UK directed film co-starring Joel Torre released in US via video on demand

The British and South African produced movie “Surviving Evil”, which prominently featured Filipino actor Joel Torre and half-Filipina actress Natalie Mendoza, was released on Video on demand (VOD) in the United States, Tuesday. The horror flick, which debuted on the international big screen in 2009, tells the story of a foreign documentary crew who flies to the remote Mayaman Islands in the Visayas region to shoot a survival series. The fictional series is supposedly headlined by a wilderness expert played by Titanic’s Billy Zane. Days into their stay in the island, the crew learns about the legend of the aswang, a sub-human creature from Philippine folklore, that craves human flesh and sucks unborn fetuses from their mothers’ wombs. The documentary crew begins fighting for survival as the aswang starts hunting them down because of a pregnant co-worker. “Surviving Evil” director, British national Terence Daw, told the Asian Journal that his Filipina wife, travel writer Rowena Marella-Daw, suggested the Aswang theme when he consulted her for possible material for a new film. “I’d been looking for an English-language story to write for a film set in the Philippines, and my wife (Rowena), suggested something with an ‘aswang’ theme… Nearly three years later, after writing a script, partnering with producers (Focus Films UK) and pulling together finance, we began shooting the movie,” he said. Unfortunately, Daw and his team ended up shooting the film at a jungle in South America instead of the Philippines due to co-production agreements. Since its premiere in the United Kingdom four years ago, Surviving Evil has been shown t the SHRIEKFEST Los Angeles Horror/SciFi Festival, and was selected for Official Competition at the Festival de Cine Fantastico (FANCINE) in Malaga. It is slated for a DVD release on October 22, 2013. Despite not having the chance to shoot the horror film in the land of the aswang itself, Daw still dreams of doing a film in the Philippines someday. In fact, he is working on a script for an action-thriller set in Manila. “All I need now is the money to make it! And you never know, there might even be a sequel to Surviving Evil one day!” he said. — Xianne Arcangel/DVM, GMA News