Aswang
NOTE: The aswang is a vampire from Filipino myth. It is a living person, usually a woman, who can take the form of a large bird and who waits on the roof of a victim's house until s/he falls asleep. Then, the aswang drops down its long tongue, pricks a hole in the victim's neck, and feeds on its blood. Once filled with blood, the aswang returns home to feed her own children. In this movie, the aswang is particularly fond of feeding on the unborn.Kat (Tina Ona Paukstelis) is unwed and pregnant but refuses to get an abortion. Instead, she opts for adoption and contracts with Peter (Norman Moses) and Janine Null to give them her baby after it is born, as Janine is unable to bear children and Peter needs an heir so that he can inherit the family estate, a large tract of apple orchards in Wisconsin.7 Months later: Very pregnant and posing as Peter's wife Janine, Kat accompanies
Peter to visit his family at the estate. Having lived in the Philippines,
the family is rather strange. There is Peter's mother Olive (Flora Coker), who is ailing
and is confined to a wheelchair. Peter's sister Claire (Jamie Jacobs Anderson), whom Peter
describes as "touched", lives as a recluse in a rundown cottage, and Peter
warns Kat to steer clear of her. And there is Cupid (Mildred Nierras), their Filipino maid
who seems to be the one who holds everyone and everything together. All in
all, though, Olive and Cupid seem genuinely glad to have "Janine" there,
and both are very anxious for the baby to arrive.At dinner that evening, Kat drinks too much of Cupid's "homemade
apple cider" and gets drunk. That night she has strange dreams about Peter
feeding on some white liquid and then putting his head between her legs as
though trying to listen to the baby. The next morning, while out walking
on the Hull property, Peter and Kat happen upon a trespasser, who
introduces himself as Dr Roger Harper (John Kishline) and who shows them a strange
"cocoon" he has found. Harper has already found scores of them and can't
explain what kind of animal made them, only that the bodies inside have
been reduced to bones and it seems as though they've had their lives
sucked out of them.Peter is unhappy about Harper poking around on their land, but Kat
invites him to dinner anyway. After dinner, Peter shows him some artwork
from the Philippines, including a drawing of an aswang, a dark figure
sitting on a rooftop and sticking its long skinny tongue down into the
house. Upon returning home, Harper looks up a picture of an aswang,
under which the caption reads "as*wong: a Filipino vampire who feeds on the
unborn. The fetus will likely die, although some survive to become Aswang
themselves." Harper immediately fears for Kat/Janine's baby, but he
doesn't have time to warn her. He is himself attacked by an aswang.Meanwhile, Kat and Peter have gone to bed, and Cupid is helping Olive
into her nightclothes. While Kat sleeps, an aswang slides its long tongue
into her bedroom and snakes around under the bedsheets until it finds the
way between her legs. Kat wakes up, dislodges the tongue, and manages to
trap it in the door. Peter rushes outside to find Olive hanging from the
bedroom window by her aswang tongue. In order to release her, Peter has to
cut off her tongue.Sensing that she's in danger, Kat runs...straight to Claire's cottage
where she finds Harper enwrapped in a cocoon. Still alive, he tries to
warn her. Kat tries ripping him free from the cocoon but, before she is
successful, she hears a noise. It is the real Janine, and she's armed with
a chainsaw. Janine attacks Kat, but Kat manages to kill her with a blow to
the head from a garden hoe.Enter Peter, who injects Kat with a tranquilizer. Kat tries to run,
but Peter retrieves the chainsaw and goes after her while screaming, "We
have a contract...This is America...We have laws!" Kat gets away but
stumbles onto the grave of Janine Hull. It's now apparent that "the real
Janine" is actually Peter's sister Claire and that both she and
Olive are aswangs.Peter carries the bodies of Olive and Claire into the big house.
While walking along the highway, Kat is "rescued" by the local sheriff who
takes her straight back to the Nulls, oblivious to Kat's contention that
they are trying to kill her. After the sheriff leaves, Peter takes Kat to
Claire's cottage and chains her to a window. But the sheriff, doing his
duty, calls for some information about Janine Hull and comes up empty, so
he returns to the Hull house, where he is attacked and killed by a chicken
(Peter).Peter, Olive, and Cupid go to the cottage. Olive is dying and must
feed. While they prepare Kat, however, Olive dies, so Peter decides to
feed on Kat's baby himself. At that moment, however, Harper wakes up and
Peter has to kill him first, giving Kat a chance to chop off her own hand
with an ax and run away...straight back to the Hull house, Peter in
pursuit, garden hoe in hand.Meanwhile, Cupid has gotten religious. She falls down on her knees
and starts to pray. When Peter orders her to kill Kat, she raises the ax
to obey. Just at that moment, a tiny aswang tongue emerges from between
Kat's legs, and Cupid lets the ax fall.Five years later
Cupid and the 5-year old aswang girl are saying their prayers
together, blessing Grandma Olive, Aunt Claire, Daddy (Peter), and a number
of Janine-mommies. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.]
violence, cult, haunting