That One Crazy Movie That Traumatized a Generation of Filipino Children

The decade of the 1990s is well-known for the colourful experiences that nostalgic millennials often talk about. It spawned a peculiar generation of children that experienced the transition of the world from olden to modern technology. This is also true with Filipinos whose culture is greatly influenced by western pop culture, including movies. One particular movie series was extremely popular during these times, namely Shake, Rattle and Roll.

Shake, Rattle and Roll is a horror themed anthology movie series with 15 entries to date originating from 1984. Most of the stories revolve around some kind of mythological or supernatural creature. And as with most anthology movies, some episodes were memorable while others may be forgettable. But one episode in particular was notoriously horrendous that it scared (and scarred) the living hell out of young Filipino kids back then.

The year was 1991. It was Shake, Rattle, and Roll’s third installment, third episode titled Nanay. (mother) The story centers around a group of students that were exploring the beach looking for marine specimens. One of them retrieves a clump of gooey substance which was later revealed to be the eggs of an undin, a frog-like humanoid sea creature. Hell-bent on retrieving her eggs, the undin mother follows the students back to the city where she unleashes her wrath upon everyone she encounters.

The creature is scary enough and the comedic pandemonium that ensues is kind of entertaining. But there is one particular scene that left Filipino kids traumatized. The undin happens to travel via the dormitory's plumbing and emerged on one of the toilets where an unsuspecting victim was taking a dump. The kill is off-cam and all that the audience can see are her legs wriggling in agony.

The Undin in all its glory.

The scene hits hard as now you have an entire generation of children who were afraid of sitting down in the bathroom, peeking in every corner for any signs of the undin. They suddenly felt vulnerable in a place that was once a sanctuary for them. To this day, most grownups who have seen the movie have a story to tell on how it affected their childhood. You can check the movie out on YouTube and see it for yourself, albeit lacking English translation. https://bit.ly/3tcIXQd