Review | Netflix movie review: Rabid – social commentary and gross-out comedy in horror anthology by On the Job director Erik Matti
- Rabid, filmed in the Philippines by On the Job’s Erik Matti, looks at classic horror themes through the lens of the Covid-19 pandemic
- The four-part anthology slickly combines social commentary, gross-out horror and black comedy
3.5/5 stars
Our worst pandemic-fuelled fears and insecurities are brought to life in Rabid, director Erik Matti’s new four-part horror anthology.
After premiering theatrically in the Philippines, this darkly comic compendium of terror, produced at the height of the country’s coronavirus lockdown, debuts internationally on Netflix, now repurposed as a limited series.
Matti and regular writing partner Michiko Yamamoto explore the festering prejudices and unique challenges that have surfaced during the lingering viral outbreak.
In “Bad Luck is a B*tch”, the film’s first and longest segment, a wealthy middle class family, who have adjusted all-too-easily to a work-from-home lifestyle, see their world flipped upside down after inviting a deaf-mute beggar woman (Chesca Diaz) into their home.
“HM?” chronicles the efforts of a struggling single mother (Donna Cariaga) to pivot into the world of online catering after losing her day job. To improve on her questionable culinary skills, she invests in a mysterious “secret ingredient” she finds online, with catastrophic results.