There is a particular kind of fear that only works when there is nowhere to distance yourself from it. No screen. No pause button. No row of hundreds of people between you and what is happening in front of you.
This October, ANINO: Tatlong Dula ng Lihim, Takot at Pamana brings three very different stories into the intimate confines of Ilviso Studios in Makati, where the audience sits close enough for the smallest look, movement, silence, and shift in tension to register.
Running across the remaining October weekends—October 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 30, and 31; ANINO is a theatrical anthology directed by Rain Yamson II, moving between Filipino folklore, family secrets, history, desire, horror, and dark humor.
It is also ILVISO Studios’ first theater production, and rather than beginning quietly, the studio is opening its stage with three stories that ask what happens when the things people try to bury refuse to stay buried.
At the center of the anthology are Sinalikway, Aswang sa Bundok, and Watawat. They do not tell one continuous story, nor do they rely on the same kind of fear. What connects them is something more familiar: inheritance, secrecy, belief, loyalty, and the uncomfortable realization that sometimes the thing following you has been there long before you noticed it.
In SINALIKWAY, Luis returns home after nine years away, accompanied by Denise and ready to begin the life he has been building toward. Coming home, however, means returning to more than the people he left behind.
The play slowly turns a familiar homecoming into something far less certain, as Luis finds himself pulled toward a part of his family—and himself—that distance could never completely erase.
Kurt Deseo leads the story as Luis. He is joined by Ela Anghela and Fiona Heaggans as Denise, Christian Paolo Lat and Marky Miranda as Gunying, and Dane Afuang and Syrel Navarro as Sayong.
Where Sinalikway looks inward, ASWANG SA BUNDOK heads somewhere every Filipino has been warned not to take lightly. Jake, Lian, and Troy go into the mountains expecting a hike. Then things begin to stop making sense.
Warnings that sounded ridiculous at the beginning of the trip become harder to dismiss. The deeper they go, the thinner the line becomes between superstition and survival - and between being lost and being led somewhere. The play draws from the kind of folklore many Filipinos grow up hearing: rules from grandparents, things you should never answer, places you should respect, and stories that sound absurd right up until you are the one standing in the dark.
The cast features Marcus Asis and Hiro Shimoji as Jake, Mose De Leon as Lian, and Rael Navato and Bojo Boom as Troy.
And then WATAWAT changes the temperature entirely.
Rather than asking what may be hiding outside, the play turns its attention toward what people hide from one another. At its center is Maria, caught in a world shaped by loyalty, expectation, intimacy, and relationships that become increasingly difficult to define. Affection crosses boundaries. Desire complicates devotion. What is left unsaid begins to carry as much weight as what is spoken. And Watawat does not keep all of that intimacy at a polite distance.
The production is rated R-18, and the play includes brief nudity as part of its exploration of vulnerability and desire; one more reason the closeness of the venue becomes part of the experience rather than simply the place where it happens.
Playing Maria are Sherrymae Valenzuela and Juana Paulina, alongside Riel Geli and Marky Miranda as Fernando, Lloyd Agustin and Hiro Shimoji as Isagani, and Ela Anghela and Fiona Heaggans as Liway.
Across all three plays, ANINO makes room for very different performances.
There are characters confronting folklore and the supernatural. Others are dealing with the far more ordinary terror of family, attraction, secrecy, betrayal, and discovering something about another person that cannot simply be unheard.
That range is part of the point.
ANINO is not three versions of the same horror story stitched together for Halloween. Sinalikway, Aswang sa Bundok, and Watawat each approach darkness from a different direction, allowing the evening to move from dread to humor, from the supernatural to the deeply personal, and from things inherited to things deliberately hidden.
The scale of ILVISO Studios makes that experience even more immediate.
Rather than staging the production in a large auditorium, ANINO plays to an intimate audience, putting performers and viewers in close proximity. There is less room for a performance to disappear into the distance, and considerably less room for the audience to hide from it.
For ILVISO Studios, it is an unusually bold first step into theater. For audiences, it offers something equally simple: a different way to spend an October night in Manila.
Not another horror film on a screen. Not another Halloween party. Three live stories, performed only a few feet away.
Rather than asking what may be hiding outside, the play turns its attention toward what people hide from one another. At its center is Maria, caught in a world shaped by loyalty, expectation, intimacy, and relationships that become increasingly difficult to define. Affection crosses boundaries. Desire complicates devotion. What is left unsaid begins to carry as much weight as what is spoken. And Watawat does not keep all of that intimacy at a polite distance.
The production is rated R-18, and the play includes brief nudity as part of its exploration of vulnerability and desire; one more reason the closeness of the venue becomes part of the experience rather than simply the place where it happens.
Playing Maria are Sherrymae Valenzuela and Juana Paulina, alongside Riel Geli and Marky Miranda as Fernando, Lloyd Agustin and Hiro Shimoji as Isagani, and Ela Anghela and Fiona Heaggans as Liway.
Across all three plays, ANINO makes room for very different performances.
There are characters confronting folklore and the supernatural. Others are dealing with the far more ordinary terror of family, attraction, secrecy, betrayal, and discovering something about another person that cannot simply be unheard.
That range is part of the point.
ANINO is not three versions of the same horror story stitched together for Halloween. Sinalikway, Aswang sa Bundok, and Watawat each approach darkness from a different direction, allowing the evening to move from dread to humor, from the supernatural to the deeply personal, and from things inherited to things deliberately hidden.
The scale of ILVISO Studios makes that experience even more immediate.
Rather than staging the production in a large auditorium, ANINO plays to an intimate audience, putting performers and viewers in close proximity. There is less room for a performance to disappear into the distance, and considerably less room for the audience to hide from it.
For ILVISO Studios, it is an unusually bold first step into theater. For audiences, it offers something equally simple: a different way to spend an October night in Manila.
Not another horror film on a screen. Not another Halloween party. Three live stories, performed only a few feet away.
ANINO: Tatlong Dula ng Lihim, Takot at Pamana plays on October 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 30, and 31, 2026, with performances at 4:00 PM and 8:00 PM at Ilviso Studios, 6F Raha Sulayman Building, Benavides St., Legazpi Village, Makati.
The production is R-18 and strictly for audiences 18 years old and above. Seats are limited per performance due to the intimate nature of the venue. Tickets are now available.
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