Shake, Rattle and Roll: Scanned, Enhanced, and Back In Theaters
It's 1984 all over again.
(SPOT.ph) Ah 1984. If you’re a Filipino film buff who grew up in the 70s and 80s, you’d know 1984 was a landmark year in Philippine movies. It gave us a harvest of star-making melodramas, award-winning depictions of social unrest in the country, well-crafted women films, and money-making youth flicks now considered Filipino film classics.
We remember them well: Bukas Luluhod ang Mga Tala, Kaya Kong Abutin Ang Langit, Kapit Sa Patalim, Sister Stella L., Working Girls, Bulaklak Sa City Jail, Baby Tsina, Hotshots and many more. Think of your favorite movie from the 80s and it will likely be from that year. Lovingly Yours? 14 Going Steady? Mga Batang Yagit? Charot? Nineteen eighty four began with Bagets which spawned a sequel even before the year could come to a close, and it ended with a horror anthology that will spawn 15 more of its kind in the following decades: Shake, Rattle and Roll.
A brief history of Shake, Rattle and Roll
Shake, Rattle and Roll wasn’t originally a Mother Lily initiative, even though her Regal Films would start producing the sequels six years after. It was produced by someone close to the Regal matriarch: Douglas Quijano, talent manager and an important figure at Regal, and one Dante Virata. Together they were Athena Films.
The horror movie was an entry to the 1984 Metro Manila Film Festival. Of the 9 titles in that batch—which had an Eddie Garcia sex comedy (Atsay Killer: Buti Nga Sa’yo), a Nora Aunor prison drama (Bulaklak sa City Jail), another horror flick but much darker (Alapaap), a Rudy Fernandez action film (Idol)—Shake was the second box office top grosser. Which is not bad at all considering the top grosser was the unbeatable FPJ franchise Ang Panday, then on its fourth installment.
Shake is three horror films in one, helmed by three sought-after directors of the period: Emmanuel Borlaza who directed the blockbuster Bukas Luluhod ang Mga Tala earlier that year took charge of the first episode, "Baso," which is about a couple and their friend who enter an old house and play Spirit of the Glass, in the process awakening trapped spirits whose identities take over the players.
Ishmael Bernal, known for his wit and sophisticated style, took on the second film, "Pridyider," about a young woman seduced by the pleasures delivered by a haunted refrigerator. Hilarious premise, we know, but Bernal makes it work somehow, no small thanks to the committed performances of its actors: Janice de Belen as the young woman, Charito Solis as her hysterical mother, and William Martinez the designated guardian slash peeping Tom. It’s the second film that year from Bernal and his then new favorite writer, Amado Lacuesta, who wrote the fabulous Ayala Avenue comedy Working Girls.
Finally, there’s Peque Gallaga, who directed the critically acclaimed Oro, Plata, Mata just two years earlier but didn’t get to do much right after. Shake's third episode, "Manananggal," would remind audiences again of his name and inform cinema insiders he can be lowbrow and still come up with something great. "Manananggal," shot in a forest setting in Liliw, Laguna, tells the story of a boy from the barrio who, left on his own with his lola, needs to step up and become man of the house. At the same time, the teener is becoming a man, too, having been smitten by a mysterious neighborhood lass who turns out to be—gasp!—a man-eating creature.
Shaking it back to life
The original, they always say, is the best. Well, today’s audiences will get to find out if that’s true in the case of Shake, Rattle and Roll, as a scanned and enhanced version of the film hits theaters this weekend as part of Sine Sigla Sa Singkuwenta, the Metro Manila Film Festival effort to bring audiences back to movie theaters with P50-per-ticket screenings of classic Filipino movies.
The film was scanned in 4K and digitally enhanced in 4K resolution using the 35 mm print from the ABS-CBN Film Archives. “Although the film elements were still in good condition, a portion at the end of ‘Episode 2: Pridyider’ is no longer available in the surviving print,” says a post from the ABS-CBN Film Archives on Facebook, although according to ABS-CBN Film Restoration Sagip Pelikula head Leo Katigbak in an exchange with SPOT.ph, “it’s not technically missing the ending, just reaction shots.”
The presence of heavy fungus in the print in "Episode 1: Baso" also proved to be a challenge for those who worked on the scan and enhancement. “Among the impairments that have been addressed during the picture enhancement that took a total of 35 hours were dust, specks, and shallow scratches,” the Facebook post continues. “Bulk of the hours were used in balancing the color especially on the day for night scenes.” Scanning was completed in 2019 by Marco Jerome Gatpandan, while the picture enhancement was finished in 2024 by Mik Pestaño, both at ABS-CBN Film Archives.
Despite these, Katigbak promises a pleasurable moment at the cinema, especially for those who’ve seen Shake back in the day. “In many cases, nostalgia plays a part in the film’s appeal, just as any movie from our youth would,” he tells SPOT.ph. “But it surprisingly holds up creatively and even if the effects were done practically [which is often better in my book], the film still looks good because the effects took a back seat to the narrative and the young actors who brought the three stories to life.”
The passing of time should also assure older moviegoers they won’t be seeing this one the same way. Says Katigbak: “It’s also very different watching a movie in your late teens—[although] I was 20 when this came out—and watching it now with nearly four decades of experience as well as film appreciation. I have yet to see it again purely from the perspective of the audience because when you watch with the lens of restoration, you are critical about so many things, or thinking of everything else except enjoyment. But having said that, I did like it and enjoyed seeing people I have worked with since, from Herbert to Joel [Torre, whose voice is dubbed by another actor here; the Negrense might then still have a strong Ilonggo accent] to Janice to Tita Chat [Charito Solis], in a different light. Also, the advances in digital restoration allow you to see details with greater clarity unlike before when the bulb brightness in cinemas spelled the difference in seeing details.”
ABS-CBN bought the film rights to Shake, Rattle and Roll in the mid-1990s. “[Which is] why we were still able to borrow the master negatives from the film producer so we can make our archival copy using the facilities of LVN film processing,” explains Katigbak. “At that time, the film was only a decade old so the deterioration typical of films made in the era had only began to set in. Some people have noted there are missing sequences but those were also missing from the master negative.“ The rescue work for the movie was originally part of ABS-CBN Film Restoration's plans before the pandemic but the global health crisis derailed those, with ABS-CBN resources made worse by the disheartening 2020 network shutdown.
The gift that keeps on giving
Response to the news of Shake, Rattle and Roll going back to the big screens have been warm and encouraging, and we can’t wait to see it again ourselves. We’re quite sure we’ll spot details we never would have taken note of back when we were kids in shorts, spending our aguinaldo money for tickets and popcorn. We’re excited to go back to the day we first learned about how Spirit of the Glass works; to watch how early 80s special effects transformed the gorgeously brown-skinned Irma Alegre into a half-human, half winged creature who eats people; and to see a young Janice de Belen seduce a house appliance notorious for collecting body parts.
We’re also excited to listen intently to the musical piece created by the genius Nonong Buencamino for Jaime Fabregas, musical director of the entire film (yes, the veteran actor was also at one time a musical director!). The piece, entitled “A Bowtie for John Lyle” was for "Pridyider," a clip from which—where Janice is inspecting the contents of the haunted ref—Katigbak and company showed Buencamino.
“It was a 12-tone piece for a string quartet I explicitly wrote for the movie which I dedicated to my then 6yo son John Lyle,” the composer shared to Katigbak and which we are publishing here as is. “Visually the score would resemble the shape of a bowtie and inspired by the matrixes of the 12-tone compositional form invented by Arnold Schoenberg. It was recorded live at Cinema-Audio. The MD of this film was Jimmy Fabregas. Eventually, my son John Lyle chose to pursue a vocation in the visual arts in his adult life and had his first one-man painting exhibit at the Magnet Gallery in 2006 which he titled 'A Bowtie for John Lyle' as homage to the previous history of the work. It won the Ateneo Art Awards as best one-man show for the year.”
Ah, Shake, Rattle and Roll—the gift that keeps on giving.
All film stills courtesy of ABS-CBN Film Restoration Sagip Pelikula
Here’s where to catch Shake, Rattle and Roll in the coming days:
September 25 - October 1 Schedule (METRO MANILA)
C1 - Robinsons Manila, Manila
C2 - SM City Fairview, Quezon City
C3 - Fishermall, Camanava
C4 - Ayala Malls Feliz, Pasig City
C4 - Ayala Circuit, Makati City
October 2 - 8 Schedule (LUZON)
C3 - Vista Mall Pampanga
C1 - SM City Olongapo Central
C2 - Vista Gen Trias, Cavite
C3 - SM City Batangas
C3 - Robinsons Ilocos
October 9 - 15 Schedule (VisMin)
C1 - Festive Walk Iloilo
The exact time of the screenings is dependent on the respective cinemas.