A series on astrological signs & the terror they can bring

While horror is a genre that easily makes a skin-crawling effect on people, director Ato Bautista would like to remind that there are many sub-genres under the blanket term “horror” and he presented some of them in his latest cinematic piece titled Horrorscope, now streaming on iWant-TFC.

Horrorscope is an original concept of Ato and he co-produced it with Dreamscape Entertainment. The director knows that it’s a no-no for the Kapamilya digital content platform to present narratives in duplication or parallelism and he, too, is well-aware that every horror content is synonymous to any terrifying subject. So how did he come up with something unique and different from previous scary-themed content?

“This is an anthology,” he began. “It’s my dream to do an anthology, meaning, each episode is different from each other at iba-iba ang (sub) genre ng horror na pwede kong gawin.”

He came up with a three-episode anthology series about how one’s astrological sign can bring misfortune and terror. Ato is confident that through his idea of nightmarish tales, every astrological or zodiac sign will be able to find the most fitting scary fix regardless what subgenre of horror one prefers.

“Like in the Virgo episode, it’s a crime thriller then in Libra is about demonic possession and Leo tackles necromancy,” he said.

What’s more, Ato has a representation of the LGBTQ+ in the episode starred in by Iyah Minah.

“This, I think, is completely unique and original,” he added. “I hope it’s both unique and classic. I think wala naman bago when we say horror as a genre because it’s a tradition of books; tradition of comics or format na ni-render lang according to how the filmmaker is going to present it, sa kung anong version ng filmmaker.”

In this day and age, Ato believes that horoscopes have remained relevant.

“When I was trying to come up with something specifically for horror, because I’m a fan of horror, I asked myself what is the one thing — whether you like it or not — is common to all people? So, one evening, it just occurred to me about astrological signs na lahat ng tao pag tinanong mo anong sign nila by the date or month they were born in, alam nila.”

He followed it with his own research on how people react once they learn about the day’s horoscope. “Some people who read the horoscope daily believe in it because they feel whatever they read in it can serve as a guide or a good advice while others don’t, yet the horoscope relieves their stress and it entertains them. At doon ko pinaikot ‘yung concept.”

Apart from Iyah, the iWant TFC original anthology series also stars Elisse Joson, Patrick Quiroz, Paolo Gumabao, Fino Herrera and Charlie Dizon. All of them know their star sign by heart and find reading about their “fate” interesting.

Fino said he does not read the horoscope regularly but whenever friends share something about what’s in store for them according to their sign or whenever he watches one on YouTube, “I can relate to it. Do I believe in horoscopes? Well, 50/50.”

Elisse admitted that she reads it “but I don’t want to depend on it. Kumbaga, I read it the day after so I won’t keep my mind focused on what is written for me on that day.”

Iyah revealed that he grew up reading about his zodiac sign but “I agree to what Zenaida Seva (astrologer) said that it is just a guide. Minsan nagiging totoo na parang nangyari, parang déjà vu.”

Charlie and Paolo also read horoscopes either on print or they go online to know about their star sign.

Paolo added, “Iniisa-isa ko ‘yung mga horoscope (readings) and then I compare them to the people I know.”

(Horrorscope can be viewed on iWantTFC app — iOs and Android — or on iwanttfc.com.)