ASWANG (1994)
Label: Mondo Macabro
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 82 Minutes 18 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo or 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Wrye Martin, Barry Poltermann
Cast: Norman Moses, Tina Ona Paukstelis, John Kishline
Early '90s direct-to-video oddity Aswang (1994), pronounced "oz-wong", was co-directed by Wrye Martin and Barry Poltermann, and is a weird slice of Filipino folk-horror set in Wisconsin. The creature at he heart of it being a extra-long tongued, blood-sucking creature that feeds on the blood of unborn fetuses. In the film the very pregnant twenty-somethig Katrina (Tina Ona Paukstelis) engages into a contract with apple orchard heir Peter Null (Norman Moses), whose family owns quite a bit of land out in rural Wisconsin. He tells her he needs an heir of his own to inherit the family fortune, and he has paid her a large sum of money to not only accompany him to the family estate and appear as his pregnant girlfriend, but to give up her child to him once it is born. Arriving at the estate he meets Peter's wheelchair bound mother Olive (Flora Coker) and her Filipino caretaker Cupid (Mildred Nierras), as well as Peter's reclusive sister Claire (Jamie Jacobs Anderson), who he says mentally unwell and who lives in a dilapidated house on the property.
The surrogate arrangement feels off and the vibes are weird from the get-go - the family dynamic just feels peculiar, and clearly secrets are being kept, seemingly from all sides. While wondering the property that night with Katrina, Peter and her encounter a trespasser on the property, Dr. Roger Harper (John Kishline, Public Enemies) who has been wondering the woods in the nearby area, finding odd skeletal remains wrapped in cocoons that have been buried in the ground. Katrina invites him to dinner that evening, much to the chagrin of Peter, and later that the night the doctor's dog is killed and he is attacked by a long icky tongue belonging to the Filipino blood-sucker the aswang. Katrina herself is also attacked, but she proves resourceful in defending herself, but realizes perhaps too late that she has been lied to and lured to the estate under false pretenses, now she's trapped with the clan of long-tongued vampires who have unsavory designs on her unborn fetus.
The flick is pretty wild slice of low-budget movie making, a Wisconsin Gothic mashed-up with demented Filipino vampire-creature folklore, with nods to the Texas Chain Saw Massacre and the Evil Dead, including some occasional frenetic camera through the woods that feels very Sam Raimi-esque, and some unhinged chainsaw carnage as well. It's a flawed film and can be a bit slow to start-up, with acting that feels overly heightened and tonally uneven, especially from Norman Moses as Peter. He has an arrogant charm that eventually melts down into a bizarrely over-acted weird-fest that I have to admit I kind of adored. Imperfections aside it's quite a bizarre slice of folk-horror that manages to mash-up the Wisconsin setting with a Filipino folk tale, and is well worth seeking out for fans of regional low-budget creature features that do a lot with very limited resources.
The aswang when revealed is a bit of a shape-shifting blood-sucker with a wildly long tong appendage that perches itself on the rooftop extending it's meters long tongue into the home below into the bedroom of the sleeping Katrina and inserting it's serpentine proboscis into her womb to suck the blood of the unborn fetus inside, it's an unsettling sequence, and I thought the low-budget special effects on display were both well done and quite startling, and we get a couple of unnerving nightmare sequences are surreal and gooey in the best possible way. The indie flick has some shortcomings and rough hewn sequences, but the indie chutzpah and scrappy ingenuity of it really won me over, and it's a genuinely creepy film.
Apparently the film was one of the first films to screen at the Sundance Film Festival in 1994, after which it received a very limited theatrical release before being picked up for U.S. distribution on VHS, where it was cut down to get an R-rating and re-titled The Unearthing, and then fell into obscurity. This was a first-time watch for me, I'd never even heard of it previously, but apparently Mondo Macabro had released in on DVD back in 2003 in a cut and cropped widescreen version, so it's nice to see it properly restored from the 16mm camera negatives here in the proper aspect ratio and fully uncut.
Audio/Video: Aswang arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro on 1080p HD framed in open-matte 1.33:1 fullscreen aspect ration, newly restored in 4K from the original 16mm camera negatives. The course 16mm grain is nicely resolved throughout with appreciable detail and texture in the close-ups. There's some minor blemish by way of light scratches and and white specks, but look pretty terrific. The autumnal colors looks quite pleasing throughout. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo or 5.1 surround with optional English subtitles. Both tracks are clean and sound great, dialogue is never a chore to decipher, and the synth score by Ken Brahmstedt fares well in both. The surround option does offer a fuller sounding score presentation and a couple of nice use of the discreet surrounds to generate atmosphere, but I still preferred the stereo track personally.
Mondo Macabro offer up a plentiful array of extras, starting off with two commentaries, the first is an Audio commentary by co-directors Wrye Martin and Barry Poltermann moderated by Mondo Macabro's Pete Tombs, and a second Audio commentary by executive producer David Dahlman and actors Norman Moses and Tina Ona Paukstelis.
Next is the 18-min Documentary: Different Than Hollywood: Making of Aswang featuring co-directors Wrye Martin and Barry Poltermann, screenwriter Frank Anderson. There's also a 7-min Lost Scene Narration offering a cut opening scene set decades prior to the actual film opening that features a younger version of Dr. Harper, which was interesting but never filmed due to budgetary reasons. Disc extras are buttoned-up a 4-min Audition Tape – Norman Moses, 3-min Audition Tape – John Garekis, plus 6-min of Trailers. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork that looks to be based on the original movie poster artwork.
Special Features:
- New 4K restoration of the original 16mm negative.
- Audio commentary by co-directors Wrye Martin and Barry Poltermann, moderated by Pete Tombs.
- Audio commentary by executive producer David Dahlman and actors Norman Moses and Tina Ona Paukstelis.
- Documentary: Different Than Hollywood: Making of Aswang (17:53)
- Trailer 1 – Fundraising (1:57)
- Trailer 2 – Theatrical (2;02)
- Trailer 3 – Prism VHS (1:36)
- Lost Scene Narration (6:43)
- Audition Tape – Norman Moses (3:31).
- Audition Tape – John Garekis (3:15)
Screenshots from the Mondo Macabro Blu-ray:
Extras:
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