the first movie left off. Makoy, together with his wife Sonia and their child, with Nestor leave the province of Pulupandan seeking for a safety place for them. But on their way, a group of elder Kubot (a type of hairy aswang, who kills their victims by sucking out it's inards through a long transparent tube coming out from it's mouth and strapping its end at it's victims mouths ). They kill Sonia in retaliation for the death of the Tiktiks in Pulupandan and kidnaps their child. In the process, Makoy loses an arm as he tries to save his wife and child to no avail.
Two years passed, Makoy is now living with Nestor in Manila as he tries to find what purpose his life has. He has lost all hope, being plagued by nightmares about his wife and his child (who is presumed dead).

In their city, a factory owned by a young, ambitious heir of another Kubot clan uses it's processed meat products to infect people and transforms them into aswangs.
As the infection spreads through their city, Makoy must team up with a doctor named Lex (Isabelle Daza) who has been studying same cases of infection, to stop the mastermind behind all of this.

The story is an improvement over the previous film. It shows a wide-scale spread of the aswang virus through ingestion of processed food (made of human meat). The only problem was that they didn't pushed the story to it's full potential.
It would have been better to show a chaotic climax featuring people infected with the aswang virus spreading havoc all around the city.
But they cut it off before the real fun actually began.

Acting

Dingdong Dantes shows off his dramatic side in this movie, as his character goes through grief over the loss of his family. It gives the character a deeper background, unlike in the first movie.
Isabelle Daza is a fine actress. She does her part with full passion and willingness, even going as far as looking stupid in some scenes.
Lolot De Leon was a great addition to the cast. She provides laugh all through out the movie. I don't like to compare but it's as if she is the replacement for Ms. Janice De Belen's character in the first movie, who was also one of the source for comedic relief.

One thing that I must also commend is the addition of Elizabeth Oropesa as the leader of the elder Kubot. She is just totally menacing in every scene. Her appearance every time she transforms into a Kubot sends shivers to my spine. Her character is so mysterious, making her presence a dreadful addition to the story. I really dont know why they didn't made her character the main antagonist in the film.

Honestly speaking, she is way scarier than the film's main villain played by KC Montero. He just doesnt look so scary even with the make-up and prosthetics. It doesn't help the fact that he speaks half Filipino and half English all through out the movie which decreases his menace (if there's any).
I would've loved to see more of Elizabeth Oropesa in this film.
Asied from KC Montero's not-so-scary villain, another thing that really distracted me was the replacement of Lovi Poe as Sonia with a look-alike actress, Hannah Dela Guerra. It really distracted me because there's a lot of times that it's so obvious that Sonia isn't the original Sonia that we saw in the first movie.
I mean, I'm really sad for this because I love Lovi Poe in the first movie. Too bad she had some issues with Direk Erik Matti causing delay on the movie.

Another weakness that I also found was the characterization of Joey Marquez orignal role as Nestor. It bothers me, though was the fact that it's as if his character doesn't really care about what happened to his family. compared to Makoy, Joey Marquez' character looks like he didn't have any loved ones (his wife and daughter to be exact) that were killed by these freaking aswangs. Compared to his character in the first movie, it's as if he doesn't give a shit about his relatives who just died. C'mon, really?
I guess that's one point that the writers need to look at the third intallment of the series. Yup, Aswang Chronicles will be returning for a third installment. Hopefully, all these character issues will be addressed in the next movie.

Direction

As always, Erik Matti fills up the whole movie with lots of vilonce and gore. I always loved his works, from Tiktik : The Aswang Chronicles to the internationally acclaimed action thriller film On the Job (2013).
I loved how he orchestrated the opening scene featuring the attacks of the elder Kubot. I especially loved the part where Elizabeth Oropesa brought Sonia in the air and sucked her inards.
The dark humor in the orignal movie was also pumped up here in the sequel. I especially love very time Lotlot De Leon is around. she gives comedic relief for the whole film.
The only thing though that I felt like was missing for this sequel is the promised gore.

In the trailer, a voice-over said that there's gonna be more internal organs in it...
I know it's a pun but c'mon, the first movie involved a lot of body parts flying around. Arms, intestines, guts... those are the things that I wanna see more in this sequel. But I was disappointed to find out that they removed all of those things here in this movie. I guess this was done to achieve a lower rating from the MTRCB. I mean, they need a wider audience to earn their investment, right?
Even the way their story ended felt so hastily done. It was like they lacked of ideas on how the battle between Makoy and the aswangs in the factory was gonna end.

Technical Aspects

The first film was a technical masterpiece with it's stunning visual effects. But with this sequel, the producers gave up this aspect that made the first film magnificent.
I know that the urban backdrop was a good change of setting from the rural setting of the first movie. But I can't help but feel cheated while watching this sequel.
I know it might be unfair to compare the first movie with the sequel but c'mon, guys. a sequel is a sequel. And it's main purpose would be always to top the first one.
But with this aspect, the sequel really suffers a lot.

The film just look so cheap. Gone are the beautiful backdrops of the provinces created from green screen chroma key. You wont find the CGI aswangs that Makoy fought with a tail whip. Gone are the CGI blood spraying slowly in the air as tiktiks tear off their victims.
all of these graceful aspects that made the first film are all gone.
So sad...

Overall

The film may have improved on it's premise, and new additions to the casts like LotLot De Leon and Elizabeth Oropesa really deserve a round of applause for their performances, but the removal of the biggest aspect that made the first movie a hit- the visual effects -really affected the film's quality.
It's so hard not to compare the sequel to the first one, and in this battle, the new movie loses bigtime.
But above all thse technicalities, the film was still a good watch. Hopefully, the producers will address all the things they've missed in this sequel in the third installment.
Sigh...