POSTHOUSE
***
Directed by Nikolas Red.
Starring Sid Lucero, Bea Binene, Rafa Siguion-Reyna.
Horror, Philippines, 94 Minutes, Certificate TBC
Reviewed as part of FrightFest Halloween 2025 - UK Premiere
ANG MANANANGGAL is considered to be the first Filipino horror film from 1927, about a mythological bat-winged creature. It is now sadly considered lost, along with the vast majority of silent films from that country. This fact hits hard after viewing Nikolas Red’s debut film POSTHOUSE, which uses the film and its legendary status within that country as a jumping off point for its own dark creative ends, which mainly involve legacy, not only of the cinematic kind but of the familial also. The result is a horror which manages to be more affecting on an emotional level than a horrific one but still manages to entertain with a few well staged shocks.
Sid Lucero plays Cyril, an editor whiling away the time cutting commercials for moisturising soaps, all the while ignoring the legendary status of his father and grandfather who have left their own distinctive stamps on the country's genre film history. Alongside this however there are also allegations of abuse which have plagued them both, a fact that seems to be responsible for Cyril turning his back on them. When Cyril’s daughter Rea (Bea Binene) asks for an internship they both decide to finish restoring the inherited reels of ANG MANANANGGAL, a project his father left unfinished before his sudden mysterious death. An obsession forms within Cyril to now complete and locate the missing reels of the cursed film, which Rea soon suspects might have its own dark and otherworldly power.
Lost and cursed films have proved fruitful over the years for horror cinema and literature, and Red does a good job of exploring this premise here. Also impressive is his own staging of the lost film. While some scenes may feel a tad modern-ish, the rest of the scenes have an impressive nightmarish quality that recall the likes of the silent witchcraft classic HAXAN from 1922 while the bat-winged creature of folklore is also impressively realised in its various incarnations here.
Set entirely within the one location of Cyril’s post-production house, a “posthouse” if you will, the film moves smoothly along, revealing its mysteries in a satisfying manner. Yet by the end there is still a pleasing ambiguity to the whole endeavour. While it will no doubt appeal to horror fans, the film should also appeal to enthusiasts of silent and vintage cinema with its own various analog stylings and plot devices that have the film straddling both the celluloid and digital eras, linked together by the demons of the past.
Iain MacLeod