Are you a fan of the horror genre? I can’t say that I am, but I do appreciate a good horror movie or show if I have the chance to see it. My niece got me to watch the Filipino horror anthology film series Rabid on Netflix. I thought it was an interesting show to watch so I agreed. After watching the series, I felt the need to share some of my thoughts on this set of movies. Rabid is from Regal Entertainment, which is well-known for films of this genre.
Rabid is a social commentary on the lives of Filipinos during the pandemic. Directed by Erik Matti, each of the films represents aspects of life during COVID-19.
I initially thought this was a limited series. It was only recently when I looked it up that I discovered this was a film anthology. Here are the four films in the anthology and some thoughts on each:
Bad Luck is a B*tch
The first film is Bad Luck is a B*tch. It is about a family who takes a homeless woman into their home. They later find out that she is a witch with the power to control them and take over their lives. It was very creepy. It showed how people can be giving (the mother) but also suspicious of others (the daughter). That we judge based on one’s social class or position in life. I’ve read reviews that this is about staying home due to the pandemic, but I did not get that about the film.
HM?
Most of the reviews I have seen on the Rabid series have not given much of an opinion on the second installment HM. I’ve read reviews that brushed it off by saying that it felt like a filler for the other films. I disagree. Out of all the films, this was the one that I liked the most.
It is the story of an unemployed single mother during the pandemic. She was trying to make ends meet by starting an online food shop selling kare-kare. She did not get any sales at first with her business. Success came when she got desperate and ordered a secret ingredient online. This ingredient caused whatever she made to become irresistible to people who ate it.
The food business became successful, but that success did not last long. Whatever the ingredient was, it made people like her food too much. They ended up making them addicted to it, in a crazy way. It turned anyone who had it into a rabid animal who wanted as much of it as they could take from her. This led to people running amok and attacking her in her home to get what they wanted.
HM wasn’t very scary, but it did have this creepy feeling that would make you stop and think. It was obvious that her actions led to these scary consequences. Very Twilight Zone, like the other films.
Nothing Beats Meat
This movie was more of a short film compared to the others. Filmed in black and white, it had a very different mood from the Bad Luck is a B*tch. If the first film was creepy, this one felt more sad than scary.
Nothing Beats Meat is about a man who had a wife who turned into a zombie. They were hiding in a cave during a zombie apocalypse, and he was trying to cure her.
It felt so sad because you could feel how this man loved his wife. He wanted her to get better no matter how impossible it seemed. This film compared to the others is a more obvious commentary about the pandemic. It is about taking care of our loved ones and putting ourselves at risk. It talks about taking care of someone with a disease we do not completely understand.
The film wasn’t that long and nothing much happened. When it ended, I wondered what the point was in the film other than you could relate it to the pandemic. I felt that it had the potential to be more, but it was too short for that to happen.
Sh*t Happens
This movie, while it got a lot of rave reviews, was my least favorite. As the title suggests, sh*t gets thrown around a lot in this one.
The story revolves around a nurse who is on the graveyard shift. She is not happy with her job and was applying to go overseas. She gets called by a patient and the horror starts from there. The story revolves around the creepiness of that patient. I did not like this film at all, and I was happy when it was finally over. I’m not a fan of horror films, and this reminded me why.
My Review
The four films of Rabid were pandemic-themed. Two of them were set in the pandemic. The other two share common themes with life in the pandemic. One was a disease with no cure and the other shows the terrible healthcare situation in the country.
While it was very fit for the times, I’m not sure that doing a series set in the pandemic was a good idea for its longevity. Now that the pandemic is (somewhat) over, I have this need to move on. I don't want to keep looking back on how difficult those past few years were. That could be bad for this series because it could turn people off from watching it.
Another thing that could turn people off is that it's not the usual kind of horror film from Regal. They used to come out with horror series that were more of the jump-scare types (like Shake Rattle and Roll). This is very different. As I mentioned earlier, the films seem to have more of a Twilight Zone, Black Mirror-type of feel. It felt like a set of movies meant to make you think. They challenge your thoughts on aspects of society and life during the pandemic. But it was not as scary as one might expect from Asian horror movies.
The Actors
Most of the actors in the films featured in Rabid are not mainstream actors. I can’t complain about that. If I’m not mistaken many of them are theater actors. That makes for more nuanced but impactful performances. Theater acting translates well when it comes to stories such as the ones told in this series.
Not having big-name actors makes the films more interesting to watch. Having a big-name star would only distract you from the story and the themes they were trying to share.
The actors I paid attention to were from Bad Luck is a B*tch and Nothing Beats Meat. I thought that the beggar woman/witch (played by Jay Glorioso) from the first film was so good in her role. She carried that film until the end.
Vance Larena, the husband in Nothing Beats Meat portrayed his role well. I was rooting for him to cure his wife in the film. When he finally realized that he couldn’t, I felt for him when he made the final decision that he did. It must have been challenging to play this role. There were only two characters in it and out of those two, the other one was playing a zombie and did not have much to do. He had to carry the story all by himself and he did a great job with it.
Again, I felt bad that this was the shortest film of the set. I felt that they could have done more with it and their story. The ending implied he allowed her to infect him and that made the whole thing sadder. I wanted more out of this film compared to the others because I like this one the most.
Would I recommend this anthology? Yes and no. Yes, because I know people who like these types of movies. No, because as interesting as the stories were, I did not enjoy them as much as I had hoped that I would. Then again, as I said, I am not a horror fan, so that might have been a factor in why I did not like the film series. I'm not the type to want to watch a horror show or movie on my own, so I may not be the best judge of whether it is good or not.
To be honest, even if it is a series of films, it did not feel like it to me. This could be why Netflix labeled each film as an episode, which makes people assume it is a TV series.
Have you seen this series of films yet? If not, would you want to see it? I caught this series at the height of the pandemic so it's been there a while. I am not sure how long they will keep this on Netflix so you should see it now while you still can if you're interested.
Leave me a comment if you do decide to check it out and let me know what you felt about it!
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