The Entire Shake, Rattle & Roll Franchise Is Now Available Online for Free
Who can ever deny the cultural capital of the Shake, Rattle & Roll franchise? We all have our favorite episode. Since debuting in the 1984 Metro Manila Film Festival, it has gone on to become a haunting phenomenon enjoyed by roughly four generations of Filipino moviegoers. And the best time to revisit these films is, of course, this coming Halloween break, now that Regal Entertainment, Inc. has all 15 of them screening on YouTube.
Lest we forget that directors like Peque Gallaga and Ishmael Bernal, as well as more modern ones like Jerrold Tarog have each added a new layer to the Shake, Rattle & Roll series. We don't watch a Shake, Rattle & Roll film just for the jump scares (or for some young once-cool actors who jumped ship in politics). Interestingly, the whole franchise reflects some harsh realities about Philippine society and the gray areas we believe in between science, religion, and superstition. Folklore? Ghosts? Refrigerators? That's peak Filipino entertainment, man.
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Of course, we're recommending. This is Esquire Philippines, goddamnit.
This may seem like an obvious pick but Bernal's killer refrigerator in Shake, Rattle & Roll I. "Pridyider" is still as inventive as it was roughly 40 years ago. A possessed fridge and a young Janice de Belen is a lethal combination. Meanwhile, in the third episode, "Manananggal," we get to see Gallaga at the helm, with (yikes) a young Herbert Bautista wrestling with a mananaggal. It still has a heck of a score.
Shake, Rattle & Roll 3 in 1991 is a must-watch, too. The queen of horror Lilia Cuntapay appears in "Yaya." Now this is a classic. A young Kris Aquino is in here, as well (we hope you get better, Kris). She plays the terrorized mom who comes to the realization that something ungodly is trying to take her child away. There's that f*cking Undin, too, in the "Nanay" episode. Mommy, send help, that killing spree was something else.
Ah yes, the stories of the faithful 13th floor, a yaya gone bad, and the dreaded "LRT." Shake, Rattle & Roll 8 actually has some pretty interesting storylines going for it. There's a healthy mix of experimentation and a reimagining of word-down horror movie tropes. We get to see now-Cavite Councilor Nash Aguas as a kid and the ageless Iza Calzado. In the final installment is a flesh-eating something on a a train. It's not too far off the horrors of present-day Metro Manila commute, really.
These are only some fan favorites, which means this is basic stuff. To each their own, after all. In Regal's playlist, we also get to choose from either movies or specific episodes. So feel free to revisit those old "haunts (you see what we did there?)," if you want to check out something in particular. These films should make for quite the halloween watch party, whether for nostalgia or to try something local for all you next-gen kids. Okay, some of us born a little later might not appreciate these things now given modern lenses. But they hold up surprisingly well, we promise you.
Watch Regal Entertainment Inc.'s entire Shake, Rattle & Roll catalogue here.
