Tia Madre is a horror story told through the eyes of a child: a clingy, hyper-imaginative and slightly twisted 10-year old girl named Camille whose mother Emilia inexplicably changes into something else, something more sinister, something more violent, something more distant, something that isn’t her mother anymore and quite possibly isn’t human. 

“I want to make people see and understand that not all people’s childhoods have blue skies with rainbows; and mostly for other people, it’s like a raging storm that never left.” Debuting filmmaker Eve Baswel elaborates on how much her film draws from the slightly darker side of her own childhood. “The panic of forgetting to water the plants in fear of a yantok hitting your legs, the discomfort of having to drink water all day at school because you have nothing to eat, the humiliation of coming to school every day wearing the same unwashed uniform for the past three days. I only get to tell this story once, and I want it to be sad, sorrowful, heartbreaking and horrifying.”

TFW your mother’s scares you more than any ghost. Kaya mo?

Cherie Gil and Jana Agoncillo star in Tia Madre, which premieres on November 9, 5PM at Trinoma.