Maria Labo (2015)

Anecdotes

Maria Labo is a 2015 Philippine supernatural horror film directed by Roi Vinzon. It is based on a Philippine urban legend about an Overseas Filipino Worker believed to be an aswang known as "Maria Labo", who is said to have eaten her own children.

Production

Roi Vinzon decided to come up with a film based on an urban legend of an Overseas Filipino Worker who is believed to have become an aswang who have killed and ate her own children. Vinzon heard of the story while he was in Bacolod and became interested in making an adaptation of the tale into a film. To avoid legal problems, the real name of the woman was not used in the film.

The tale is particularly well known in the Visayas and Mindanao regions. Labo is said to be from the Visayas region with various accounts saying that she came from either Iloilo, Capiz, or Sorsogon. It was rumored that Labo came to Davao in particular in the 1980s or 1990s. "Labo" is an Ilonggo word for "to hack"; according to the legend, Maria Labo was given a cut on her face by her husband after the former cooked and ate their children.

The film project later received funding from a group of investors from Starbuilders Production. The film is the first project of Starbuilders Production and also the first for Vinzon since 1998 when he directed Boy Indian. The film also had a comfortable but reasonable budget with Vinzon refusing to brand Maria Labo as an indie film.

The film was primarily shot in Mexico, Pampanga with some scenes shot in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Director Vinzon, a resident of Angeles, decided to shoot the film in the city because he found the place compatible to his ideas he has in mind for the film. Shooting in Dubai took a week to be completed.

Vinzon also said that the film did not rely much on special effects since he wanted the film to feel "natural" as possible.

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