Sa init ng apoy (1980)

... aka: Hellfire

... aka: In the Heat of the Fire

Directed by:

Romy V. Suzara

Young newlyweds Laura and Emiliano Cruz (Lorna Tolentino, Rudy Fernandez) decide to spend their honeymoon in Baguio aka "The Summer Capital of the Philippines." After striking out finding a hotel in the city due to busy Holy Week festivities, the two get a flat tire while driving through the country and stumble upon an old, fogbound, seemingly abandoned home called Casa Morteja. There are both "For Sale" and "Room for Rent" signs out front, so the couple decide this would be as good a place as any. After meeting old, peculiar-acting caretaker Pedro (George Estregan - CRAZY), they should have decided otherwise. The caretaker likes sitting near the fireplace despite the sweltering hot summer temperatures outside yet keeps the home pitch dark otherwise. Though the home has electricity, he never uses it because he claims his eyes are sensitive to bright light. Not only that, but he has no set price on renting a room there and lets the couple decide all of that on their own. Not that it matters any. After they go to look at their surprisingly clean room, the old man has seemingly vanished into thin air and can't be found again. Regardless of that strange introduction, the two decide to stay there for what they hope will be a romantic, relaxing next ten days.

Long before their trip, Laura had been plagued by terrible recurring nightmares of someone trying to strangle her to death in the shower. These caused her to regularly wake up a sweaty, shrieking mess with blood on her hands, presumably from clawing at her own neck trying to remove the hands that were strangling her in the dream. Somehow, she and her psychiatrist determined that if she goes to bed after midnight, she doesn't have the dreams, so she tries to force herself to stay up late every single night. After just one day in the home, Laura starts behaving even more peculiarly than usual. She seems completely familiar with the home despite never having set foot inside it before, keeps seeing a shrouded figure lurking around outside and is drenched with blood while showering but then the blood disappears when she tries to show her husband.

Emil hunts down an orange-haired former classmate of his, Tony Fuentes (Joey Padilla), and his wife Vina (Janice Jurado), who put him in contact with Zacarias (Dick Israel - MAGIC OF THE UNIVERSE), who self identifies as "the best fortune-teller in Baguio." He later reads Laura's tarot cards, which spell death in her near future, so he and Tony decide to help their friend out.

The men pay a visit to Vina's grandfather (Paquito Salcedo), who's been around long enough to remember the entire long, sordid and blood-soaked history of the home. The original owners - Ignacio and Sylvina Morteja - were both found dead in the attic covered in bite marks (supposedly from a dog) and with their hearts ripped from their chests. When the dead couple's adult son, Silvestre, inherited it, a grim fate also befell him and his family when they tried to move in. The wife went crazy and had to be locked up (a skeleton found hidden inside a closet is said to have been her) and both Silvestre and their young daughter, Editha, also reputedly died. But, of course, these are only local legends and, as is usually the case, a detail or two may not be so accurate. These events also explain why the home has remained unsold and vacant all these years later.

As Emil and his buddies try to get to the bottom of things, glutton-for-punishment Laura stays behind by herself to be repeatedly terrorized. Invisible forces bust her mirror and then throw her on the bed and spin her around. She's entranced and starts sleepwalking, seeming particularly interested in going into another small building on the property. One the plot's dumbest points is why the couple insist on even staying there in the first place when it's merely a temporary, week-long vacation rental and they could just pack their bags and leave at any time! It isn't until the night before their scheduled trip back home that Laura finally goes to her husband and asks to leave. Her reasoning? Well, because it was so weird she knew that a key was in a drawer their first day there. With all of the other freaky shit that's been going on, that's what she's weirded out about the most?!

The other character of interest is a nameless old woman (Estrella Kuenzler) who's lurking around everywhere and seems to be stalking the couple. She repeatedly tries to give them a package but keeps getting rejected. When she finally gives up and just leaves it in their jeep, they find a piece of bamboo and a small doll arm made out of ivory inside.

While watchable and not bad overall, this falls just shy of being solidly good thanks to some truly dumb and / or muddy plot points and poor pacing. For some reason, this is dragged out for nearly two hours and there's definitely stuff that could have wound up on the cutting room floor without losing anything of value in the process. The worst bit by far is a bunch of dissolve shots of the couple making out by the fireplace that goes on for three minutes just so the corny love theme song, "Apoy" ("Fire"), can be played in its entirety. There's also quite a bit of travelogue footage thrown in, though at least it's nice to look at.

During the final half hour, this throws a lot of what came before right out the window and opts to go the standard Exorcist route with our female lead becoming possessed, turning green, laughing in a maniacal deep voice, saying crude sexual things (though nowhere near as crude and vulgar as its inspiration or most of the other knock offs!) and puking up green slime. Oh yeah, and she also shoots the same stuff out of her nipples (!), which I suppose is at least something a little different. This also tosses some Omen into the mix with a demon / ghost Doberman prowling the property, which chews out a guy's throat and traps the protagonists on the property when they finally do decide to try to leave.

The two major highlights here are the fantastic supporting performance from Estregan, who's really creepy in his enigmatic role though he unfortunately disappears from the entire last act, and the cinematography from Ernesto Dela Paz, who does an especially great job shooting and lighting the indoor night scenes, which all look really dark but have nice pops and slivers of color a la Bava.

Stars Fernandez (who apparently was popular in his home country at the time but gives a wooden, dopey performance here) and Tolentino (who's much better) would marry in real life just a few years later and stayed married until his death in 2008. The director (who passed away in 2022) has over sixty films to his credit, including a couple of other genre films: Anak ng asuang (1973), which involves a female vampire and appears to be a missing film, and the cheap-looking, digitally-shot Sigaw sa hatinggabi / "Scream at Midnight" (2014).

After its initial theatrical release in its home country, this pretty much vanished (I can't even find evidence of an older VHS or VCD release) until a heavily-damaged 35mm print turned up. It was then digitally restored by ABS-CBN (who have done a commendable job) and given a limited theatrical re-release in its home country in 2018. Amazon, Apple TV and a few other websites now offer this for rent. 

Seeing how film elements from many older Filipino genre movies are probably gone forever, another discovery like this getting a second lease on life through restoration is always reason to celebrate, regardless of the outcome. This one has enough good things working in its favor to merit a look.

★★1/2

Manglyeong-ui gog (1980)

... aka: 망령의 곡

... aka: Bloudy Smile (Bloody Smile)

... aka: Ghost's Song

... aka: Mangryongui Kok

... aka: Song of the Dead

... aka: Wail of the Ghost

Directed by:

Yun-kyo Park

According to the Korean Film Archive, this thoroughly unimpressive film actually helped kick start a horror film revival of sorts in South Korea. While there were genre releases in the 60s and 70s, horror, unlike in most other Asian countries, wasn't one of their more popular genres until the 80s, and the surprise box office success of this particular title helped to usher that all in. Shame that the movie itself is rather weak.

After the death of her parents, teenager Jeom-rye (Mi-ok Ji) has been staying with, and relying on the generosity of, some Buddhist monks. That is until she's hit with an offer too good to pass up from the wealthy Madam Kim (Shook Jeon). The Kim family will provide her a home, money and a comfortable life in exchange for her agreeing to an arranged marriage with their thirty-something son, Tae-hwa (Se-hyuk Jeong). Jeom-rye takes them up on their offer and is soon relocated to the home, but signs this is going to be an unpleasant arrangement are present right away. The Kim family are desperate for an heir; so desperate they'd already banished Tae-hwa's previous wife from their home because she kept having miscarriages. After Jeom-rye dolls herself up to be presentable for their honeymoon, she has to sit and patiently wait half the evening for her new husband to even show up. When he does, he's drunk, brutish and almost passes out before the two can even consummate their relationship.

While she makes it clear that having a grandson to carry on the family name is of utmost importance to her, Mrs. Kim also pampers her new daughter-in-law and positions herself as a trusted confidant; encouraging her to speak openly and honestly with her. However, that nice behavior doesn't last too long. When the now-pregnant Jeom-rye goes to the hospital for a check-up, her gynecologist (Seung-il Lee) discovers she has an "ovarian insufficiency" (tumor) that will lead to gastrointestinal and heart issues, and likely death, if it's not immediately removed. The problem? Removing it also means sacrificing the now-three-month-old fetus. Since the fetus stands a good chance of surviving even if Jeom-rye doesn't, Mrs. Kim demands the baby be born at the potential cost of her otherwise "useless being" of a daughter-in-law.

Though she's fully aware of what's going on, Jeom-rye has no one to turn to and figures her strong religious faith (uh) will be enough to save her (oh). Six months later, she finds herself tied down to a hospital bed pleading for her life, gods be damned. The corrupt surgeon (Min-gyu Kim) in charge of the delivery has already been instructed by the rich and powerful father-in-law, Man-ho (Gi-jong Kim), to favor the baby over the mother. To no one's surprise, Jeom-rye ends up being the sacrificial lamb in this scenario. Even less of a surprise, no one in the Kim family is too horribly broken up about it since a healthy baby boy was able to be removed via c-section prior to Jeom-rye's passing. To rub additional salt in the wound, the poor girl can't even have her burial wishes met. Instead of being interred at the temple, Tae-hwa has a few of his workers bury her in the mountains near a construction site.

Now that we've established that the entire Kim family (save the baby) need to die horrible deaths at the hands of our heroine's vengeful ghost, and one would hope for some atmosphere and visual style, a few scares and perhaps some cool special effects as that's going on, our expectations go unfulfilled here in the worst of ways. The direction and camerawork are mostly dull and do nothing to spruce up the tired plot. In addition to that, the pacing of this film is terrible and there are no special effects unless one counts poorly-executed jump cuts, a couple of fish eye lens and kaleidoscope shots and colored lighting on ghost faces, as effects.

As far as the kills are concerned, they're unimaginative and almost entirely bloodless. The ghost first takes out the three construction workers because they didn't give her the burial she wanted. One is "accidentally" killed when an explosion goes off. Another tries to run over the ghost and it causes his truck to explode. And the last is killed when he Tae-hwa confronts him and sends him falling over a cliff onto some rocks. The ghost is able to eventually drive Tae-hwa mad by calling out to him and plaguing him with nightmares, then heads to the hospital to possesses the surgeon, who tries to stab his nurse (Ju Hyeon) with a scalpel and chases her to the rooftop, where the two fall to their deaths.

Instead of immediately dispatching the Kim family, the ghost just, uh, lies dormant for two-and-a-half decades! 25 years after the initial killing spree, the now-grown son of Jeom-rye, Jeong-yeon (Cheol Kang), has just married a woman named Young-sook (Young-yee Jo), and the two are getting ready to start their own family. Things come to a head when the young couple go home for a family visit, and Jeom-rye's spirit possesses Young-sook, which is so poorly-done you don't even know she's inhabiting a host body until a monk (Am Park - IO ISLAND) finally shows up to do a proper exorcism. I have no clue why the ghost waited so long to try to kill the family nor why it took the monk 25 years to perform an exorcism, especially since he's the same monk who was housing Jeom-rye prior to her death.

In addition to not being particularly interesting in form or content, this makes the fatal mistake of trying to flip the script in the last 15 minutes; expecting us to now sympathize with this awful family! Apparently they're all now "enlightened" after becoming hardcore Buddhists and atoning for their past sins. Never mind the fact that, due to arrogance, impatience and a stupid family bloodline obsession, they actually murdered an innocent young woman, tried to hide her body, stole her baby and didn't spend a second in prison for any of it. Clearly that's all just water under bridge now that they're religious! From an American perspective, this is basically equivalent to how roughly 99% of incarcerated killers, rapists, child molesters, etc. will become born again Christians and think claiming such should automatically afford them leniency, while the sane among us just hope they stay locked up.

There are also flagrantly sexist (the only family member to pay with their life ends up being the only female family member involved) and classist (the working class folks who help the family are immediately slaughtered, yet the wealthy elites get a chance at redemption and are supposedly worthy of our sympathy) elements to the script that are difficult to stomach. I expected a lot better from this considering the director was a genre veteran who made at least 15 horror films between 1967 and 1985. Maybe I just watched one of the rotten ones.

To my knowledge, this was never given an official release outside of South Korea. Even though the original title translates to "Song of the Dead" and this is also sometimes listed online as "Song of the Ghost" or "Ghost's Song," the original English title (seen on the 1983 Korean VHS release) was "Bloody Smile". Well, actually it's "Bloudy Smile" but someone, perhaps the same dude who wrote the English subtitles for older Hong Kong and Taiwanese films, used a long-ago-obsolete spelling!

★1/2