EVIL TAKES ROOT: THE CURSE OF THE BATIBAT [2020]

 

"YOUR BLOOD WILL FEED MY ROOTS!  Truthfully, I expected this to be terrible but it was actually pretty good!  The first feature directed by Chris W. Freeman is an interesting watch with an underutilized premise:  a woman named Amanda  comes back from the Philippines and she's apparently brought a tree demon back with her.  She makes a phone call to her ex-lover, parapsychologist Felix Fojas, and leaves a message on his phone saying she's not herself.  Amanda goes into her house and hears sounds coming from her daughter's room.  But it's not her daughter.  A demonic voice from the blackness pulls Amanda inside and she is later found dead affixed to a tree in the front yard.  There's possession and witchcraft all over the place in this one and the use of Southeast Asian mythological figures makes an interesting change from the usual "been there done that" possession/witchcraft movies.  I've seen some comments that the end of the film is a little abrupt and that's true; the final confrontation IS over before you know it.  However, that's probably for budgetary reasons as I can' imagine there was much more than a shoestring provided for this movie.  Having said that, the effects are quite good -- impressive, even, if the budget was tiny.  Sure, the pace could probably be tightened up a little too but these are really nitpicks since it's impressive what Freeman has managed to create for a first film.  It also feels like there is room to turn this into a series of films with Felix Fojas and I, for one, would be interested to see them as this is an auspicious start!