Filipino Short Films and Their Folkloric Monsters

Folklores are more than just scary stories to tell in the dark but how its reimaginations of its archetypes of folkloric monsters becomes a way for filmmakers to understand the world around them. What used to haunt us through the very narratives folklore created becomes our platform to challenge the imprints of colonial trauma. With many alternative filmmakers continuing to make short films that use folklore as allegories in their respective personal and regional histories, this disrupts the linear and homogeneous representation and moves towards a diverse, alternative imagination of the nation. What we learned from reimagining folklore reflects our decaying democracy.