Shake, Rattle & Roll: Every Movie, Ranked from Worst to Best

It’s the season for scary movies. But for a movie industry struggling to get butts onto theater seats, horror is a year-round event. Alongside superhero movies, horror has accounted for a growing number of ticket sales in Hollywood over the past decade—and after the lockdown, it can be argued that the drawing power of superheroes has started cruising back down to earth.

Meanwhile, horror has continued flying high. According to The New York Times, horror hit a new high this year: 17 percent of all movie tickets sold in North America—more than drama and comedy combined.

If your tastes run more toward homegrown chills, then there is no brand quite like Regal Entertainment’s Shake, Rattle & Roll movies. Inaugurated in 1984 by revered showbiz manager Douglas Quijano’s defunct Athena Productions, the anthology film series (each movie is composed of three episodes) has produced 16 installments over 41 years, making it the longest-running intellectual property (IP) in Philippine cinema.

In celebration of spooky season—and the 17th installment due this coming Christmas, cross fingers it’s a return to form—Esquire Philippines has ranked every movie, separating the installments that have rattled us from the ones that had us rolling our eyes.

16. Shake, Rattle & Roll 2K5 (2005)

Chronologically speaking, this is the seventh movie in the series and represents the series’ return to cinemas after a second hiatus lasting eight years. That long time away shows in how rusty the storytelling is: Though Regal has recruited a mix of respected craftsmen (Uro dela Cruz) and exciting young turks (Rico Maria Ilarde and Richard Somes) to direct, the scripts are hopelessly run-of-the-mill. Nothing here sticks in your memory.

15. Shake, Rattle & Roll VI (1997)

One thing that sets the series apart is its willingness to turn the reins over to a single artisan, giving its anthology format a unified, coherent voice. For SRR’s sixth iteration, Mother Lily decided to assign scripting duties solely to playwright and mystic Tony Perez. Unfortunately, the experiment—admirable though it may be—doesn’t quite pay off. Even with the writer’s cachet as the author of Cubao Pagkagat ng Dilim: Mga Kuwentong Kababalaghan, one of the most acclaimed books on Filipino urban legends, the direction feels lethargic, and the episodes overstay their welcome.

14. Shake, Rattle and Roll XI (2009)

Two of the episodes feature scripts with interesting ideas—the cursed wedding dress in “Ukay Ukay” and possession masquerading as contagion in “Diablo”—but the direction of all three episodes falls victim to the samey-samey aesthetic that these movies have settled into this late in their run.

13. Shake, Rattle & Roll V (1994)

This time, scripting duties fall squarely on the shoulders of writer-director and current Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) chairman Jose Javier Reyes. The episode he also directed, “Anino,” about a shadowy entity haunting an apartment, fares the best. But the whole affair still feels generic. “Impakto,” directed by the late Manny Castañeda and meant to be the rollicking episode full of chases and hijinks, suffers from being anchored by two bickering siblings played by Manilyn Reynes and Tom Taus; they’re so annoying that by the end, you want the monster to feast on them both.

12. Shake, Rattle & Roll Extreme (2023)

The latest installment and the series’ return after a third hiatus, this time lasting nine years. Again, the series creaks and groans like a machine being cranked back to life, and its wear-and-tear is made all the more apparent because it’s trying to speak the language of Gen Z. The stories feature 21st-century trappings like social media, influencers, an apocalyptic mindset—but nothing is more uncool than trying to be cool.

11. Shake, Rattle & Roll XIV: The Invasion (2014)

An interesting detour from master director Chito S. Roño, who directs all three episodes. With “Pamana,” he covered family dysfunction five years before Rian Johnson got to it in Knives Out, and Lost Command sees him flexing his action muscles as an army regiment fights off a horde of zombie combatants. The only reason it isn’t higher on this list is because the twist of the third episode, "Unwanted" (about a group of survivors navigating a collapsed mall), is positively bonkers.

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10. Shake, Rattle & Roll IV (1992)

This is the last installment directed by the team of Peque Gallaga and Lore Reyes...and the uninspired results show why their time with the franchise had to come to an end. The second installment of theirs subverting everyday figures that you would normally trust (“Guro,” “Kapitbahay,” and “Madre”), it’s clear the duo was rehashing past tricks and retreading already-covered territory.

9. Shake, Rattle & Roll IX (2007)

The premise of each episode is straightforward: a Christmas tree harboring a hungry creature starts eating the inhabitants of the house it’s set up in; a lovesick woman traps herself and the object of her obsession in a never-ending nightmare; and a band on their way to a gig is misled by a ruthless nature spirit. (Full disclosure: I wrote the third episode.) Its no-frills approach makes this installment okay, but it struggles to fly given the IP’s now-established formula.

8. Shake, Rattle & Roll X (2008)

For a brief run, SRR featured one standout episode that made sitting through the other two worth it. In this one, it’s “Class Picture,” by director Topel Lee. Inaugurating the loveteam of Kim Chiu and Gerald Anderson, the episode follows a group of youngsters menaced by a creepy nun (Jean Garcia) who inhabits an old photograph and comes to terrible life if you stare at her too long. The script by Cheryl Ann Narvasa has an actual subtext: the evils of faith corrupted by unchecked authority. (The writer must have been traumatized by a strict nun during her schooldays.) A surprisingly good entry that is only hobbled by woefully muddy lighting.

7. Shake, Rattle & Roll XIII (2011)

Continuing with the theme of sifting gold from quartz, this installment features “Rain, Rain, Go Away” directed by Chris Martinez. Inspired by the trauma of Typhoon Ondoy, the episode centers on the vengeful spirits of drowned workers trapped by the greed of an unscrupulous entrepreneur (Eugene Domingo). A storm for the books intersecting with the evils of late-stage capitalism—who says SRR can’t be topical?

6. Shake, Rattle & Roll XV (2014)

Here, the episode to watch out for is Jerrold Tarog’s “Ulam,” which reunites the director with his horror muse, Carla Abellana. A couple (Carla’s significant other is played by Dennis Trillo) is fed a meal by their creepy cook (Chanda Romero) that turns them into corpse eaters, then all manner of gross body horror ensues. Ew. Also, in the hands of a consummate strummer of nerve endings like Tarog, loads of fun. The first episode, inspired by the urban legend of a humanoid snake stalking a mall, is unintentionally hilarious; the third, about a flight thrown into chaos by the birth of a tiyanak, strains to be funny.

5. Shake, Rattle & Roll III (1991)

The second installment directed by Gallaga-Reyes. While it doesn’t quite roar like the installments that came before it, the engine hums along consistently: “Yaya” features Kris Aquino in her scream queen debut, working opposite the inimitable Lilia Cuntapay as a spirit that abducts babies; “Ate” foregrounds Janice de Belen against a creepy atmosphere heightened by the dead-eyed stares of Rosemarie Gil and Subas Herrero; and “Nanay” is Gallaga-Reyes doing their best Spielberg impression...with a bit of gore thrown in. This third entry has lots to recommend it.

4. Shake, Rattle & Roll VIII (2006)

SRR episodes are a mixed bag. They can be mediocre...but when they’re good, they’re really good. Case in point: this installment’s third episode, Mike Tuviera’s “LRT.” A gaggle of passengers commuting on the elevated train’s last trip of the day is stalked by a blind, heart-eating monster who navigates by sound (12 years before John Krasinski thought of it for A Quiet Place!). Horror aficionados who love to mine for metaphors will have a lot to dig up here. A statement on urban living ripping the heart out of you? A cautionary tale of institutional corruption? A cynical take on distrust of authority? Whatever your conclusion, the one thing beyond debate is that the ensemble, led by Manilyn Reynes and Keempee de Leon, works well together. And that final twist is killer.

3. Shake, Rattle & Roll XII (2010)

Another case of one amazing episode lifting the whole movie. I couldn’t tell you what the other two episodes were about even if you put a gun to my head (something about a haunted doll and reincarnation in a lighthouse?), but I can certainly talk your ear off about “Punerarya,” directed by Jerrold Tarog. The story of a tutor (Carla Abellana) who makes a gruesome discovery about the funeral home–running family of her student (Nash Aguas), the episode fires on all cylinders. Everything—from the claustrophobic atmosphere, to the two-handed menace provided by Sid Lucero and villainess extraordinaire Odette Khan, to the unrelenting tension of Rona Lean Sales’ script—works together to produce an oppressive locked-house horror masterpiece. Best of all, “Punerarya” announced the mainstream debut of a director to watch out for.

2. Shake, Rattle & Roll II (1990)

SRR was coming out of its first, six-year hiatus with this installment, but the format still felt vital enough for the team of Peque Gallaga and Lore Reyes to take on sole directing duties. They acquitted themselves well with Gothic mystery “Multo” starring Janice de Belen and Eric Quizon as newlyweds honeymooning in a fog-shrouded Baguio cottage haunted by the ghost of a murderous abortionist, and dark comedy “Kulam” headlined by Joey Marquez as a lothario trying to escape his spurned witch of a physician with the help of Carmina Villarroel. But it is in “Aswang,” which strands Manilyn Reynes as the unsuspecting main course at a buffet in a town full of monsters, where they truly displayed their folk horror bonafides. That final episode is so effective, it is still looked upon with fondness by fans of Filipino horror.

1. Shake, Rattle & Roll (1984)

Nothing beats the original. What more can a movie fan ask for than three A-list directors working at the top of their games? Things start out slowly with Emmanuel Borlaza’s possession drama “Baso,” in which Joel Torre, Arlene Muhlach, and Rey “PJ” Abellana (father of SRR scream queen Carla) re-enact a deadly love triangle. The proceedings then culminate in the survival thriller “Manananggal,” which steeps Herbert Bautista in the mysteries of folk Catholicism and the hidden dangers of rural life as he battles a monstrous Irma Alegre. But it is the second episode, “Pridyider,” which leaves a mark: A family (matriarch Charito Solis, sexually awakening daughter Janice de Belen, creepy houseboy William Martinez) moves into a house that was the scene of a grisly murder and is terrorized by the old refrigerator that was used to house the murder victim’s remains. What could have been your garden-variety haunted house (or is it possessed appliance?) story becomes, in the hands of Ishmael Bernal and screenwriter Amado Lacuesta, an exploration of the fracturing of an OFW family and a perverted coming-of-age tale. A true classic.