Winner for Best Actress for Judy Ann Santos in the recent Metro Manila Film Festival, “Espantaho” is a film that aims to please the crowds by combining two fan-favorite genres, family drama and horror. Let us see how Chito S. Rono fared.

When Monet returns to her family’s ancestral home for the nine-day prayer vigil (pasiyam) after her father Pabling’s passing, she is unprepared for the storm of conflict and terror about to descend. With her overbearing mother Rosa micromanaging her every move and her husband Jack leaving for an errand, Monet struggles to balance her grief, her role as a mother, and her own bouts of epileptic seizures. The tension escalates with the arrival of Adele, Pabling’s legal wife, and her children Andie and Roy, who are determined to claim their share of the family’s land and ancestral house, leaving Monet at risk of losing everything.