The Science Fiction Horror and Fantasy Film Review
Filipino Cinema refers to filmmaking from The Philippines. When we refer to Filipino Cinema, what we almost exclusively talk about is a series of films made between the late 1960s and the early 1980s.
Filipino horror cinema had begun with Terror is a Man (1959), an uncredited adaptation of H.G. Wells’s The Island of Dr Moreau (1896). Those involved went on to make Mad Doctor of Blood Island (1969), which was promoted in the US and proved a reasonable success. This launched a series of sequels, copycats and assorted other horror films, founded around mad scientists, cheesy monster creations, bare boobs and tropical island settings.
In turn, low-budget US filmmakers of the 1970s began to look to the Philippines as a cut-price, non-unionised locale for shooting and churned out a good number of action and war films. The phenomenon is charted in the documentary Machete Maidens Unleashed! (2010).
The Filipino exploitation phenomenon faded away in the 1980s. There have been assorted genre films made in the country since, although nowhere near the amount there was in the genre’s heyday.
Third of the Filipino-shot Blood Island films. This has a slow first half before getting to what we expect of a Filipino monster movie – an overacting mad scientist, a cheesy monster, schlocky gore and gratuitous toplessness
One of the films from the heyday of the Filipino exploitation cinema fad. John Ashley makes a pact with the Devil,up in another man’s body and periodically turns into what is a werewolf in all but name
The first of the Blood Island films, a classic of Filipino exploitation cinema. Although not as polished as later efforts, this serves up all the requisite cheesy monsters, mad scientists and gratuitous toplessness you expect
A low-budget video-released action effort that attempts to copy the James Bond films featuring the hunt for a device that can trigger all nuclear reactors
Filipino ghost story inspired by The Ring and Ju-on films that generates a reasonable haunted atmosphere in its story about mysterious happenings in an apartment building. This later underwent an English-language remake
Undeniably entertaining Filipino action film that tries to throw in everything including time travel, post-holocaust action, adventure quests, magical artifacts, lost worlds, Nazis and dwarves
An extremely good Filipino film about a family abandoned at the end of WWII where the only recourse seems to be the children trusting a malevolent fairy
The original Filipino exploitation classic, this pumps the 1940s mad scientist film up with gore, toplessness and tropical locations. A reasonable hit but surprisingly dull and sedate despite
Filipino variant on the Japanese ghost story (Ring, The Grudge et al). Much more low key than some of the other variants but with moments of undeniably spooky effect and with an ambitious story that takes place across three different decades
This has the distinction of being the film that started off the Filipino exploitation industry. A fairly blatant copy of H.G. Wells’s The Island of Dr Moreau, it is mostly routine
Filipino exploitation film from the director of Blood Island films, an uncredited adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr Moreau about a mad scientist creating beast people
Filipino exploitation film that has a reputation as something more trashy than it is. A dull and aimless effort where an aging John Carradine delivers a largely incoherent performance as the head vampire