How do you deal with three angry aswangs? Fight fire with fire—that's how. In the horror film Patient X, the character of Richard Gutierrez will have to deal with the creatures through the help of another aswang, portrayed by Cristine Reyes.

Patient X reunites director Yam Laranas with his Sigaw star Richard Gutierrez, who not only stars in this horror film but also serves as the co-producer. This joint project of GMA Films & Viva Films, in association with Rgutz Productions, will open in cinemas starting October 28, in time for Halloween.

Heart Evangelista was supposed to be the leading lady of this film but she had surgery for her appendix at the time.
 
Yam made history as the first Filipino director to make a Hollywood film (Sigaw) and a National Geographic feature titled Asia's Titanic. Sigaw was remade in Hollywood as The Echo, with Jesse Bradford reprising the role of Richard. DVDs of The Echo will be available in the United States this November.

What can Richard say about being a first-time producer in this project?  "I trust Direk Yam's work. At nakikita ko naman yung hardwork na kino-commit niya sa project."

On his role as a doctor in this horror film, Richard says, "Exciting siya, exciting yung character. Challenging para sa ‘kin yung part, so very exciting."
 
Yam describes his film as a "creature feature" because of the presence of aswangs, the vampire-like creatures in Filipino folk lore.

"Masaya kami na trailer pa lang, gumagawa na ng buzz sa online community. From Los Angeles to New York to Brussels, excited na sila. Ang usual comment nila'y 'unique scare.' Inaabangan na nila yung movie," says the filmmaker.

"Tumawag na rin ang programming ng Screamfest, kaya lang, nasa gitna na ako ng discussion with a U.S. company, a releasing agent. Let's see kung ano ang mangyayari." 

Yam says that Patient X has already been invited to the 2009 Screamfest, which will take place this October in Los Angeles. But they passed up the invitation since they are hoping that film will make the cut in the Sundance Film Festival that will run from January 21 to January 31, 2010.

Patient X also stars Miriam Quiambao, TJ Trinidad, Che Ramos (who was last seen in the Cinemalaya entry Mangatyanan), Paolo Avelino, Dion Ignacio, and theater actor Nanding Josef. Richard's brothers, Rocky and Elvis Gutierrez, are also cast as aswangs along with Dion Ignacio.


SYNOPSIS. Lukas Esguerra (Richard Gutierrez) is a city pediatric surgeon haunted by the massacre of his family in the province when he was young. Lukas witnessed his older brother and his parents murdered by men who tapped their maid Guada (Cristine Reyes) as an accomplice. Guada and her cohorts fled and were never seen again.

Years later, one of the provincial cops visits Lukas and tells him that Guada was recently captured. The young man goes back to the province to face his family's killer.

He is stunned when he meets Guada again who has not aged a single day since he last saw her. Lukas soon finds out that Guada is an aswang who was captured during the massacre of another family. The victims were the wife and son of the town's chief of police, Alfred (TJ Trinidad), who now wants to exact revenge for what happened.

That fateful night reconnects Lukas to his past. Guada attempts to shed light on what happened 20 years ago, while Guada's three brothers, all aswangs, prepare to rescue their sister.

Trapped inside the hospital, Lukas has no choice but to trust Guada if he wants to survive the rampage of the aswangs.