'Pa-Siyam' and the horrors of leaving

WHENEVER SOMEBODY ASKS about the quintessential Filipino horror film, I oscillate between the savory answer (Mike De Leon's Itim comes to mind, a pick that won't raise any eyebrows) and the unsavory one (Peque Gallaga and Lore Reyes' 2014 film, T'Yanak, a modern reimagining of their leaps-and-bounds-superior and more seminal original from the late '80s). For the rest of times in between, my default answer is Erik Matti's best horror film to date, Pa-Siyam.

The film starts with a homecoming—the worst kind there is. Nilo (Roderick Paulate) and his siblings have returned home at the news of their mother's death. All estranged, the siblings brought home heavy hearts, weighed heavier by the effortful proceedings of managing a funeral and the eponymous ritual of nine-day novenas. The story unravels in the family's vast estate, which is tended to by its caretaker and house help, who insists that their mother's room be locked shut. Soon, the siblings come to strange, inexplicable encounters. The local priest ardently refuses to enter the house's vicinities. What really happened to Nilo's mother? And what secrets does her death harbor?

Viewers who are only familiar with Erik Matti's recent work will be sorely oblivious to his older gems (think: the campy, scrappy Gagamboy) and likely identify his work with presentation, the 'visual flair.' The best examples have a strong sense of restraint, like 2015's Honor Thy Father and the recent HBO miniseries On the Job: The Missing Eight. The worst ones seem to forego story (and substance) over style, as was the case with 2018's BuyBust, and Matti's more recent horror forays like Kuwaresma and Seklusyon.

Pa-Siyam—a sparse and somber ghost story about the modern Filipino family—is an outlier in Matti's work. Make no mistake, the film has interesting visuals, but forced to inhabit the trappings of a deliberately paced ghost story, Matti has to let the supernatural mystery be the film's focus, along with the message it tries to convey. Hauntingly, the film is about the Filipino diaspora, its in-built guilt, and the sorrow felt by those we left behind.

For a film like Pa-Siyam, the horror runs deeper than the typical jump scare. The ghosts hover at the periphery of one's vision. Matti's able cast, led by Paulate, clues us in on why that is important. Like many, they are burdened by the faults of their parents, and the scars from their childhood they carry whichever way they flock as adults. Director Gabriel Fernandez would revisit the idea of a group of siblings helplessly trying to escape the posthumous clasp of a domineering matriarch over ten years later with 2014's Mana, but here the terror is more clear-cut and, incredibly, still relevant today.

Pa-Siyam

dir. Erik Matti | 2004 | Drama, Horror | 3.5

In the 16th century, Ferdinand Magellan, a young and ambitious Portuguese navigator, rebels against the power of the King of Portugal, who doesn’t support his dream of discovering the world, and persuades the Spanish monarchy to fund his bold expedition to the fabled lands of the East.

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